Solving Family Business Conflicts Before They're Out of Control: Alan E. Fishman

The strong personalities and wills that make family businesses successful are also the roots of family conflicts.  Too many of these conflicts have been allowed to grow out of control and have wound up in litigation, causing major rifts in families as well as in the businesses. They usually cause major strain on family relationships through one party buying out another or by family members continuing to work with each other in an atmosphere of tension. 

Often I have heard comments such as, "My sister wants to keep our company small and is fighting a controlled growth," or "Dad won't let go of the control," or "My brother and I are paid the same and he doesn't carry his weight."

Family members usually have different levels of involvement and will rarely agree on what those levels are, or how to set fair compensation for different levels of involvement.  Are the perks reasonable?  What about the children of the non-active family member?  Should the business be required to give them good jobs as well?  Can it afford to?  These conflicts get much worse if a divorce takes place.

One way to avoid lawsuits is to agree to binding arbitration.  This means that you let a third party decide who is right after the party hears arguments and sees evidence from both sides. 

Another alternative dispute resolution approach is the so-called "rent-a-judge" method.  Family members hire a judge who gives a binding or, depending upon the wishes of the parties, a non-binding opinion.

Some family disputes are being solved by using a confidential-non-binding process in which the attorneys representing the family members give condensed arguments to an expert advisor.  This process, called a mini-trial, lets family members look at the strengths and weaknesses of both sides and facilitates a settlement through the exchange of information.

Of course, the best solution is always to try to avoid disputes of this scale altogether, by structuring the ownership and responsibilities in a family business to suit the abilities and personalities of the family members involved.  The sad reality is that these disputes are inevitable.  When they do occur, the key is to acknowledge and address them right away, usually through an objective third party.  The sooner you can act on a problem in your family-run business, the better your chances of avoiding the knockdown drag-out family feuds that cause the downfall of many businesses and the disruption of many families in business. 

Allen E. Fishman founded The Alternative Board® (TAB), the world’s largest franchise system providing advisory board and executive coaching services to business owners, Presidents and CEOs. TAB’s worldwide business advisory network operates in over 1,000 cities in the United States, Canada, the UK, and Venezuela.

Fishman is also the author of several books in which he shares his business insights to help business owners, including two best-sellers: 7 Secrets of Great Entrepreneurial Master: The GEM Power Formula for Lifelong Success (McGraw-Hill, 2006) and 9 Elements of Family Business Success: A Proven Formula for Improving Leadership & Relationships in Family Business (McGraw-Hill 2008).

via blogs.thealternativeboard.com

Rethink Your Business Approach. Driving Top Line Growth through Effective Innovation 

Strategies defining business in the 20^th Century no longer work in meeting today’s challenges. Companies are reinventing how they respond to consumers, employees and suppliers. At InnoThink Group we help companies find new methods of increasing top line growth and achieving competitive advantage. 

With InnoThink Group as your innovation partner, your company will create and implement growth strategies that work.

Innothink Group is a strategic management and innovation consultancy.

Our Guarantee. Where many consulting firms are reluctant to bear risks or tie their rewards to project outcomes, we decided to build a better model. We align our success with yours. We’re outcome obsessed, outcome paid, putting nearly two thirds of our fees at risk subject to hitting predetermined milestones. More than a guarantee we wanted from the outset to create true partnerships with shared responsibility. See a few of our clients. 

We will enable you to: 

1. Effectively create an Innovation culture that drives top line growth
2. Total customer responsiveness
3. Develop creative leadership
4. Create uniqueness
5. Turn manufacturing into marketing weapons
6. Pursue fast paced innovations
7. Set qualitative innovation goals
8. Develop an inspiring vision
9. Create a sense of urgency
10. Demand total integrity
11. Exceed shareholder expectations
12. Increase top line growth

 For speaking, coaching or consulting inquiries complete the  contact form >>> or call719-649-4118.

