John Ward 
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 worldâ??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.

Table of Content

Contributors.

Preface.

Acknowledgments.

Chapter 1. The Growth Dilemma in Family-Owned Firms (Peter
Lorange).

Chapter 2. Unconventional Strategy: Why Family Firms
Outperform (John L. Ward).

Chapter 3. Strategic Planning – It Starts with the
Family (John L. Ward).

Chapter 4. How Family Business Culture is Different
(Colleen Lief and Daniel Denison).

Chapter 5. Understanding the Successor’s Challenges
(Joachim Schwass).

Chapter 6. An Effective Successor Development Strategy
(Joachim Schwass).

Chapter 7. Resolving Conflict in Family Businesses:
Don’t Be a Hostage to Family Harmony (George Kohlrieser).

Chapter 8. Effective Family Communications: It’s Not
What’s Said That’s Important, But What’s Heard
(Jean L. Kahwajy).

Chapter 9. The Family Constitution: It’s the Process
That Counts, Not the Content (John L. Ward).

Chapter 10. Good News for Family Firms: You Don’t
Need to Worry about the New Rules in Corporate Governance.
But… (Ulrich Steger).

Chapter 11. The Value of Hands-On Ownership (John L.
Ward).

Chapter 12. Counterintuitive Insights (Colleen Lief and
John L. Ward).

Index.

About the author

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.

Ulrich Steger holds the Alcan Chair of Environmental
Management at IMD, is Director of its research project on Corporate
Sustainability Management, and leads IMD’s Global Corporate
Governance Research Initiative.

Joachim Schwass is Professor of Family Business and
Director of the IMD-Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch & Cie Family
Business Center. He teaches Family Business and Entrepreneurial
Management, is Program Director of the St.Moritz Family
Business Seminar, and directs the Annual IMD Distinguished
Family Business Award.

Jeannie Kahwajy is a professor of Organizational Behavior
at IMD – International Institute for Management Development. Prior
to joining IMD she worked as a coach, consultant, seminar
leader and speaker.

George Kohlrieser, a clinical and organizational
psychologist, is Professor of Organizational Behavior at IMD,
Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology, Wright State
University, Ohio, USA, an adjunct faculty member of
Fielding Institute San Francisco, USA, and an adjunct
faculty member of Zagreb University, Croatia.