Posting by:  Geoff Brown
Date: July 8, 2009

There was big news in the hospitality industry last week when Marriott International announced that someone other than a Marriott family member, Arne Sorenson, would be taking over as President and Chief Operating Officer, putting him clearly in line to succeed Bill Marriott as the CEO.  Bill and his father, J.W. Marriott, have been the only two CEOs the company has ever known.

Jack Moore, a former family board member of Benjamin Moore & Company Paints, leads a discussion with family business owners and members regarding the transformation of his own family business and its later $1 billion sale to Warren Buffett.

http://podcast.intersource.net/2008/04/04/leadership-breakfast-maryland-jack-moore/

How do family businesses survive?  Through sustainable growth, according to many experts.  Here are some of the top best practices for family firms that can guide you into creating and sustaining a successful family business.
 

http://www.bworldonline.com/BW062309/content.php?id=144

Posting by:  Jacqueline Thompson
Date: June 23, 2009

There are many resources available to assist family members in working together, for creating the right governance structure, the correct management style, and the most desirable compensation practices for a successful family-owned business.  But what happens when the unthinkable occurs – when a family member commits fraud?  When one family member steals from the business, and, in essence, from the rest of the family?  To where does a business, and in many cases, a shattered family, turn at this point?

Posting by:  Debra Andrews
Date: June 17, 2009

Whether you are currently part of a family business or not, the vast majority of us have experience being in a family.  If we have siblings, we may have had some tests of equality given to us – such as, “I had to go to community college, but mom and dad sent little Suzie to Harvard!”  And most of us have also learned that being related does not mean we are completely, or remotely, alike.  We may have different skills, interests, strengths & weaknesses.  And we may especially have different dreams for our future.

Posting by:  Jacqueline Thompson
Date: June 15, 2009

Compensation, especially within a family-owned business, can be a touchy subject.  I once worked with a gentleman who had opened up his own HVAC business when his five children were young.  As the kids grew up, all four of his sons eventually ended up in what would become the family business.  The sons started working during summer vacations while they were still young, then each joined the business full-time after graduating from high school.  The owner became puzzled, however, when his sons began showing signs of discontent, and the youngest one even left the family business.

Posting by:  Joel Susco
Date:  June 8, 2009

This week I had the opportunity to listen to a talk given by Katharine Weymouth, the Chief Executive Officer of Washington Post Media (a unit of The Washington Post Company).  Weymouth is the fifth member of the Graham newspaper dynasty to hold that title since her great-grandfather, Eugene Meyer, bought The Post at a bankruptcy sale in 1933.  She is the niece of Post Company Chairman Donald Graham, and granddaughter of the late Katharine Graham.  She is the lone member of her generation of Grahams to work at the family-controlled, publicly-traded company.  Weymouth’s current role makes her a logical successor to her uncle the Chairman.

It was enlightening to hear Weymouth discuss the struggles that the newspaper goes through today, compared to those of years ago.  As Katharine simply explained, right now “the numbers suck.”  The print medium is in trouble, but she has every intention for The Washington Post to survive for many years to come.  In certain respects the problems on the surface seem different, but drilling down from cause to effect, the essence remains the same: maintaining the balance between revenues and costs.  Distribution costs are through the roof and advertising revenues are down.  Those printing standards such as ink, paper and shipping are always heavily-weighted costs, and the daily price of the newspaper keeps rising.  Now, however, the competition comes from the “more free” press of news on the Internet, where advertising revenues are not obtained and measured the same way as in print, and the news stories themselves are usually accessed online for no cost to the viewer.  Additionally, maintaining the balance between a newspaper with a national presence while still supporting the interests of a local readership is more unique to The Washington Post.

Weymouth realized that for the newspaper to get better, it must get smaller.  Hard choices must be made about what can and cannot be covered.  She is tasked with reinventing one of the world’s best newspapers in the age of the Internet, Facebook, Twitter, iPhones and the like, and her success or failure at that endeavor will be an indicator of the industry to come.  Although Weymouth grew up being a part of the family newspaper dynasty, she worked away from the business and the industry for years, and has returned to the fold poised to make or break the future of this dynasty.  With the newspaper industry in its most vulnerable state ever, I hope Weymouth will keep us Post-ed for a long time to come.