Resilience in business is a hot topic today. Experts on business organizational health write about it. Instructors of employee engagement talk about it. Psychologists expound on it. Go shopping for one book about resilience and you will find dozens. But what is resilience anyway?
Read MoreWhen a large organization wants to depict teamwork, the company’s marketing firm tends to post images of people rowing. That’s a nice image, but how does rowing work in real life? And what, if anything, does rowing have to do with our concern – ownership, decision-making, and succession in family enterprises?
Read MoreAs we celebrate the Fourth of July, let us be grateful for all those who have a dream and have decided to pursue it here.
Read MoreWhat is a "unique asset"? In this article I discuss the Biltmore Estate, the largest single-family residence in the United States. Why it is the ultimate unique asset and what other unique asset owners can learn from the case of George Vanderbilt?
Read MoreSome people fear big plans because they suspect the plans lack humility. Some object that big plans destroy simplicity. Others object to big plans as being imposed from outside. And still others fear they don't have the ability to plan effectively.
Almost always, these reactions are excuses.
Read MoreNothing trips up families like avoidance. Avoiding relatives we don’t like, avoiding decisions we find daunting, avoiding conversations we expect will be unpleasant, avoiding consequences we view as troublesome – all this we do in the name of our own short-term comfort. Yet avoidance does not work...
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