Getting the family to work together

This first guide in the series – Getting the family to work together – focuses on communication. Constructive and productive communication is often in short supply in family businesses, because family members tend to shy away from potentially sensitive issues that they feel might generate unpleasant conflict. But the reality is that such issues can only truly be resolved if they are recognised, acknowledged and discussed at an early stage.

Family businesses have many things going for them – they tend to be flexible, reliable, proud, they can think long-term, have a strong culture and their people are committed. But they can also carry a daunting set of disadvantages – they can be rigid, inward-looking, unresponsive to change and sometimes swamped by emotional issues. It’s a fascinating and complex mixture of advantages and disadvantages, costs and benefits, strengths and weaknesses.

Peter Leach LLP serves the needs of family business people, helping them to find a path through this complexity and to balance the ambitions and needs of their business with those of their family. All family firms are different – and there are no easy answers – which is why this Family Business Management Series of jargon-free guides concentrates on principles, processes and procedures designed to help families recognise and address the most important issues and conflicts that tend to arise.

This first guide in the series – Getting the family to work together – focuses on communication. Constructive and productive communication is often in short supply in family businesses, because family members tend to shy away from potentially sensitive issues that they feel might generate unpleasant conflict. But the reality is that such issues can only truly be resolved if they are recognised, acknowledged and discussed at an early stage.

Family members, therefore, need to devise strategies that help them to approach the business in a unified way, and they need to learn to communicate and share their thinking about the critical issues the family must face up to. The Family Business Management Series is an important initiative. It has been designed as a source of practical advice and guidance – pulling together some of the key research findings on family business management and the lessons of the our experience over 25 years of helping family businesses. We hope it will contribute to the efforts of these firms to achieve continuity, growth and prosperity in the years ahead.

Download Getting the family to work together today.

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