Generation to Generation

Introduction

A Developmental Model of Family Business

WAL-MART. CARGILL. McGraw-Hill. As well as Petralli and Sons Auto Repair, Ethel’s Tree Service, and Goldman Furniture Co. This book is about families who own or manage businesses and about the businesses themselves—from the corner convenience store with a handful of employees to the multinational conglomerate with fifty thousand. They include some of the best-known companies in the United States, as well as the thousands of unknowns. The variety is enormous, but all these varied companies share one core characteristic: they are connected to a family, and that connection is what makes them a special kind of business.

Some of those companies proudly identify themselves as family businesses, ...