Family Wars
A compelling and revealing account of what can happen when world-famous family businesses fall out. Family Wars draws lessons from disastrous conflicts within dynasties such as Gucci and Ford and provides practical advice on successful succession planning, corporate and family governance and conflict resolution.
Many of the world's greatest businesses are family owned - but with this comes the threat of family feuding, sibling rivalries and petty jealousies. Family Wars takes you behind the scenes on a rollercoaster ride through the ups and downs of some of the biggest family-run companies in the world - and shows how family in-fighting has threatened to bring about their downfall.
Covering families such as Ford, Gucci, McCain, Guinness, Gallo, Redstone and many more, Family Wars is an astonishing exposé of the way families do business and how family arguments and in-fighting can threaten to blow a business apart. Whether it's Brent Redstone's court case with his powerful father Sumner, or the family feud where Henry Ford II seized the reins from his namesake and grandfather founder of the family industrial empire, the book reveals the origins, the extent and finally the resolution of some of the most famous family feuds in recent history.
More than telling the stories behind some of these dramatic showdowns, Family Wars also provides valuable advice and insight for anyone involved with a family-run business. With insight into issues such as board-room power-struggles, family inheritance or the rights to use the family name, the book offers practical suggestions on how similar problems can be contained and solved, avoiding the disastrous consequences of family feuding.
REVIEWS :“I strongly recommend this book.”
Edge, May 2008
“Explores the worst horrors of family business feuds.”
“Traces the ups and downs of family-run companies.”
Books Quarterly (Waterstones), May 2008
Hardback, 304 Pages, Dimensions 234 x 156 MM Language English.
1. Family wars
2. The ideas: the roots of family warfare
3. Brothers at arms
4. Fighting for the crown
5. The house that hubris built
6. Heads in the sand – the insularity trap
7. Schism – to have or have not?
8. Un-civil war
9. The spoils of war and the price of peace
Grant Gordon is the Director General of the Institute for Family Business and a fifth-generation member, and former senior executive, of a leading UK family business in the drinks sector.
Nigel Nicholson is Professor of Organizational Behaviour at London Business School and a leading writer, executive educator and broadcaster on business and management.