Also: 

• Define an Innovation and Growth Strategy
• Build Innovation Capabilities 
• Learn to avoid commoditization
• Generate Customer Insights
• Blueprint Business Model
• Prototype and Model

Email: CEO Jim Woods

Call: +1 719- 649-4118

 

Infographic: In 80 Years, We Lost 93% Of Variety In Our Food Seeds

Seeds are tricky things. On one hand, we have the whole Omnivore’s Dilemma argument, that industrialized and genetically engineered food is probably bad. And on the other, we have strains of vegetables that can grow four times as much produce on the same plot of land as their heirloom counterparts--a successful, man-dictated genetics that we’ve actually been fueling for millennia. After all, we wouldn’t have the heirloom seeds of today if our grandfather’s grandfather’s grandfather hadn’t saved the seeds from the sweetest watermelons or the most drought-resistant cantaloupes.

I don’t know that any of us can honestly assess the repercussions of our actions, but I do know one thing: This National Geographic infographic by John Tomanio is staggering. Using the metaphor of a tree, it charts the loss of U.S. seed variety from 1903 to 1983. And what you see is that we’ve lost about 93% of our unique seed strands behind some of the most popular produce. (Clever details: Where the root system should be strong, Tomanio has rendered a tree that looks like it could tip right out of the ground.)

In 1903, we had almost 500 varieties of lettuce. By 1983, we had just 36. Radishes, peas, and beets have fared no better. In fact, the most steadfast of the crops has been the tomato, which, probably due to the popularity of strange and tasty heirloom varieties, only lost about 80% of its seed diversity. It’s a shame to lose so many intricacies of nature’s tastiest gifts. But more worryingly, monocultures strip the land of nutrients: Where you once had self-sustaining harvest cycles, you get farm land denuded of nutrients that then needs copious chemical fertilizers to grow more food. And the crops themselves become vulnerable to plant diseases.

Still, a lot has changed in the public consciousness since 1983. Farmers markets aren’t just for hippies anymore--they’re lifestyle statements for everyone from young foodies to soccer moms. And as long as this trend stays alive, so too will many of the heirloom seed strands we have remaining.

[Image: NixPhotography/Shutterstock]

via fastcodesign.com

Rethink Your Business Approach. Driving Top Line Growth through Effective Innovation 

Strategies defining business in the 20^th Century no longer work in meeting today’s challenges. Companies are reinventing how they respond to consumers, employees and suppliers. At InnoThink Group we help companies find new methods of increasing top line growth and achieving competitive advantage.  

With InnoThink Group as your innovation partner, your company will create and implement growth strategies that work. 

Innothink Group is a strategic management and innovation consultancy.

Our Guarantee. Where many consulting firms are reluctant to bear risks or tie their rewards to project outcomes, we decided to build a better model. We align our success with yours. We’re outcome obsessed, outcome paid, putting nearly two thirds of our fees at risk subject to hitting predetermined milestones. More than a guarantee we wanted from the outset to create true partnerships with shared responsibility. See a few of our clients. 

We will enable you to: 

1. Effectively create an Innovation culture that drives top line growth
2. Total customer responsiveness
3. Develop creative leadership
4. Create uniqueness
5. Turn manufacturing into marketing weapons
6. Pursue fast paced innovations
7. Set qualitative innovation goals
8. Develop an inspiring vision
9. Create a sense of urgency
10. Demand total integrity
11. Exceed shareholder expectations
12. Increase top line growth

 For speaking, coaching or consulting inquiries complete the  contact form >>> or call719-649-4118.

Also: 

• Define an Innovation and Growth Strategy
• Build Innovation Capabilities 
• Learn to avoid commoditization
• Generate Customer Insights
• Blueprint Business Model
• Prototype and Model

Email: CEO Jim Woods

Call: +1 719- 649-4118

 

Innovation & Competitive Advantage - How a Young Fashion Designer Stands Out in a Crowded Market

 

When Rebecca Minkoff co-founded a New York-based luxury handbags company in 2005, her goal was to develop a high-quality product that was both practical and sexy. What she didn't expect -- especially in the competitive fashion industry -- was that sales would rise so quickly.

Revenues at Rebecca Minkoff LLC jumped to $17.5 million in 2010 from $5.5 million in 2008, according to the Women Presidents' Organization (WPO), which ranked Rebecca Minkoff No. 6 on its recently released Top 50 Fastest-Growing Women-Led Companies annual list.

