David Bork Writes Forward for MAPS for Men Book, a Must-Have Resource for any Family Business

David Bork Writes Forward for MAPS for Men BookDavid Bork is proud to have contributed the forward for the book, MAPS for Men: A Guide for Fathers and Sons and Family Businesses.

New York Times best-selling author and nationally syndicated radio show host Dave Ramsey calls this important book “a must-have resource for any and every family business.”

In his forward for MAPS for Men, David Bork, founder and CEO of Family Business Matters, writes: “These concepts help fathers and sons reframe their relationship into something that is more meaningful and helpful in meeting their goals, rather than repeating generational patterns.“

David recommends this book to fathers and sons seeking to better understand their personal and professional relationship.

Full text of MAPS for Men Forward by David Bork

In the interest of full disclosure, Edgell Franklin Pyles has been a good friend for more than twenty-five years, and we share a large community of interests. In the early 90s, we explored together the works of Robert Moore, James Millman, Robert Bly, and others. I met both Robert Moore and Robert Bly at a retreat in Aspen, Colorado, organized and sponsored by Edgell.

This was called the men’s movement, and we were excited about it because it sought to further define what it meant to be a man at the end of the twentieth century. It was grounded in Jungian psychology, and while well researched and articulated, it could be theoretical and esoteric. Our explorations of this work produced a practical approach and we have been on parallel, but different, paths.

We were interested in understanding the dynamics that take place between fathers and sons at both the personal and professional level. Our first step was to comprehend and appreciate the relationship we had with our […]

Top Ten Family Business Facts | Fact #2: The Cluster Model Helps Capture the Evolution of Your Family Business Over Time

cluster-modelTraditionally, family businesses are described as constituent of three overlapping circles:

1) the family,

2) the business, and

3) the ownership (Gersick, Davis, McCollom Hampton, & Lansberg, 1997; Tagiuri & Davis, 1996).

Recently, Michael-Tsabari, Labaki, & Zachary (2014) suggested the Cluster Model to update the two and three-circle models by providing a more detailed picture of the circles’ evolution over time.

While the original bivalent two-circle model appropriately describes a family that owns a firm (Tagiuri & Davis, 1996), Michael-Tsabari et al. (2014)’s study addresses the inaccuracies of the circle models when it comes to describing a family that owns more than one firm and suggests a more detailed perspective allowing to include in the analysis the different firms that the family owns to different extents.

Lesson #2: Putting on the lenses of the Cluster Model might help you better capture the evolution of your family business over time both in terms of the descendants driving this evolution and its outcomes.

Wondering what the Cluster Model means for you and your family business? Do you need some guidance on seeing your family business through this lens? Contact a Family Business Matters consultant today. Through conferences, continuing education programs, family business retreats, speaking engagements and private family business consulting services, Family Business Matters has assisted more than 450 family-owned businesses around the world chart their way through family business issues of all shapes and sizes.

This post is the second in a series by Rania Labaki highlighting the Top Ten Family Business Facts. To view the previous post in this series, follow this link. To review the full Top Ten Family Business Facts and to access a list of original resources, please visit our Family Business Facts page.


Rania Labaki — Author Bio

Rania Labaki

What it Takes For a Family Business to Be Successful

business-successA successful family business must be poised to prosper for many generations to come. A quick list of necessary items needed to create a successful family business include: alignment on important matters, a shared vision for the company, a detailed action plan, a family constitution, a shareholder agreement, a responsible owner and an official employment policy.

Form Should Follow Function in Family Business

Family business structure and the concept of adapting and evolving applies to family-owned business. When creating solutions for a family business, the first step is to analyze the functions that need to take place to make the business work. Family business structure and efficiency can ultimately lead to higher profitability.

Best Practices & the Power of the Golden Share

The power of the Golden Share is immense. All family businesses should be using International Best Practices for Family Business. A family-owned business is, first and foremost, a business. If a family wants its business to be successful, if must be run the way any successful business is run. Keeping the focus on the business is what makes things possible.

Spilled OJ — Creating a Family Business Mess

It can be easy to create a family business mess - even when International Best Practices for Family Business are followed. Being aware of business mistakes to avoid is optimal for delineating clear responsibility for positions and accountability for outcomes. It's important to anticipate possible outcomes of family business decisions before a family business mess is created.

Taxes, Heartburn and Family Business

Family business taxes are not always fun to deal with, and when tax issues become intertwined with family business decisions, it can become even less fun. If families in business are to avoid the "heartburn", they must carefully examine the family monetary policy and what it is that holds their family together.

Avoiding the Pitfalls of Nepotism — A Quick Review

There are two types of family business nepotism - the bad kind and the good kind. The good kind allows business owners to take advantage of relationships with respected employees and colleagues to help find and hire employees with a similar work ethic and values. This kind of nepotism can actually help a business.

The GOOD Kind of Nepotism

There are advantages to nepotism and there are disadvantages. The good kind of nepotism takes advantage of relationships with respected employees and colleagues to help find and hire employees with similar traits. Good nepotism has worked successfully for many family businesses and can foster an environment where employees feel that the employer really cares about them.

Nepotism in Family Business

business-successNepotism is the practice of showing favoritism toward one’s family members or friends in economic or employment terms, for example, granting jobs to friends and relatives, without regard to merit. Such practices can and do have damaging effects on businesses. They can erode the support of other employees, reduce the quality and creativity of management and diminish the importance of competence and high-level performance.

In many smaller family-owned businesses, nepotism is viewed in positive terms, often because it is a cheap source of labor, and is considered a synonym for “succession.” This rationale is a mistake. Competence must be the criteria for employment, followed by years of consistent, high level performance that can lead to succession.

Nepotism is neither good nor bad, in and of itself. It only takes on a positive or negative charge in the context of how one has raised one’s children. I believe that the task of being a parent is simply this, “To raise responsible adults who have high self esteem and can function independently in this world.“

This process involves instilling those values that will lead to competent employees — honesty, integrity, dependability, respect for others, being industrious and doing one’s best in every endeavor.

Failure to teach these principles opens the door to children feeling entitled — believing that they are the privileged and should be given everything. This deficiency becomes a ripe incubator for problems to emerge when the child works in the family business. Children who come to the business with an attitude of entitlement will think they are exempt from the rules that apply to “ordinary people.“ They often don’t understand that they must earn their place in the company through hard work and consistently-demonstrated competence. A seemingly small thing like coming to work on time is an example.

Experience […]