Losing a Fortune Often Comes Down to One Thing: Family

"Heirs are not automatically qualified, competent or visionary leaders, Dr. McGerr said, and when power is passed solely from fathers to sons, those who might better manage an empire — like women family members or outsiders — are excluded.

While Ms. Stroh was being taught how to avoid being kidnapped, the men in her generation were being groomed to lead the company. “It would have been discouraged if a girl in the family had shown some ambition for a role like that,” she said.

Today, Ms. Stroh is a successful businesswoman. Now 50, she lives in San Francisco, and took a relatively modest inheritance of about $200,000 in stocks from her mother and made savvy investments in tech companies and real estate. As a small-time developer and landlord, she is able to live independently in one of the nation’s most expensive cities."

Saturday, December 24, 2016

Close family ties, and a secret recipe, keep business going; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 12/24/16

Steve Twedt, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Close family ties, and a secret recipe, keep business going:

"While the special seasoning recipe is kept locked away, the reason for the durability of the business may be no secret, suggested Kelly Hunt, Pittsburgh district director for the Small Business Administration, which named Ricci’s “Family Owned Business of the Year” in 2010.
“The No. 1 thing I have found is that there has to be someone in the family in each generation that shares that passion, and not just the passion, but who has the skill set,” she said...
Nonfamily businesses typically have organizational charts with a clear leadership structure where purchasing and hiring decisions get made in a disciplined and deliberative manner. “When you’re working with people who are not family, it’s more regimented. You can’t go and make a large purchase without talking to the CEO,” she said.
With a family business, “It kind of gets a little bit cloudier.”"