Myths and mortals

"Credibility-it's elemental to business leadership. You can't lead without it. For successors in family businesses, establishing credibility can be their greatest challenge. Growing up in the shadows of their predecessors' successes makes it difficult for successors in family businesses to establish themselves and use their gifts to lead. To lead storied family businesses, successors build credibility the hard way - just like their parents did: they earn it. However, they may face the more formidable challenge of winning over those loyal to another leader and another way of doing business. They also live with the pressure of leading something that has already been successful. In ground-breaking research, Andrew Keyt interviewed more than 25 successors of family business legends, including Massimo Ferragamo (Salvatore Ferragamo), John Burke (Trek), Bill Wrigley Jr. (The Wrigley Companies), Christie Hefner (Playboy Enterprises), John Tyson (Tyson Foods) and Dick Devos (Amway). The insights and analysis from the study form the basis for the key insights on how successors overcome the obstacles to credibility and build on what the legends created"--