Family-owned firms comprise ninety percent of businesses in the United States and account for seventy-eight percent of all new jobs created. However, nearly seventy percent of these businesses close shop during the second generation, according to Laura Michaud, author of the book, From the Kitchen Table to the Conference Table: Family Business Communication. Family businesses hold a tremendous amount of power in this country, but due to relationship problems among family members, many are doomed to fail.
Knowing your place in an organization is essential for your own success and ultimately, the business' success. Especially in family businesses, where many non-family members work alongside family members, unspoken conflicts may affect the work environment. For example, non-family member employees may feel threatened by family member employees. Therefore, all employees in a family business need to understand the unique dynamics of a family firm to achieve success in this type of company.
Michaud explains how participants in family businesses frequently experience enhanced professional growth opportunities, added credibility within the community, and increased skill knowledge. While family businesses can be rewarding because success is shared with loved ones, they become challenging when communication fails.
Effective communication is the key to resolving most family business problems, asserts Michaud, especially in matters concerning who takes the company over when the current leader retires, who is responsible for what duties, and how to leave work at the office and not take it home. Michaud offers strategies, such as regular meetings and behavioral process analyses, and then tells how to apply these concepts with minimal effort.
She states, "To be successful in a family business, family members need to understand several factors regarding behavior and communication. That is, they need to 1) understand their power, 2) understand how their behavior affects others, and 3) understand themselves. Only then can people accept other people's behavioral and communication styles and work harmoniously together to produce results."
Michaud's book is a short, light read with a strong message. She provides examples of her personal situations and thought-provoking action items to help readers assess their own business issues. She helps family members view the business through the eyes of a non-family member and shows how to improve performance throughout the company by understanding the different behavioral styles each person has.
Michaud determines the problems, offers examples, and delivers simple solutions that can make all the difference in personal and business environments. She includes a Family Business Behavioral Style Assessment readers can use to determine their own communication/behavioral style and the style of their family members and co-workers. Then she offers practical tips on how to make communication easier by adjusting to each style.
Readers gain knowledge and understanding of the issues facing family businesses, as well as personal insight to their behavioral style. They can apply Michaud's expertise in their business and personal relationships, and ultimately improve their lives through effective communication.
As a third-generation owner of Beltone Electronics, Laura Michaud learned firsthand the challenges and importance of communication in family business. After selling Beltone in 1997, she founded the Michaud Group consulting firm to share her experience and knowledge with other family businesses and help them overcome their communication challenges.
As family businesses drive the economy locally, nationally, and globally, Michaud's insights are crucial for success. When problems arise in the family business setting, the communication techniques offered in From the Kitchen Table to the Conference Table: Family Business Communication guide executives and employees alike, with the skills to handle these issues with ease, and improve personal and business relationships.
Laura Michaud is one of the most sought-after experts in family business. She was the third generation owner of her own family business (Beltone Electronics) for twenty years. Today, as owner of the Michaud Group, she helps family businesses improve performance and communication skills. She specializes in succession planning, creating organizational structure, building relationships between family and non-family employees, board development, increasing the bottom line through better employee and customer management, lowering employee attrition, creating a work/life balance, and increasing referrals and repeat business.
