Learning Family Business: Paradoxes and Pathways

Abstract

Family business leaders frequently assert that their business is “just like any other business except...” which is invariably followed by them detailing differences that they think are unique to their business. While family businesses as a class are indeed different they do share common features. This book explains the ways the ‘different’, even paradoxical, nature of family businesses affects how their aspiring leaders set out to learn how to manage them. The authors distill from the learning journeys of a number of successful family business leaders the common elements as four distinct learning phases – learning business, learning our business, learning to lead our business, and learning to let go. In each phase key priorities are emphasised, and distinctive paradoxes are recognised for which pathways are identified. The authors thus highlight how recognizing and ‘framing’ the paradoxes of family business, which appear at various stages of learning family business, can help in exploring, understanding and, perhaps, managing them.

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