Category: Commentary

Don't Send Your Kids to Work Outside the Family Business Just Yet!

Should family members work outside the family business before joining? Experts have long recommended that this is the best (and only!) way for the next generation to learn the skills and knowledge Read more

Family CEO Burnout: How to Prevent, Recognize and Deal With It

Between COVID, supply chain issues, armed invasions, unstable markets, and the great resignation with millions of workers leaving the workforce (Parker & Menasce Horowitz, 2022) – or, more Read more

What All Family Businesses Can Learn From the Merck Family

The Merck family business dates back to this apothecary, founded in 1668. The German Merck family has succeeded where many business families have failed: Keeping a group of 319 family members, Read more

A few years ago, at a major conference for financial planners, “Grace” and her husband were talking with some new acquaintances at dinner. One of them mentioned how admirable it was that Grace Read more

In January 2021 I joined the Great Resignation and took an early retirement from the University of Minnesota (UMN). I had spent 12 years there teaching social entrepreneurship and managing Read more

How to Keep Remote Workers Inspired and Engaged

Like all kinds of firms, family businesses have undergone a culture shock because of the pandemic. After starting out in the pandemic’s early days as a survival mechanism, remote work is now Read more

Editor's Note: This article, originally published in July of 2022, has been updated periodically to reflect other milestones in readership. The most recent update was made May 28, 2025. In late May Read more

Let the Next Generation of Family Firm Leaders Chart Their Own Path

While start-ups are typically known for their innovation, family businesses are seen as mired in traditions and stuck in the past. But recent research shows that the next generation of leadership can Read more

Gordon Davis and Jim Wetherbe at the Celebration of 50 Years of MIS at the University of Minnesota in 2018. It takes a Herculean entrepreneurial effort to create and sustain a new academic Read more

What Olivetti Style Teaches Us About Lasting Aesthetic Legacy

Lavazza. Alessi. Olivetti. Campari. These brands evoke images of products, advertisements, or memories of our past: the aroma of Lavazza coffee or an Alessi coffee maker at work, the sound of keys on Read more