The Two Sides of the Business Family

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxiv

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2. Part I

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. Family Strategy over Generations

      • Arist von Schlippe, Tom A. Rüsen, Torsten Groth

      Pages 3-27

3. Part II

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 29-29

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   2. Riding a Ghost Train: “What Happens If ‘Nothing’ Happens?”

      • Arist von Schlippe, Tom A. Rüsen, Torsten Groth

      Pages 31-49

4. Part III

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 51-51

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   2. Family and Business: The “Impossible Endeavour”

      • Arist von Schlippe, Tom A. Rüsen, Torsten Groth

      Pages 53-72

   3. Family and Business Family at the Same Time: The Duplicated Family

      • Arist von Schlippe, Tom A. Rüsen, Torsten Groth

      Pages 73-87

5. Part IV

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 89-89

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   2. Appointment Decisions: A Sense of Belonging and Drawing Limits

      • Arist von Schlippe, Tom A. Rüsen, Torsten Groth

      Pages 91-132

   3. Legitimation: Decide Without Deciding!

      • Arist von Schlippe, Tom A. Rüsen, Torsten Groth

      Pages 133-154

   4. Being Aware of Mental Models

      • Arist von Schlippe, Tom A. Rüsen, Torsten Groth

      Pages 155-179

   5. What’s the Point of It All? Cross-Generational Meaningful Purpose

      • Arist von Schlippe, Tom A. Rüsen, Torsten Groth

      Pages 181-185

6. Part V

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 187-188

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   2. Reinventing the Wheel! The Witten Model of Family Strategy Development

      • Arist von Schlippe, Tom A. Rüsen, Torsten Groth

      Pages 189-246

This book focuses on a central success factor for family businesses: maintaining the decision-making ability over generations while not jeopardizing the business due to family conflict, inefficient governance structures, or lack of identification. The authors identify that this is not as easy as the endeavor to bring two social systems together with contradicting logic (family and business) leads to many dangerous pitfalls. This book presents outcomes of a unique research project in which family managers of eleven of the oldest and largest German family businesses, at least the fourth generation, met for more than three years on a regular basis and presented the essence of their family governance structures to each other and to the authors. It was a joint “learning journey” that admits identifying twelve core questions that these families had been answering to keep up the relationship between family and business successfully over generations. Obviously, there is no “right” answer to these questions. The key to success is rather engaging the families in a process to find out their own answers and make them aware of the “two sides”: being a family is different from being a business family.

• Family business management
• Conflict management
• Family business governance
• Intergenerational family businesses
• Ownership and control

• Witten/Herdecke University, Witten, Germany

  Arist von Schlippe, Torsten Groth

• WIFU, Witten/Herdecke University, Witten, Germany

  Tom A. Rüsen

Arist von Schlippe is a Professor and heads the Endowment Chair of Leadership and Dynamics in Family Businesses, 'Witten Institute for Family Business' (WIFU) at the Witten/Herdecke University, Germany. He is one of the leading family psychologists in Germany, and his research spans across the fields of family governance, succession; the role of stories and value transmission in business families; transgenerational entrepreneurship, negotiation and conflict resolution; parental coaching in non-violent resistance.

Torsten Groth is a Senior research fellow at the Witten Institute for Family Business (WIFU) at the Witten/Herdecke University, Germany. He is specialized in leadership and organization and serves as one of the leading systemic coaches for family businesses and organizations.



Tom A. Rüsen is a Professor and the Managing Director of the Witten Institute for Family Business (WIFU), and an Honorary Professor at the Witten/Herdecke University, Germany. He is one of the leading speakers on family business topics in Germany and serves as a consultant to business families. His research focuses on conflict and crisis management in family businesses, mental models, and family strategy development in business families, family governance and professional ownership development.

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