The Hindu Business Line : Conflicts between family and business

Public stock markets are strong in the US; yet families there control 60-70 per cent of the country’s commercial organisations, write Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries and Randel S. Carlock in Family Business on the Couch ( www.wiley.com ).

“Families control 95 per cent of the business in Asia, West Asia, Italy and Spain. In mature industrial economies such as France and Germany, over 80 per cent of the companies are family controlled.”

Family business (that is, as any business organisation where decisions and leadership are influenced by a family) faces problems that are often common with equivalent publicly or widely-owned firms, but emotional issues can make the problems intractable. “Personal differences in the values, motivations, and needs of different family members lead to conflict in the family’s business.”

Since business and family systems play a major role in such organisations, “it is necessary to use both economic and psychological approaches to understanding the workings of family businesses,” the authors advise.

“Many family businesses experience a conflict between love (family) and work (business) because the business is not adequately separated from the family.” Which is when outside intervention, in the form of sound counselling, becomes crucial.

For a deep study.

Learning from chess

Negotiation is like the end game of chess, say Tim Boyce and Cathy Lake in The Commercial Manager ( www.vivagroupindia.com). “Too frequently, negotiation is seen as the start of a process that will conclude with an agreement. This is quite wrong. Negotiation comes at the end of a series of events. It is the end of a process.”

The authors extend the chess analogy, to explain two variations, thus: “Play can be at the beginners level, in which the two players move their pieces almost at random until by chance an opportunity for checkmate arises and the end-game is only then conceived. In the advanced level, the end game is planned from the outset and each move by the opponent is countered by moves that aim to restore progress towards the end game.”

Just as in advanced chess, the side which can see the greatest number of moves ahead and predict the opposition’s counter moves is more likely to succeed, the authors conclude.

Essential skills.
Break free from stress

Life without stress can be very boring, and a certain amount of positive stress can be beneficial, writes Jan de Vries in Emotional Healing ( www.landmarkonthenet.com ). He hastens to caution, however, that when the situation becomes so bad that stress affects us in every way possible, we have to address it “by trying to find out what aspect of our life is detrimentally affecting our health.”

Stress-related problems range from the mild to the severe and, in some cases, the fuse can blow and psychosis and neurosis can then become a possibility, the author warns. “For some people, anxiety and stress are persistent and overwhelming, and can interfere with daily life.” Stress can cause ‘generalised anxiety disorder,’ which can make one ‘worry constantly, always expect the worst to happen and feel tense all of the time…’

A book that offers solutions to problems other than stress too: such as, fear, grief, guilt, hate, jealousy, depression, loneliness and so on.
Absorbing snatches

Rebelling against ‘the dull, the usual and the commonplace,’ Pioneer Investcorp Ltd ( www.pink.co.in) has brought out Bright Th!nking, with selections from an astounding variety of sources, all well laid out.

Snatches you can’t pass by include ‘commencement speech at Stanford University given by Steve Jobs’ and Life is Beautiful, directed by Roberto Benigni.’ Web sites like truthorfiction.com, windweaver.com, and 4to40.com also find reference. Plus a plenty of nuggets from books such as The Man Who Knew Infinity, The Art & Science of Success, The Discipline of Market Leaders, and Dare to Dream.

Engaging change when work turns dreary.

D. MURALI
http://BookPeek.blogspot.com

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