Transition Is Here…Are Your Family Business and Wealth Prepared for MAJOR Transition? Everything is in Transition. Look around…Business is in Transition. Family is in Transition. And the thing that no one wants to truly admit…Wealth is in Transition. You will be faced with some very difficult choices in the months and years to come. Now is not the time to bury your head in the sand and pray that challenges in your family business will magically work themselves out. You MUST be strategic. You MUST put your family first. You MUST make the right decisions now to prepare for the future. If you don’t, Transition will hit you like a major league baseball swing to the back of your head. You’ll be left unconscious, broken, flailing to survive, being dragged under by the overwhelming weight of your business on your life and your family. How do you navigate change like this in your business? First, you need the real truth about family business longevity. The fact is, 90% of family business are wiped from the face of the earth by the third generation. Only 40% even survive making it to the second generation. The numbers are not in your favor. To make matters even worse, wealth management awareness is quickly fading and many of your family members who are involved with the business may not have a strong understanding about the value of a dollar. While you’re fighting with your family members about minor business issues, your wealth is being eroded quickly by poor, uninformed financial decisions made by those closest to you. All this can make trying to position your family business and your wealth for transfer to the next generation a nightmare! But luckily for you, there's now a solution! If you’re looking to not only weather the storm but thrive in your family business, then this new book by Wealth Transition and Family Business Expert, David Werdiger, reveals how every Family Business Owner can understand how to position their family business and wealth transfer for success. Here's just a sample of the what David Werdiger will cover for you in the pages of this insightful new TransitionHow to Prepare your Family and Business for the Greatest Wealth Transfer in History ● Learn how to better communicate and connect with the other generations involved in your family business. Page 19 ● Understand the power of storytelling and how it influences your legacy. Page 23 ● Tap into the entrepreneurial spirit and gain a stronger understanding about what makes the entrepreneurs in your family tick - You might be one of them! Page 44 ● Identify successful strategies for raising children with wealth and identify the best way to bring them into the family business. Page 77 ● Can your business continue without you? Make sure you can effectively remove yourself from your business and still have it thrive. Page 96 ● Discover the cross-generational differences regarding investing and philanthropy. Page 119 ● Bring balance and meaning to your business, family, and life and recognize how giving is just as important as receiving during a transfer of wealth. Page 127 ● ... and much, MUCH More! Never before have you had such a unique opportunity to have this PROVEN Wealth Transfer and Family Business Expert take you by the hand and explain not only how to prepare for your business and family for the greatest wealth transfer in history, but also how to position your family business for massive success through
Based in Melbourne Australia, David consults on high net worth family and business issues helping people establish succession plans, overcome family conflict, and find better work/life balance.
David is a second generation family member as well as a tech entrepreneur. Nowadays, he is an integrated family advisor, best-selling author on wealth transition and a dynamic conference speaker and educator.
“Transition: How to Prepare Your Family and Business for the Greatest Wealth Transfer in History” proved to be a very interesting and informative read designed to help navigate the some of the more confusing aspects of multi-generational family businesses.
I really appreciated the amount of insight and real life scenarios pulled from in order to flesh his business concepts out. From his father’s immigration to Australia following WWII, the meager beginnings of a new immigrant, to the author’s own entrepreneurial endeavors and successes, this book is able to provide a unique perspective on the business world and how it is affected by families at an individual level.
The book addresses how each generation must be looked at as its own unique entity in order to be able to make accommodations and prepare for differences in personal emotional stakes in the company, risk assessments, and the willingness to venture forth into a brave new world. Instead of just using dry, text book concepts, the reader is given a very private tour of the writer’s own experiences and it helps to illustrate each concept.
As an added bonus, there is a link to a free workbook included. As you read along each chapter, you are frequently referred to an exercise in the workbook that will give you even more added insight.
Though not the most exciting of topics, as far as business books go, I found it neither tiring nor tedious, and actually entertaining at times. I confess that typically when I’m researching business I will scan through a book to the topics that apply to me, but in this case, I read the book in completion. That’s a rare compliment indeed.
I honestly could not have found this book at a better time. My boyfriend and I are expecting our first child the beginning of December so I have been taking steps toward securing our family's future for the past few months. I started my own business several years ago but have never given it much thought about transferring that business to my offspring at some point or what legacy that business could leave behind. It's interesting to read about all of this before I would have ever thought that I needed it. After all, time does fly and before I know it, I will have be in that situation.
David Werdiger presents us with a very well written book that not only covers the business side of a family owned business but also the side dealing with relationships. Often times, family owned businesses seem to break up not only because of a lack of interest in continuing on but because of differences in opinion. It can be the little petty things sometimes that can break up a company. There isn't a lot of excess fluff in this book which is well appreciated - I like a book that is clearly written and is to the point.
