When Family Businesses are Best

Families are about caring and businesses are about money - not a likely formula for a successful partnership. Unfortunately those are the facts and family enterprises around the world have found that planning for these two often-conflicting systems is critical to family harmony and business success. The theme of this article is that business families need a planning approach that provides rigor and consistency to drive their thinking, strategies and actions for the family and business systems. We advocate a parallel process-driven approach because the systems need to be aligned. In addition, focusing on process (how they do it) rather than content (what they do) better reflects the needs of different cultures, family experiences and economic systems. When a family works together to craft their own strategies based on their situation and family goals it creates commitment and a unity of purpose.