From The Kitchen Table To The Conference Table: Family Business Communication
by Laura Michaud, Cameo Publications, LLC, $17.95, 117 pages (February 2004), available at bookstores and online at www.cameopublications.com

Family-owned firms comprise ninety percent of businesses in the United States and account for seventy-eight percent of all new jobs created. However, nearly seventy percent of these businesses close shop during the second generation, according to Laura Michaud, author of the new book, From The Kitchen Table To The Conference Table: Family Business Communication. Family businesses hold a tremendous amount of power in this country, but due to relationship problems among family members, many are doomed to fail.
Michaud explains how participants in family businesses frequently experience enhanced professional growth opportunities, added credibility within the community, and increased skill knowledge. While family businesses can be rewarding because success is shared with loved ones, they become challenging when communication fails.
Effective communication is the key to resolving most family business problems, asserts Michaud, especially in matters concerning who takes the company over when the current leader retires, who is responsible for what duties, and how to leave work at the office and not take it home. Michaud offers strategies, such as regular meetings and behavioral process analyses, and then tells how to apply these concepts with minimal effort.
Michaud's book is a short, light read with a strong message. She provides examples of her personal situations and thought-provoking Action Items to help readers assess their own business issues. She helps family members view the business through the eyes of a non-family member and shows how to improve performance throughout the company by understanding the different behavioral styles each person has.
Michaud determines the problems, offers examples, and delivers simple solutions that can make all the difference in personal and business environments. She includes a Family Business Behavioral Style Assessment readers can use to determine their own communication/behavioral style and the style of their family members and co-workers. Then she offers practical tips on how to make communication easier by adjusting to each style.
Readers gain knowledge and understanding of the issues facing family businesses, as well as personal insight to their behavioral style. They can apply Michaud's expertise in their business and personal relationships and ultimately improve their lives through effective communication.
As family businesses drive the economy locally, nationally, and globally, Michaud's insights are crucial for success. When problems arise in the family business setting, the communication techniques offered in From The Kitchen Table To The Conference Table: Family Business Communication guide executives and employees alike, with the skills to handle these issues with ease, and improve personal and business relationships.

About the Author:
Laura Michaud is one of the most sought-after experts in family business. She was the third generation owner of her own family business (Beltone Electronics) for twenty years. Today, as owner of the Michaud Group, she helps family businesses improve performance and communication skills. She specializes in succession planning, creating organizational structure, building relationships between family and non-family employees, board development, increasing the bottom line through better employee and customer management, lowering employee attrition, creating a work/life balance, and increasing referrals and repeat business.