Evaluate your change readiness
GFBAI member and FBAC graduate, Andy Powell has spent the last 25 years working in the field of “change” with individual leaders and organizations. Here are some of his top tools.
…In our Human Resources consulting practice, one of our favorite euphemisms for performance management issues is when a client tells us that they need our help because an employee “isn’t working out.”
…I recently worked with a client whose business had enjoyed many years of robust growth.
…How many times have you heard the following: “I’ll never let this business ruin our family”? Well, I’ve heard it plenty of times and often wonder how it is that the business can ruin a family.
…There’s a lot in print and on the web recently about the concept of “engagement” and how it applies in the sales process.
…Historically community banks haven’t embraced their role in addressing the opportunities and challenges in ownership and management transition for family-owned and closely-held businesses. Rather than continuing to stand at arm’s length, there are several issues that community bankers need to take into consideration that would benefit their business clients and could mean new business opportunities for the bank itself:
…The recent release of the Financial Inquiry Commission report offers a gruesome picture of Wall Street wheeling and dealing although blame is apportioned to many. Similarly, the Presidential Commission Inquiry on the BP oil spill in the Gulf documents extensive corporate corner-cutting and deceptive communications. Given such examples of corporate irresponsibility, one might look skeptically at corporate America’s attempts to gloss over disasters such as these through clever ad campaigns.
…The title of this article doesn’t sound quite right, does it? The purpose of buy-sell agreements is to provide peace-of-mind for shareholders. In theory, these “agreements” should provide relatively easy business transitions from one shareholder to another.
…There’s an old saying about economists that crops up every now and then, and goes a long way toward explaining why economic analysis sometimes gets a bad rap. The saying is that an economist will look at a person with one foot in a bucket of ice and the other in a bucket of fire and proclaim that, in terms of an average temperature, that person should be just fine.
…A “valuation process” buy-sell agreement is an agreement that stipulates the process for determining a value of the business. This differs from a fixed price agreement, which states the dollar value of the business right in the agreement; a formula agreement, which states a formula for valuing the business (X times annual sales, for example); and a shotgun agreement, where one person has a right or obligation to buy (or sell) at a some price, and the other party has the right or obligation to sell (or buy) at that same price.
…Recognizing and honoring balance between family and business is not new to Galliard and the Family Business Advisor network. Undeniably, the vision of a family bound together by its values and traditions, and thriving in tandem with a growing business is appealing. Preserving family as the business grows and changes, however, goes beyond warmth and gets right to the heart of success. To learn more we caught up with Family Business Advisor, Michael O’Neal, to understand why legacy matters.
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