From Publishers Weekly
Problems in her family's wine and spirits business led Crane, with the assistance of former St. Louis Post-Dispatch business reporter Buchholz, to study the causes of successes and failures experienced by family-owned companies (which reportedly comprise 90% of America's businesses). The authors focus on 14 multi-generational, medium-sized firms, ranging from a moving company and a bookstore chain to a farm, an office-cleaning service and a funeral home. Their policies and methods of operation, Buchholz and Crane found, reflect values, lifestyles and ethnic traditions as varied as the businesses themselves. Family loyalty, we're shown, can readily be undermined by greed and power struggles leading to bitter lawsuits; other businesses are done in by the incestuous closeness of family members. Some firms must call on outside expertise to remedy problems. The well-rounded survey concludes with guidelines designed to achieve business management that combines professionalism with paternalism.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
What are the elements for success of a family-owned business? This book promises that it "points out why some businesses thrive while others fail, and examines the common threads that hold surviving firms together and what tears others apart." The authors analyze the past, present, and possible future of the family business and offer suggestions on managing the business to entrepreneurs. The major part of the book consists of case histories of 14 family businesses, including the seven Santini Brothers, Fox Photo, and Bixler's. These present a picture of how individuals are affected by being in two roles: part of the family unit and manager or employee of the business. A bibliography and directory of consultants is included. Recommended.
- Lucy Heckman, St. John's Univ. Lib., Jamaica, N.Y.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Lucy Heckman, St. John's Univ. Lib., Jamaica, N.Y.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
