Family Wars: Classic Conflicts in Family Business and How to Deal with Them [Hardcover]

Grant Gordon (Author), Nigel Nicholson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0749446307 | ISBN-13: 978-0749446307 | Publication Date: April 28, 2008

Many of the world's greatest businesses are family owned, and with this comes the threat of family feuding, sibling rivalries, and petty jealousies. Family Wars takes readers behind the scenes on a rollercoaster ride through the ups and downs of some of the biggest family-run companies in the world, showing how family in-fighting has threatened to bring about their downfall. Covering families such as Ford, Gucci, McCain, Guinness, Gallo, and Redstone, Family Wars is an astonishing expose of the way families do business and how family in-fighting can threaten to blow a business apart. Whether it's Brent Redstone's court case with his father and sister or the family feud over Henry Ford's $350 million trust fund, the book reveals the origins, the extent, and finally the resolution of some of the most famous family feuds in recent history. Family Wars also provides valuable advice for anyone involved in a family business, offering suggestions on how to avoid such problems.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The authors, a family business executive and an academic, present case studies of famous family companies, including Koch Industries, Mondavi, IBM, Bata Shoe, The Dart Group, the Redstones, Guinnesses, Pritzkers, and Guccis. The authors provide lessons for understanding the warning signs of family conflicts and contend that the winners are those who recognize the problems early and find a fair resolution. They note that the root cause of family wars usually is the founder, who, while a great builder, can also be a great destroyer. Gordon and Nicholson conclude that the objective in dealing with family wars is to come out of the battle wiser, stronger, and with more discipline. Advice includes the ability to embrace change by recognizing that today’s assumptions may not hold for tomorrow, understanding the impact of the evolving values of the surrounding culture, and achieving flexibility through open communication based on strong values and principles. Lessons from this excellent book apply primarily to family companies, although there is thoughtful leadership insight for other managers. --Mary Whaley

Review

"Will inspire readers to institute processes for governance and communication that can prevent a feud from festering." -- Family Business Magazine

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Kogan Page (April 28, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0749446307
• ISBN-13: 978-0749446307
• Product Dimensions: 1 x 6.2 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #948,791 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Family Wars" - An indispensable treatise for one and all..., May 25, 2008

By 

Deepak Pandhi (Gurgaon, India) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Family Wars: Classic Conflicts in Family Business and How to Deal with Them (Hardcover)

An old business adage that runs in the family business parlance puts it rather simply, "The first generation starts, the second builds and the third sells." But in the true purview of realism, do all family businesses rest on the same gritty axiom? Are families really bound taut in `intimate, dynamic, honest and loyal' strands of inter-personal business? Moreover, does the presence of conflict within family businesses itself mean failure? These are some of those integral questions that this compelling read shall endeavour to answer.

A comprehensive discourse on conflict within family business, `Family Wars' dwells on those inequalities and flaws that keep families from embarking onto shared entrepreneurship, yet resonantly discussing the indispensability of family firms in the economy.

`Family Wars' runs you through a set of melodramatic and enthralling case studies (over 20 in number), which splits family conflict into different categories highlighting the stringent irony of blood-ties. Some of the themes interwoven are the `father- son conflict' (Gallo wine family saga), `sibling rivalry' (Ambani family),`the insularity trap' (Guinness story) and Schism (Pritzker empire saga) to name a few. Certain issues, which arise between generations like overpowering personalities and nepotism, are also explored.

As an intriguing illustration, the theme of `Parental Oppression' is presented through the Ford Family case (Chapter 5), which depicts an obsessive personality in the form of a narcissistic leader, Henry Ford who focussed exclusively on himself, lacked empathy and totally neglected `succession management' in his organisation to the extent that after the untimely death of his son, he was dethroned by his daughter- in- law leaving a trail of psychological debris. The reader is led to believe that leadership and personality are closely intertwined. They make greatness but at the same time also embody flaws that need to be dealt with.

The contents in the book seem to blend with one strand that remains uniquely present in the fabric of the family and its firm - personality. An informative discussion on personality and its building blocks is followed by the citation of the `paradox of inherited personality'. We are led to understand that 50 percent of our character is significantly heritable (from our genes) and the rest comes from our life experiences. The reader is guided to conclude that `entrepreneurs do not breed entrepreneurs' except by the luck of the `gene lottery'.

`Family Wars' is authored by Nigel Nicholson and Grant Gordon, the first being an eminent professor of organisational behaviour and psychology at the London Business School and author of the critically approbated `Managing the Human Animal' and the latter, director general of the UK's Institute for Family Business. The book makes for a mould of some robust research and the pragmatic perspectives of an acclaimed academic and a fifth generation member of a reputed Scottish family business.

The book concludes with a set of some useful and pertinent recommendations on delving deeper into the insights of human nature, management and family dynamics. Further, guidelines on how firms can fortify themselves against conflict are also provided as well as evaluation of how people can make conflict productive in family firms.

A valuable and highly recommended resource guide for all, dealing with issues related to conflict, both within the family as well as the non-family firms.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good work on the research, September 1, 2008

By 

Gary Dale Cearley "Gary Dale Cearley" (Bangkok, Thailand) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Family Wars: Classic Conflicts in Family Business and How to Deal with Them (Hardcover)

Gallo, Ford, Guinness, IBM, Gucchi, Mondavi, Reliance and Addidas... Global brands? Before they were these brands they were family owned companies (or family run in the case of IBM). Authors Grant Gordon and Nigel Nicholson do a fairly decent job in their research of these family business as well as many others. They give summarized histories of the businesses germinating and taking off. They even give genealogical breakdowns of the families in question. But where they really score is that they have been able to analyze these situations on both an organizational behavior level as well as that of a psychological level.

The authors are quick to point out in the beginning of this book that there are many advantages to being in a family run business. Decisions are made quicker. Conflicts can often tend to be resolved in a more efficient manner. The businesses are often more profitable and last longer than a "corporate" business, that is, with professional management and not family management. They also point out that family friction can be good for the business in certain instances. But it is the struggle for control that generally unwinds everything.

The book itself is written in a very interesting style. It could pass for a professional business book, a university text book or a non-fiction book that is written for pleasure. I have to commend the authors on this - especially since this was a joint effort and not one man doing all of the written production.

Throughout Family Wars we see the causes of the inter-family strife and are generally walked through the resolutions - and sometimes there really aren't any. Gordon and Nicholson show us the several models where familial business friction occurs: When the head of the family doesn't want to release control, sibling rivalry, disagreements in company direction, etc. It would seem that no matter what the background, nationality, era, product or business model these same issues tend to manifest themselves in family companies. That in and of itself lends to the mystique of this book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Advice that will keep families staying together while keeping the business profitable, June 6, 2008

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Family Wars: Classic Conflicts in Family Business and How to Deal with Them (Hardcover)

Family businesses should be stress free - if anyone can get along it can be family, right? "Family Wars: Classic Conflicts in Family Business and How to Deal With Them" realizes that even families can have conflicts, and they can do far more damage than a conflict between two unrelated people. Seeking to give advice that will keep families staying together while keeping the business profitable, it's an ideal guide for any family business who doesn't want to let money get in between people and their devotion to family. "Family Wars: Classic Conflicts in Family Business and How to Deal With Them" is highly recommended for community library collections dedicated to business.