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The Problem that Caused Me to Write This Book
Seventy percent of family businesses won’t make it to the next generation. Building a family business takes almost unbelievable commitment and sacrifice, and seeing it all go poof if the family splits apart can be agony.
I’m haunted by a recent conversation with an 80-year old man who was suicidal. A family quarrel had destroyed his company. Because of this, he felt that his life had lost most of its meaning. His legacy had vanished and his children wouldn’t speak to him or to each other.
There are situations that can be more painful than what I’ve just described, but having your life’s work destroyed by a family quarrel ranks high on the human misery scale. If only the man I just mentioned had known early on some of the methods that could have helped prevent this family tragedy.
Alas, his experience isn’t unique. I know of case after case where a disintegrating family resulted in a disintegrating business. The collateral damage to everyone and to everything the business touched was devastating. The pain this causes the family can last for generations.
It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way
The good news is, it doesn’t need to be this way. Family business elders can teach their younger members how to be supportive and loving. But this rarely comes about by accident.
I know the tips, techniques, attitudes and advice that it takes to keep a business family together. My family of origin began as a business in 1890 with the founding of the Henderson Estate Company. This was the forerunner of the Sheraton Hotel Chain which my father co-founded. The family is still going strong after more than 127 years.
My family by marriage started as a family business in 1920 with Perdue Farms (the chicken company). Between the Hendersons and the Perdues, we have 224 years of experience in developing and maintaining a culture that keeps the family together.
What is this culture? In both families, family members learn from childhood that:
They’re part of something bigger than themselves
They can’t always get their way
They’re stewards of a family legacy
They’ll occasionally need to sacrifice for the good of the whole
That values trump material things
Don’t Leave Your Family’s Culture to Chance
Whatever your age, take action now to preserve your family business. Don’t leave things to chance. Use the tools in my book, HOW TO MAKE YOUR FAMILY BUSINES LAST, and your family will learn how to:
1. Create a strong family culture that supports a stable business.
2. Encourage children to be responsible stewards of the financial wealth they inherit.
3. Maintain loving intact relationships, personal identity, and legacy.
4. Preserve and protect the jobs of people who depend on the family business.
5. Teach the younger generation to cherish their heritage and embrace their role in leading the business and the family forward.
6. Share the power of philanthropy to bind generations together.
7. Welcome and unite new members who marry into the family.
8. Avoid family feuds that wind up in court and destroy the business.
What about My Personal Story?
In case you’d like to know more about me personally, I hold a BA degree with honors from Harvard University and an MPA from George Washington University. I spent a good bit of my life growing rice and wine grapes in California and became president of the oldest and largest farm women’s organization, American Agri-Women.
I was also a nationally syndicated columnist for more than two decades, most recently for Scripps Howard. My television show, From the Farmer to You aired for eight years on Sacramento’s CBS affiliate KXTV. It was nationally syndicated for two years. I was also host for two years of a food and agriculture show on the Coast to Coast Radio Network.
Frank Perdue and I married in 1988, after we had come to the conclusion that chicken and rice go well together. As a writer, it was a privilege beyond measure to watch a one-in-a-million entrepreneur and marketing genius at work.
Like my father, Ernest Henderson, Frank had an amazing ability to create loyalty. In the case of both men, people who started with them often spent their lives working for them. Both men had the ability to inspire the people they worked with to go the extra mile for the business.
I came to the conclusion that while both men used their business skills, it was their soft skills, the kind that inspired loyalty and commitment and (that) multiplied their effectiveness, that made them both successful. They were successful as businessmen and as family men.
Sharing how they did it is for me one of life’s great pleasures. I know the information can make a positive difference in people’s lives, and that’s why I offer it to you.
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