Balancing the benefits and burdens of a family-owned business
Working with family complicates the already daunting task of owning a business, and it's tough not to take work problems home with you. The best approach is to realize that family is family... and business is business.
A common-sense manual for survival that dispels myths such as the power of teamwork and gender or birth-order differences in ability, Business is Business: Reality Checks for Family-Owned Companies is engagingly written, with no-nonsense tips and real-life examples.
Kathy Kolbe and Amy Bruske have given us a primer on how to create thriving family businesses that can flex and grow with each new generation. If you are running a
family business or taking the leap, this book will be your essential guide.
Marcus Buckingham
New York Times best-selling author
of First, Break All the Rules and Stand Out 2.0
All family-owned businesses are going to have ups and downs - but with Kathy Kolbe and Amy Bruske as your guides, your potential for success is greater than ever. Read Business is Business, and you'll see what I mean.
Ken Blanchard
Coauthor of The New One Minute Manager
and Collaboration Begins with You
Although Kolbe and Bruske focus on family-owned businesses, they present a wealth of great ideas and examples that are applicable to all businesses. This is a special book!
Jerry I Porras
Professor emeritus at Stanford Business School and coauthor of Built to Last:Successful Habits of Visionary Companies
Brilliantly conceived, beautifully written. This is a decoding of the many paradoxes that either suffocate innovation or give family businesses a competitive advantage.
Tom Deans
PhD author of Every Family's Business and
Willing Wisdom
This powerful must-read book outlines proven solutions for leveraging family members' strengths, dealing with communication challenges, and developing future leaders.
Dan Sullivan
Founder of The Strategic Coach, Inc.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Kathy Kolbe and Amy Bruske have succeeded by trusting their instincts.
Kathy and Amy are both award-winning consultants and advisors to over 3,000 family-owned businesses, as well as to Fortune 500 companies, and both are also sought-after speakers. As mother and daughter working together for more than two decades, Kathy and Amy have personally experienced every situation discussed in Business is Business. Neither recalls a time when she wished she were working anywhere else.
Kathy Kolbe is the global leader in discovering and accessing the power of human instincts. She's done the brain research to prove the relevance of her Kolbe Theory of Conation to individual and organizational success. Kathy was the first person to connect conative behavior to instinctive drives, which she postulated as the source of the patterns of mental energy commonly known as a person's MO.
Amy Bruske is the president of Kolbe Corp and leads seminars for business leaders throughout the world. She was recently named Business Owner of the Year by the Phoenix Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO).
