Unconventional Wisdom

Unconventional Wisdom: Counterintuitive Insights for Family Business Success

Family businesses prosper by pursuing unconventional strategies. Because they are values-driven and think very long-term, they take approaches not popular with current management fashion or most companies. That is the key to their competitive advantage. However, family businesses must find ways to simultaneously serve business needs and family goals, which require very different priorities and principles. As a result, they must think paradoxically, and find insights that single-purpose enterprises need not contemplate. They must dare to be different. Family business requires a different governance system, but it must nevertheless be one that can be controlled. Building on insights from the world's premier family business executive education course, this book offers the Unconventional Wisdom needed to leverage the strategic and cultural uniqueness of a family business for enduring success.

Editor
John Ward is The Wild Group Professor of Family Business at IMD, and also a professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management (USA). He is director of IMD's renowned 'Leading the Family Business' program, in which he has taught since its inception in 1987.

Contributors
Daniel Denison is Professor of Management and Organization at IMD. His research has shown a strong relationship between organizational culture and business performance metrics such as profitability, growth, customer satisfaction, and innovation. He has consulted with many leading corporations regarding organizational change, leadership development, and the cultural issues associated with mergers and acquisitions, turnarounds, and globalization. Dr Denison received his Bachelor's degree in psychology, sociology, and anthropology from Albion College and his PhD in organizational psychology from the University of Michigan.

Jean L. Kahwajy Prior to joining IMD as Professor of Organizational Behavior, Dr Kahwajy worked as a coach, consultant, seminar leader, and speaker on decisionmaking, strategy, negotiation, and interpersonal dynamics for more than two dozen Fortune 500 companies. She has also held positions in systems engineering, equity derivatives, investment banking, and technology marketing. Her research, teaching, and consulting focus on how to turn around negative situations, with emphasis on improving both negotiation and decision-making, as well as interpersonal interactions. She holds a PhD in organizational behavior with a minor in psychology from Stanford University, a Master's degree in engineering-economic systems and an MBA from Stanford and a Bachelor's degree in systems engineering from the University of Virginia.

George Kohlrieser, a clinical and organizational psychologist, is Professor of Organizational Behavior at IMD and consultant to global organizations around the world. In addition, he is Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio, and an adjunct faculty member of Union Graduate School, Antioch, Ohio, of Fielding Institute San Francisco, California, and of Zagreb University, Croatia. He specializes in conflict management, leadership, high-performance teamwork, change management, post-traumatic stress, and personal and professional development. He is also a police psychologist focusing on violence and aggression management, and hostage negotiations. He obtained his PhD from Ohio State University.

Colleen Lief joined IMD in 2000 as a research associate working on change management, marketing, and corporate learning issues. Soon after, she became the lead researcher at the IMD-Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch Family Business Research Center, where her research interests include corporate culture and adaptation. Ms Lief earned an MPhil degree in monetary economics at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and a BSc in business administration from Duquesne University, Pittsburgh. She also pursued postgraduate work in political economy at the University of Texas, Dallas.

Peter Lorange has been the President of IMD since July 1, 1993. He is Professor of Strategy and holds the Nestlé Chair. He is also co-director of two programs targeted at senior executives: Orchestrating Winning Performance and the Booster Program. He was formerly President of the Norwegian School of Management in Oslo. His areas of special interest are global strategic management, strategic planning, strategic alliances, and strategic control. He did his undergraduate studies at the Norwegian School of Economics and Business, was awarded an MA in operations management from Yale University, and a Doctor of Business Administration from Harvard University.

Joachim Schwass is Professor of Family Business at IMD. He is co-director of the IMD-Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch Family Business Research Center and of IMD's renowned Leading the Family Business program. He also directs the annual IMD-Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch Distinguished Family Business Award. His main teaching focus is on owner-related management issues. He was educated in Germany, France, and Switzerland. He has attended graduate studies at Technische Universität Berlin and Université de Fribourg where he obtained a Lic.Rer.Pol. and a Dr.Rer.Pol.

Ulrich Steger holds the Alcan Chair of Environmental Management at IMD and is director of IMD's research project on Corporate Sustainability Management (CSM). He is director of the DaimlerChrysler Partnership Program and Allianz Excellence Program, as well as co-director of the Building High Performance Boards program. He holds a PhD from Ruhr University, Bochum.