The Modern Family Business

Provides real world studies of the family in business, by observing typical firms rather than dynasties. It looks at how the nature of family business is changing in our times and provides insight into the lessons we can learn from this. The book focuses on the impact for the professional non-family manager.

Provides real world studies of the family in business, by observing typical firms rather than dynasties. It looks at how the nature of family business is changing in our times and provides insight into the lessons we can learn from this. The book focuses on the impact for the professional non-family manager.

The first book to tell the story of one of the world’s most influential media businesses, The Family Business draws on more than 70 interviews with company insiders as well as book-industry luminaries to present the Ingram story and how a little-known Nashville-based company grew to play a pivotal role in transforming book publishing around the world. The history of the Ingram Content Group is one of the most important and remarkable business stories that almost no one knows. Launched as a favor to a family friend, it started as a local textbook distributor—one tiny division within a thriving corporation focused on oil, construction supplies, and shipping. It grew into the world’s largest book wholesaler, then into the most influential and innovative supplier of infrastructure and services to publishers around the world. Over the past 50 years, from its headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee, Ingram has played a pivotal role in modernizing the book business. Two members of the founding family have led the way: Bronson Ingram, a tough-minded industrialist who instinctively recognized a golden opportunity to apply modern efficiencies to antiquated logistical systems, and Bronson’s son John Ingram, an “intrapreneur” with a keen understanding of both the opportunities and the risks created by the new digital technologies. Led by these two brilliant managers, Ingram has used its unparalleled industry-wide connections to help transform book publishing from a tradition-bound business into a dynamic, global twenty-first century powerhouse. Now, for the first time, The Family Business captures the whole story. In its pages, readers will learn about: The introduction of the Ingram microfiche reader in 1972 and how it catapulted book retailing into the electronic eraIngram’s network of coast-to-coast distribution centers turning U.S. book publishing into a truly national business for the first timeIngram using fast-growing video, software, magazine, and international wholesaling operations to create a phenomenal record of expansion, growing from a million-dollar company into a billion-dollar giant in just two decadesTwo of book publishing’s most powerful organizations—Ingram and Barnes & Noble—almost coming within a hair’s breadth of merging, and how the deal fell apart at the eleventh hourIngram’s unparalleled ability to rapidly fulfill product orders empowering Amazon’s unique customer service model and enabling its explosive growthLightning Source, a technological marvel spawned by Ingram, converting the “long tail” of niche books from a costly headache for publishers and retailers into a steady source of profitable salesIngram’s transformation of the book supply chain enabling countless booksellers and publishers to survive and even thrive in the disruptive era of Covid-19 Today, with Ingram’s expanding portfolio of service and infrastructure businesses playing an ever-growing role in the world of publishing, the company stands ready to help lead the industry into an era of even more dramatic change. The Family Business is the first book to recount the story of this strategic powerhouse that everyone in the publishing industry does business with, and that practically everyone admires—but that few people really understand. A must-read for people in the book business and the world of media, and anyone else who wants to understand how this vastly influential industry really works, this book fascinates with the story of the ways today’s electronic information technologies are transforming the world.

In Building a Successful Family Business Board , the authors show why private firms need the in-depth expertise and objective feedback that a well-chosen board, including qualified independent directors, can provide, and demonstrates how owners and directors can work together to ensure a long and profitable life for the firm.

The Routledge Companion to Family Business offers a definitive survey of a field that has seen rapid growth in research in recent years. Edited by leading scholars with contributions from the top minds in family business from around the world, this volume provides researchers and scholars with a comprehensive understanding of the state of the discipline. Over 25 chapters address a wide variety of subjects, providing readers with a thorough review of the key research themes in the modern family firm, such as corporate social responsibility and bank debt rationing. International examples cover a wide range of economies including China, Europe, and Latin America. The book will appeal to undergraduates, postgraduates and business instructors seeking a definitive view of the issues and solutions that affect and support family business.

Family businesses have been an important part of the economy in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and in the Chinese diaspora, and, since the reforms, in mainland China itself. Some people have argued that the success of Chinese family businesses occurs because of the special characteristics and approach of such businesses. This book examines the nature of Chinese family business and the key issues involved by exploring in detail the case of a leading Hong Kong jewellery company which was established in the early 1960s and which has grown to become one of the biggest jewellery manufacturers, exporters, and retailers in post-war Hong Kong. The book considers the motivations of Chinese people to set up their own businesses, outlining the strategies adopted, including the strategies for raising capital, and the qualities of successful Chinese entrepreneurs. It discusses the management of the company, including relations between family members, profit sharing and succession planning, and assesses how conflict and crises are coped with and overcome. It charts the evolution of the company, looking at how it has been transformed into a listed corporation. The book concludes by arguing for the importance of studying Chinese family businesses culturally.

Why do successors decide to join the family business? The current study investigated the hitherto largely ignored perspective of the successor on succession as career decision process. Grounded on family business and career development theory, insights gained from the qualitative analysis of 16 in-depth interviews with successors were used to develop a successor profiling tool. It is composed of three main elements: the succession decision as process, influences of facilitating and inhibiting factors as well as underlying successor commitment over time. A gender sensitive perspective was adopted in order to account for gender differences during tool development. The tool developed offers a practical contribution by helping young family business members to consider succession in relation to their career development.

Guided by the principles of Passion, People, and Performance, Puig is a third-generation family-owned international luxury fashion, fragrance, and cosmetics group based in Barcelona. The company was founded 100 years ago by Antonio Puig, an art lover and habitue of the artistic circles of the time. In 1922 Puig created its first product, Milady, the first lipstick to be manufactured in Spain. Agua Lavanda, launched in 1940, became one of the company's most emblematic products, with all its ingredients coming from within Spain, and its success led to the company building its own factory and headquarters. During the 1960s the business evolved into a modern global corporation with the signing of groundbreaking designer Paco Rabanne, the establishment of its own research and development laboratories, and the use of cutting-edge talent in the field of advertising and marketing. Brands under the Puig umbrella today include Rabanne, Carolina Herrera, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Nina Ricci; the fragrance divisions of Comme des Garçons, Prada, and Valentino; plus the fragrance lines of celebrities such as Antonio Banderas and Shakira. AUTHOR: Eugenia de la Torriente is the fashion editor for El Pais, a national newspaper of record in Spain, and the deputy editor for El Pais Semanal, its weekly lifestyle magazine supplement. She previously published a travel book, Madrid, and contributed to Amaya Arzuaga: The season's book in 2008. Martine Buchet is the author of La Colombe d'Or and The Taste of Provence. 150 illustrations