"We came out at a time when contemporary bags were hot and exciting," says Minkoff, who is 30 and also the youngest business owner on the WPO list. "We definitely rode that momentum and learned how to build a business along the way."

Minkoff's journey into the fashion business started when, at age 18, she moved from St. Petersburg, Fla., to Manhattan and landed an internship at fashion-design house Craig Taylor. She worked closely with the CEO "who took me under her wing and taught me about the whole business," Minkoff says.

By the time she left the company in 2001, Minkoff was already working on her own designs. Her first taste of national recognition came when actress Jenna Elfman -- best known for her starring role in the TV sitcom Dharma and Greg -- wore an "I Love New York" T-shirt Minkoff designed on the Jay Leno show. After the appearance, retailers began calling and Minkoff spent the next six months "sewing T-shirts on my living-room floor."

Although Minkoff continued designing, starting a full-fledged company was daunting. So, her older brother, Uri, who had founded a small handful of health-care and technology startups, joined her, and the duo officially launched Rebecca Minkoff LLC in 2005. Minkoff serves as creative director, while Uri is CEO. The company's first prototype was a leather satchel Minkoff called the "Morning After Bag."

"I envisioned a bag that you'd want to take with you on late nights out when you weren't sure where you'd wind up or when you'd come home the next morning," she says.

Rebecca Minkoff's "Morning After Bag."

The $500 bag struck a chord with consumers -- including celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan and Hayden Panettiere. Minkoff's line has expanded beyond handbags to include accessories and women's apparel, which are sold in 300 U.S. retail stores -- such as Nordstrom, Bloomingdales and Saks Fifth Avenue. This spring, the 30-person company launched a new division called Ben Minkoff, named for Minkoff's grandfather, which manufactures and sells men's bags and accessories. 

How to Break into a Crowded Industry
Minkoff's fast-track growth is particularly notable because she found success in an already crowded and fiercely competitive fashion industry. While the number of fashion-design houses has decreased 2.3 percent annually since 2005, industry revenues have been growing 0.6 percent per year, giving the remaining players an increasingly bigger piece of the market, according to IBISWorld, a market-research firm based in Los Angeles.

Here, Minkoff shares her top three tips for launching a business in a competitive industry:

1. Be unique. Piggybacking on an existing product or service usually won't get your business noticed in competitive markets, Minkoff says. Yours should fill a need and stand out from the competition. "I created a line for what I wanted to wear -- and what I saw there was a lack of in the market -- in terms of design and function at an affordable price," she says.
2. Know your price point. Regardless of the industry, customers want a quality product for a great price, Minkoff says. Setting an appropriate price for a product or service is crucial.

   Minkoff learned that lesson after she downgraded the leather for a particular handbag without lowering the retail price. "I didn't put a tag on it saying it was made with this other type of leather, but the bag didn't look the same, and my customers knew it," she says. "We recognized that immediately when sales for the item didn't perform." Talk to us about our 28 day program to strengthen your innovation capabilities to drive growth.  

3. Listen and respond. Establishing communication with customers and making them feel a part of the decision-making process has been important to Minkoff's success. She connects with her 23,000 Twitter followers and more than 16,000 Facebook fans. In 2009, Minkoff launched Minkette, an online forum for customers to share thoughts about the brand.

   "If someone writes in and tells us the strap on a particular bag isn't long enough to wear in the winter when she's wearing a coat, we'll make the bag with a longer strap the next season," Minkoff says. "My customers know I'm listening and responding." via entrepreneur.com

   Consulting, Speaking & Coaching. Driving Growth through Innovation  

   Innothink Group is a strategic management and innovation consultancy. Where many consulting firms are reluctant to bear risks or tie their rewards to project outcomes, we decided to build a better model. We align our success with yours. We’re outcome obsessed, outcome paid, putting over a third of our fees at risk subject o hitting predetermined milestones. More than a guarantee we wanted from the outset to create true partnerships. 

   For speaking, coaching or consulting inquiries contact: 

   CEO Jim Woods

   +1 719- 649-4118