Table Of ContentNurturing the
Talent to
Nurture the
Legacy
Family Business Publications are the combined efforts of the Family Business
Consulting Group and Palgrave Macmillan. These books provide useful infor-
mation on a broad range of topics that concern the family business enterprise,
including succession planning, communication, strategy and growth, fam-
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consulted with thousands of enterprising families the world over, giving the
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The Family Business Consulting Group, Inc., founded in
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to helping family enterprises prosper across generations.
FAMILY BUSINESS LEADERSHIP SERIES
This series of books comprises concise guides and thoughtful compendiums
to the most pressing issues that anyone involved in a family firm may face.
Each volume covers a different topic area and provides the answers to some of
the most common and challenging questions.
Titles include:
Developing Family Business Policies: Your Guide to the Future
Effective Leadership in the Family Business
Family Business Compensation
Family Business Governance: Maximizing Family and Business Potential
Family Business Ownership: How to Be an Effective Shareholder
Family Business Succession: The Final Test of Greatness
Family Business Values: How to Assure a Legacy of Continuity and Success
The Family Constitution: Agreements to Secure and Perpetuate Your Family and Your
Business
Family Education for Business-Owning Families: Strengthening Bonds by Learning
Together
Family Meetings: How to Build a Stronger Family and a Stronger Business
Financing Transitions: Managing Capital and Liquidity in the Family Business
From Siblings to Cousins: Prospering in the Third Generation and Beyond
How Families Work Together
How to Choose and Use Advisors: Getting the Best Professional Family Business Advice
Working for a Family Business: A Non-Family Employee’s Guide to Success
Letting Go: Preparing Yourself to Relinquish Control of the Family Business
Make Change Your Family Business Tradition
Making Sibling Teams Work: The Next Generation
More than Family: Non-Family Executives in the Family Business
Nurturing the Talent to Nurture the Legacy: Career Development in the Family Business
Preparing Successors for Leadership: Another Kind of Hero
Preparing Your Family Business for Strategic Change
All of the books were written by members of the Family Business Consulting
Group and are based on both our experiences with thousands of client fami-
lies as well as our empirical research at leading research universities the world
over.
Nurturing the
Talent to
Nurture the
Legacy
Career Development in
the Family Business
Amy M. Schuman
NURTURING THE TALENT TO NURTURE THE LEGACY
Copyright © Family Business Consulting Group, 2004, 2011.
All rights reserved.
First published by the Family Business Consulting Group Publications, 2004.
This edition first published in 2011 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the
world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers
Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-0-230-11113-4 ISBN 978-1-137-51385-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-51385-4
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Schuman, Amy M.
Nurturing the talent to nurture the legacy : career development in the
family business / by Amy M. Schuman.
p. cm.—(Family business leadership series)
Originally published: Marietta, Ga. : Family Enterprise Pub., c2004.
ISBN 978–0–230–11113–4
1. Family-owned business enterprises—Management. 2. Career
development. I. Title.
HD62.25.S3683 2011
658.39124—dc22 2010045306
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First Palgrave Macmillan edition: January 2011
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Acknowledgments
I am blessed to be associated with generous, insightful, and open-
hearted colleagues and clients across the nation and indeed the
globe. My thanks to you for being the wellspring from which
these insights have flowed and in whose company many of these
concepts were first developed.
Thanks to Sharon Nelton, Jane Aronoff, and Craig Aronoff
for their invaluable writing and editing support.
Thanks to Andrew Keyt, executive director of the Loyola
University–Chicago Family Business Center and all the par-
ticipants of the Next Generation Leadership Institute who have
taken on the challenge of leading their families and businesses.
Thanks to Melissa Shanker, Drew Mendoza, John Ward, and the
planning committee for innovating the concept of NGLI.
Finally, thanks to my family for their patience, honesty, and
love.
Contents
EXHIBITS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
1 Introduction: Ensuring Your Company’s Future. . . . . 1
2 Unique Considerations for Family Enterprises . . . . . 7
3 Win-Win Career Development . . . . . . . . . . .13
4 Catch Them while They’re Young. . . . . . . . . .23
5 Creating a Career-Development Process . . . . . . .31
6 Maximizing Talent in a Family Business. . . . . . . .43
7 Who’s Responsible for What? . . . . . . . . . . .51
8 Translating Career Development into
Promotion Decisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59
9 Family Leaders Need Development, Too . . . . . . .65
10 Where Families Falter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75
11 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81
RESOURCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85
SUGGESTED ADDITIONAL READINGS . . . . . .87
NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .89
INDEX. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91
THE AUTHOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95
Exhibits
Exhibit 1
Nine Reasons Why Family Businesses Say They
Avoid Career Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Exhibit 2
Career Development Is a Family Business Win-Win . . . .15
Exhibit 3
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28
Exhibit 4
Sample Individual Learning Plan . . . . . . . . . . . .37
Exhibit 5
The Career-Development Planning Process
at a Glance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42
Exhibit 6
Ten Great Ways to Expand Your Skills and
Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50
Exhibit 7
Who’s Responsible for What in Career
Development and Succession?. . . . . . . . . . . . .54
Exhibit 8
Helping or Hindering Career Development . . . . . . .56
x EXHIBITS
Exhibit 9
The Performance Management Cycle. . . . . . . . . .61
Exhibit 10
Great Family Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74
Chapter 1
Introduction
Ensuring Your Company’s Future
Nothing could be more important to the continuity of a
family business than the preparation of next-generation
leaders—both family and non-family. Yet, career development
is often neglected in family firms. Family business founders, and
CEOs frequently take an attitude of “sink or swim” toward the
next generation. “That’s how I did it,” they may say. Most family
business leaders want to nurture next-generation development
but do not know where to begin.
To improve the chance of survival and success
across generations, a family business should
engage in a deliberate program of planned,
strategic career development.
“Sink or swim” is unlikely to provide an expanding and increas-
ingly complex business with the leadership required for contin-
ued success. Talented leaders may emerge on their own, but the
odds don’t favor that result. To improve the chance of survival
and success across generations, a family business should engage
