Learning To Manage Business Family

Dilemmas That Can't Be Solved

Families can become very adept at solving problems - but what about the frequently occurring “unsolvable problems”? For example, should families put the needs of the business first or the needs of the family first? Should families invest or harvest? Wise family businesses recognize that choosing one option to the exclusion of the other is always a bad idea, and they develop effective approaches for balancing these naturally occurring tensions. In this session, business-owning families examine classic examples of the polarities that face family businesses across the world. Participants learn a powerful and practical tool - a polarity map. They will learn to use a polarity map to increase their abilities to manage seemingly unsolvable problems, becoming more effective managers, family members and stewards of the family enterprise.

Amy Schuman, is a principal consultant of the Family Business Consulting Group, Inc. and the founding facilitator of the Next Generation Leadership Institute.

Amy is the co-author, with John L. Ward and Stacy Stutz, of Family Business as Paradox. She is the co-author, with John L. Ward, of Family Education for Business Owning Families and a co-author of A Woman’s Place…The Crucial Roles of Women in Family Business. Amy also wrote Nurturing the Talent to Nurture the Legacy: Career Development in the Family Business.  Amy has a B.A. in Psychology from Oberlin College and earned her MBA at The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Lead The Endurance

For those who have attended the Toronto, Halifax and Regina Symposiums, Doug Bolger will be a friendly and familiar face.  His passion and commitment to learning will continue in Ottawa as Doug will deliver a highly simulated experience that immerses participants in an Antarctic Adventure, circa 1913.   Leveraging the tools and resources available to Ernest Shackleton and the crew of the Endurance, Doug and the Cafe team will journey through the ice gaining new insight on how to live their leadership.

Developed to enhance self-awareness and leadership qualities, this interactive program focuses on your ability to recognize and articulate leadership characteristics and use them to improve your own personal leadership ability. If Shackleton and his crew could survive the harshest climate on earth, surely the challenges we face as business owners are surmountable.  Does your team have the stamina and leadership skills to face the challenges that lie ahead? Are they able to make the critical decisions and take the actions needed to thrive as well as survive? What behaviours must you model in order for your team to follow your lead?

Join Doug and his crew on this incredible journey through history and personal transformation as they guide you to:

•         Identify elements of a high performing team
•         Articulate a vision that is easily understood
•         Confront realities restricting high performance
•         Identify methods of motivation
•         Determine the right process for increased team effectiveness
•         Develop individual leadership drivers

Doug has been inspiring business leaders since 1989 to transform their organizations and generate a high return on investment by adopting new skills that breed motivation and passion within companies.  

He has designed award-winning behavioural change solutions for Tiger Woods’ foundation, Rogers Communications, Royal Bank of Canada and provides strategic guidance and advisory services to the board, coaches and athletes for the Canadian Olympic Team (COT).  His experience with high performers and high potential individuals requires a design and facilitation rigor rarely found in the learning and behavioural change industry.

From Zero to Good (How to build a

$100 Million + Business)

Managing business growth can be an exhilarating experience, but it can also be an intimidating one. In this dynamic speech, Cameron reveals the systems all companies need to grow and how to do it while making a profit. You’ll discover how to…

• How to use a unique visioning process called a “Painted Picture” to create total alignment in your team members and have them reading your mind
• Attract, interview & retain top talent, while systematically removing low performers
• Reverse engineer long-term goals – know precisely WHAT to do & WHEN to execute. You’ll forever change your strategic planning process to one that actually works.
• Make useless meetings taboo in your company, skyrocketing productivity and profit
• Leverage simple and easy to put in place technology to drive growth

Cameron is one of the most sought after business minds in North America. The Founder of BackPocket COO mentors a select class of CEOs, entrepreneurs and their teams, helping them make their dreams happen. He’s reached a huge global audience though his educational and inspirational presentations to groups of CEOs & entrepreneurs on five continents and eighteen countries. His direction, support, and proven strategies, have these companies super---charging their growth and profitability, while nurturing the kind of unique workplace cultures that attract top talent. Cameron is renowned as the driving force behind 1---800---GOT---JUNK?’s spectacular growth from $2 Million to $106 Million in revenue in just six years. He has been an entrepreneurial innovator since launching his first company at the age of 21 as well as coaching and mentoring hundreds of others. He’s mentored companies such as Nurse Next Door, I Love Rewards, Media Temple, Red Balloon Days, Grasshopper and Headsets.com. Cameron has been instrumental in the successful sale, branding and integration of a remarkable 450 franchise locations with three major franchisors. His expertise across all aspects of business covers operations, sales, marketing, advertising, PR, strategy, growth, call centers and franchising. There are few business challenges he hasn’t faced. .

Best Practice in Family Business Succession

PAIN/ SUCCESS/ & SELLING THE FAMILY COMPANY
David C. Bentall is an executive who remarkably, has experienced succession in a family business, firsthand, three times! All before his 45th birthday. The first time he felt like a lightning rod in the midst of a storm. Subsequently, he and his sisters acquired a major construction firm, and he became its president. As a result, David has seen both the damage that can be caused when succession is poorly handled, and also the success that can be found with the right approach.

KEY POINTS

Learn how a successful family business and good relationships within the family can both be achieved.
Learn from someone who has lived through three radically different succession experiences.
Discover what insights come from working for 20 years in a high profile family company.
Explore how you can get along with other members of your family, even if you own shares in the same company.
Realize how critical it is to focus on the "soft" issue:
Discuss the importance of communication, feelings, and family relationships.
Consider how you can stay in the game without getting a "bloody nose" in the process.
See how one person, armed with a clear picture, can have an impact for generations to come.
Realize the key role that professional and family advisors can play in family dynamics.

The Blessing and the Burden

Inside a Prominent Family

It is well documented that every family enterprise will experience turmoil that will either strengthen the family and enterprise or wreak havoc and define the family for generations.

Christopher Kennedy Lawford, nephew of the late John F. Kennedy, best-selling author, actor, and now Ambassador to the United Nations will draw on his personal experience as a member of the Kennedy family as it relates to harmony and family success. Christopher will share how dealing with his addictions redefined his relationship with his family and its impact on the Kennedy mystique.

 Personal story

Christopher’s remarks will focus on the personal journey of family expectations, struggles to adapt, family patterns and secrets, and how this background was both a blessing and a curse, similar to many heirs of family enterprises.

I would highly recommend every business family to attend at least one symposium.  I know the time and money will be very well spent!

Wanda Bedard, President 
Holocene Solutions Inc. 
Montreal , QC