Business Change Management

Did you know that family-owned firms account for 66% of businesses around the world yet only 16% of them have succession plans? That's a scary thought. 

In the U.S. alone, family firms comprise 80%-90% of all business enterprises, generating 64% of the GNP and employing 62% of the workforce. Clearly, family firms are incredibly important to the global economy, which is why the issue of succession should be approached very intentionally to ensure the ongoing health of these businesses, as I write in a recent article for Daily News.

As a corporate anthropologist, a culture change expert and a daughter raised in a family business, I have a particularly strong interest in helping family firms successfully prepare for their succession.

An expert on family firms and their challenges, anthropologist Andrea Simon, Ph.D., principal and founder of Simon Associates Management Consultants (SAMC), was recently cited in the September 8th edition of Newsday.

In the fall I wrote about nine things you should consider when starting a new business venture. I thought it to be pretty complete. Then someone asked me to write about going into business with a family member. What did I think about that and did I have any words of caution? That’s a pretty thought-provoking question.

Andrea Simon’s insightful and instructive “Ten Business Trends From The Trenches For 2013″ is currently being featured in an article on Forbes.com.

I just returned from the Family Firm Global Conference that I attended in Brussels, Belgium. I was speaking there on Culture Change for Changing Times. I have a white paper coming together to tell you about the talk.