Release date: July 23, 2003

Contact: Terri Thornton, 404-932-4347 or territhornton@mindspring.com

New Book Examines Conflict and Communication in the Family Business

Co-Authors Lead Cox Family Business Center at KSU

Conflict is a fact of business life, and the stakes rise even higher for family-owned business. A new book, “Conflict and Communication in the Family Business,” explains how to deal with conflict while keeping the business, and the family, afloat. Joe Astrachan, director of the Cox Family Enterprise Center at Kennesaw State University, and Center associate director Kristi McMillan wrote the book, which is published by Family Enterprise Publishers.

“When dealt with properly, conflict can be a positive catalyst, but when it festers, it can tear families and businesses apart,” says Astrachan, who also holds the Wachovia Eminent Scholar Chair of Family Business. “Few people realize inventor Thomas Edison gave his son Tom $50 a week to STOP using his family name,” Astrachan says. “Edison’s company, General Electric, became one of the most successful businesses in the world, yet Tom Jr. died in obscurity under an assumed name.”

In a family business, disagreements are often about issues other than what the people involved say they’re about, Astrachan notes. The book points out the risks faced when family members can’t – or won’t – communicate. For example, Gucci successfully relaunched after its troubled namesake family lost control, but Louisville’s Bingham family lost both the family and its media empire.
The book was written for family members, as well as non-family members who work for family-owned businesses. “Family-owned businesses account for half of the U.S. gross domestic product,” McMillan says. “Nearly 35% of family-owned businesses are Fortune 500 companies including Ford, Wal-Mart and Anheuser-Busch,” she adds.

Well-known family businesses facing high-profile conflict now include the Pritzkers, who own the Hyatt hotel chain, and the Haft family, in which a father fired one son, and was himself later fired by another son.

“This is an incredibly important topic and it needed to be handled in an easy to understand way,” Astrachan said.

It can be ordered online directly from the publisher at www.efamilybusiness.com, and will soon be available on www.Amazon.com.

###

Kennesaw State University is a comprehensive, residential institution with a growing student population of 15,600 from 123 countries. The fourth largest state university out of 34 institutions in the University System of Georgia, KSU offers more than 55 undergraduate and graduate degree programs.