The challenge faced by family businesses and their stakeholders, is
to recognise the issues that they face, understand how to develop
strategies to address them and more importantly, to create
narratives, or family stories that explain the emotional dimension
of the issues to the family. The most intractable family business
issues are not the business problems the organisation faces, but
the emotional issues that compound them. Applying psychodynamic
concepts will help to explain behaviour and will enable the family
to prepare for life cycle transitions and other issues that may
arise.

Here is a new understanding and a broader perspective on the
human dynamics of family firms with two complementary frameworks,
psychodynamic and family systematic, to help make sense of
family-run organisations. Although this book includes a conceptual
section, it is first and foremost a practical book about the real
world issues faced by business families.

The book begins by demonstrating that many years of achievement
through generations can be destroyed by the next, if the family
fails to address the psychological issues they face. By exploring
cases from famous and less well known family businesses across the
world, the authors discuss entrepreneurs, the entrepreneurial
family and the lifecycles of the individual and the organisation.
They go on to show how companies going through change and
transition can avoid the pitfalls that endanger both family and
company. The authors then apply tools that will help family
businesses in transition and offer their analyses and
conclusions.

Readers should draw their own conclusions from careful
examination of the cases, identifying the problems or dilemmas
faced and the options for improved business performance and family
relationships. They should ask what they might have done in the
given situation and what new insight into individual or family
behaviour each case offers. The goal is to avoid a bitter
ending.

MANFRED F.R. KETS DE VRIES brings a unique perspective to the much-studied subjects of leadership and the dynamics of individual and organizational change. He is a clinical professor of leadership development and holds the Raoul de Vitry d'Avaucourt Chair of Leadership Development at INSEAD, France & Singapore. He is also the Director of INSEAD's Global Leadership Center. He has held professorships at McGill University, the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales, Montreal, and the Harvard Business School, and he has lectured at management institutions around the world. He is a founding member of the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations. The Financial Times, Le Capital, Wirtschaftswoche, and The Economist have rated Manfred Kets de Vries among the world's top fifty thinkers on management and among the world's most influential people in human resource management.

He is the author, co-author, or editor of more than 24 books and over 250 scientific papers as chapters in books and as articles. His books and articles have been translated into more than 25 languages.

Kets de Vries is a consultant on organizational design/transformation and strategic human resource management to leading US, Canadian, European, African, Australian and Asian companies. As an educator and consultant he has worked in more than forty countries.

DR. RANDEL S. CARLOCK is the first Berghmans Lhoist Chaired Professor in Entrepreneurial Leadership, the founding Director of the Wendel International Centre for Family Enterprise and a founding board member of the Global Leadership Centre at INSEAD. Previously he was the first Opus Professor of Family Enterprise and founder of the family business center at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, MN (USA). Carlock has an MA in education and training (1976), an MBA in strategic management (1983), and a Ph.D. (1991), all from the University of Minnesota. His doctoral dissertation explored the role of organization development in managing high growth entrepreneurial firms. He has also completed a post graduate certification in family and marriage therapy at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, University of London (1998) and a certificate in psychodynamic counseling at Birkbeck College, University of London (1999). He was awarded a Certificate in Family Business Advising with Fellow Status (2001) by The Family Firm Institute, Boston, MA (USA).

He is the author of several books, articles, book chapters, videos and case studies. He has over 25 years of experience serving as an executive with a global family business and as CEO and chairman of his own NASDAQ listed corporation. He currently advises global business families and corporations around the world specializing in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

ELIZABETH FLORENT-TREACY, Research Project Manager at INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France, and Singapore, She works in the INSEAD Global Leadership Centre, and the Wendel International Centre for Family Enterprise. She has conducted research in the following areas: global leadership; global organizations; corporate culture in European and global organizations; American, French and Russian business practices; family business issues (governance, succession, strategy); entrepreneurial leadership; cross-cultural management; women and global leadership; cultural aspects of mergers and acquisitions; transformational leadership; expatriate executives and families; and the psychodynamics of leadership. She holds degrees in Sociology (BA) and Organization Development (MA).

Elizabeth has written authored or co-authored 4 books, 21 articles, working papers and book chapters and 18 case studies on leadership and family business topics.

Andreas Sohmen-Pao, Chief Executive Officer, BW Shipping

Groundbreaking and holistic view that gives a family business soul while explaining irrationalities in a rational way.

Mr Chavalit Tsao, Chairman IMC Group, Singapore

Family business is a topic of considerable importance to my firm because we are a family business as are many of our most important clients. The book's focus on both individual and family psychology offers new insights into the positive and negative influences that family relationships bring to the supposedly rational business world.

Raymond J. Baer, Chairman of the Board, Julius Baer Holding Ltd

Fascinating read. I believe very strongly in the statement that 'too many people take a rational actor approach' when it comes to family controlled businesses (FCB). There are limits to logical decision making and we need to explore those. FCB are therefore essentially more human than publicly owned companies and it is only appropriate that we should apply psychological theories of human mental phenomena and behaviour, to understand them better.

André Hoffmann, Non Executive Vice Chairman - Board of Directors, Roche Group Ltd

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