Learning Family Business

Based upon original research, this book examines how family-owned businesses differ from other businesses. The family firm is first described in the context of previous definitions and common misconceptions. The book then examines the inescapable paradoxes of each stage of learning to manage the family firm, relating each paradox to the business life cycle. The learning stages include learning business, learning our business, leading our business and letting go our business. The associated paradoxes involve stability versus adaptation; leading versus managing; and the special difficulties succession poses for the family firm. Possible pathways for managing each paradox are developed. The book draws on examples from small and large family firms, often in the words of family business owners themselves. The research is based on an Australian sample of family businesses, but the commentary by Leon and Katie Danco, long-established experts in family business, shows the findings to be universal.