Family businesses have unique characteristics that will be under threat following a sale, cautions Leach. “Many of the employees may be close friends, generating feelings of betrayal for the owner if the company is sold (especially if it is sold to a competitor).” Post-sale, the bureaucratic culture of many large businesses can be ‘so alien to that of smaller family enterprises that owners generally find the transition extremely difficult.’

Despite some myths to the contrary, there are no completely objective or scientific ways to value the business, rues the author. “The negotiated price will represent a hybrid of many factors including asset value, earnings (both quantity and quality), the growth rate and period, rate of return, comparison with other companies, tax considerations, and the market supply and demand of companies for sale.”

A book that can show the way for befuddled family members in business.

Education offers a very good return in India, comparable to that of other strongly growing countries. This is one of the findings Barry Bosworth, Susan M. Collins and Arvind Virmani discuss in ‘Sources of growth in the Indian economy’, an essay included in volume 3 of India Policy Forum of the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and Brookings Institution ( www.sagepubli cations.com ). Though the incremental returns to primary education are significantly lower than the average returns, there is a large jump in at the secondary school level. “The additional return to a university degree was low in the 1980s, but it has been rising rapidly in the latest surveys.” The rising return in recent years is reflective of the changed economic situation, and the potential emergence of a scarcity of highly-skilled workers, the authors say.

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One of Richard Branson’s less well known talents is a razor-sharp negotiating technique, writes Des Dearlove in the third edition of Business the Richard Branson Way ( www.wiley.com ). “Whenever he is negotiating Branson expects to haggle, always putting in a lower — and sometimes significantly lower — offer. On large purchases — country mansions, aircraft, a Caribbean island — that can make a very big difference.”