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

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• Define an Innovation and Growth Strategy
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• Learn to avoid commoditization
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When Your Career Goes in an Unexpected (and Record-Breaking) Direction

in Share13 

Contrary to popular belief, the world’s tallest man does not greet you at the door when you arrive at Guinness World Records’ offices. And, no, the world’s oldest person doesn’t work the copy machine dispensing nuggets of age-old wisdom, nor does the woman with the world’s longest fingernails hang out in the break room offering back scratches.

But working for GWR – while it might not include the daily circus-like atmosphere most imagine – is certainly unique, and it definitely takes a special type to make it in this line of work.
One of the most common questions I get as Head of U.S. Records Management Team is, “How did you start working for Guinness World Records?”

Well, once you break 10 records of your own, they hire you to start working on the inside.
That, of course, is completely untrue.

I, for one, would never have guessed I’d be in my current position coming out of college. Graduating from Syracuse in 2007, I took my broadcast journalism degree and headed south to embark on a two-year journey in minor league baseball and college sports broadcasting, with some dabbling in freelance newspaper reporting on the side.

But turns out that all the experiences I had calling play-by-play of a 16-inning baseball game or interviewing student athletes live on the air after a tough loss prepared me exceptionally – if unexpectedly – for a job overseeing our U.S. team of record verifiers.

(And when your organization deals with everyone from a bachelor in Thailand who wants to run the fastest 100m in flippers to a family in Topeka that can’t believe their dog doesn’t have the longest tongue in the world, you draw on a lot of different professional experience.)

Thanks to my education and background in TV and video, I have no problem getting on camera and in front of large crowds. This helps when I have to appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to judge a record for “most balloons burst simultaneously by arrows;” or when I have to give a speech in front of a festival crowd of a few thousand who have come for their free sample from the “largest serving of roast pork” (6,821.54 lbs., by the way).

My history in newspaper reporting and editing blessed me with a clinically worrisome attention to detail, which comes in handy when you judge an attempt like the “fastest text message” being completed suspiciously quickly – to find out upon further examination that two words were omitted from the required text.

And people always wonder how we could possibly have the heart to break the news to someone that their record needs to be rejected. Well, after spending enough time talking to the point guard who missed the game-winning shot or the shortstop whose error cost his team a spot in the playoffs, you get seasoned enough to know how best to break it to someone that their “tallest stack of shoes in one minute” has to be discounted on a technicality.

Some career paths come pretty well-defined. Doctors, lawyers, accountants – they all basically come with a checklist of how to get from step 1 to your goal, like a reality version of the board game “Life.”

Other careers, like mine at Guinness World Records… not so much.
What I’ve learned is that personality has a lot to do with it. Everyone has their own marketable skills coming out of college or their first couple jobs. The important thing is having the wherewithal to adapt what you’re good at to an environment where you can flourish.
Just like Batman uses the same utility belt to fight all his different crimes, any person’s core skill set can translate to any industry, provided they’re adaptable, amenable, and open-minded.

So while I couldn’t have known it at the time, all those school lectures in Communications 101 and all those long hours prepping for radio broadcasts turned out to prepare me pretty well for what I do now.

Except for meeting Snooki during a record attempt on New Year’s Eve. Nothing can prepare you for that.
As Head of U.S. Records Management for Guinness World Records, Mike Janela has traveled to 10 countries and 19 states to adjudicate more than 60 record attempts. Show him your talent at www.guinnessworldrecords.com, www.facebook.com/guinnessworldrecords, or on Twitter @GWRnews.

via blog.brazencareerist.com

Jim does one on one business coaching, strategy consulting and speaking. Email -  jwoods@innothinkgroup.com

Jim Woods is president and founder of InnoThink Group; a leading Strategic Management and Innovation Consulting Firm in Denver, Colorado. He is an author, speaker, and a strategic innovation and hypercompetition expert to profit, non-profit organizations and municipalities. He advises clients with an objective view of their competitive capabilities and defines a clear course of action to maximize their innovation return on investment to achieve profitable growth. Build a capability for ongoing competitive innovation across your company. Call 719-649-4118 or complete our form: contact us for more information on hiring Jim to advise or speak for your next event. Business, Career or Life Coach.