A really interesting read, detailing the ways that different generations of people communicate, and how to bridge the difficulties that arise. He points out that it's not just the words we use, but the differences in experience - how the world faced different threats when the Baby Boomers were growing up, as opposed to what the Millennials faced. David Werdiger did the reasearch on handing down family businesses for his own, but fortunately for us, wrote out this guide (and a workbook, much like the author of "The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People" did) for our benefit.
I don't own a business, but I found it fascinating. One review feels the book "goes off on tangents" and is too wordy, but I don't agree at all. It's short, and to the point. Illustrating your point with stories from your own experience is a time-honored teaching tool. They held my interest sufficiently. The book is short and to the point, so even if there were tangents, they'd be tiny ones, since there isn't much room in a book this size to wander.
Transition. How to Prepare Your Family and Business for the Greatest Wealth Transfer in History by David Werdiger is an interesting take on family business. Not only does it cover the business aspects, but it covers family interrelations, which is important if you are going to be in a family business. My favorite parts of the book were the sections about generations. These parts of the book made you think about intergenerational interactions and how you have to be patient. I never took the time to think about intergenerational communications, but it is now obvious to me that a lot of misunderstandings between generations are the culmination of their respective differences and experiences from the time they grew. Another aspect of the book I enjoyed was the fact that Werdiger used real-life experiences to illustrate his points. I think it added a more personal touch that grabbed the reader in the book. I would recommend this book to anyone who is wanting to run a family business or even wanting to learn more about people and business. It was definitely a fun, interesting read.
Good "common sense" concepts about why it’s important to analyze your business on a skeletal level from the beginning or even from an established point in time. I liked how the author appropriately inserts little nuggets of wisdom from other author’s books to help cement his ideas. Great business suggestions based on historical patterns and practices that have helped other successful entrepreneurs. Explains the psychology and sociology behind multi-generational ideologies of entrepreneurs A good list of personality traits and habitual practices that are necessary for running a successful business. Exercises on identifying your personal values and whether they’re consistent with your professional values. Shows ways to establish boundaries between personal role and business role. Gives good examples how to resolve these situations. Talks about how a business is just like a child: they both need constant care and attention in the beginning and then later the “parenting” style must change because later the company has become a self-sufficient being.
Although this book is pitched at those who work in a family business, what the author has to say about the generations is very interesting and relevant to everyone. He goes into great detail about the difference in the generations from the Traditionalist Generation, through Baby Boomers, Millennials and Generation X. He also explores Generation C, a name that has been coined to cover people of all generations who have special knowledge of I.T. and therefore do not fit neatly into the category given to them by their birth date. This chapter explains why the generations find it so hard to communicate – they are literally speaking a different language because of the world events that have shaped them. If you do work in a family business, the author’s advice on handling transition between generations will be invaluable for keeping your business afloat and your assets intact.
Transition by David Werdiger is a good offering of how the transition between family should be in business. There are ups and downs and changes are constant. David gave a lot of information about his past and what brought him to where he is today. He eloquently describes what it means to be in a family business - leaving a legacy.
What frustrated me about the book was that there was a ton of advertising and too much words. He beats around the bush a bit too much and often goes off of tangent. He has fantastic advice. But he often has a hard time trying to express that advice. The book is full of great information if you can look past the long vents and random information placed in somewhat similar information.
If you have a family business, this is a must read book. The author brings his knowledge of family and business to the reader in a straight to the point way. He offers the scenarios that could be faced and explains why they are important and how to deal with them. Don't leave your business to chance, read this book and have a firm grasp on the necessary steps to keep your business running well, even if it you don't intend to keep it run by family. Great read! Highly recommend!
This book was an interesting read. While I am not a business owner with a massive amount of wealth looking for ways to transition my wealth to the next generation, I appreciated the knowledge that Werdiger offered. He wrote from a voice of experience and shared not only his own story but those of others that his has worked with over time. Each chapter addresses a different issue and builds nicely to the end.
I think this book could be useful for anyone that has or is involved in a family business or is thinking about starting one. Great information!
David Werdiger's Transition is a fantastic and wonderful read. A journey of how to incorporate practices into our daily routines is worth its weight in gold. I will be reading this again and you should pick it up for the first go around!
Transition written by David Werdiger tackles the little discussed topic of generational family business and how to help them survive past the third generation which an astonishing 90% fail to do. Shedding light on idiosyncrasies that aren't experienced in the more traditional business world Werdiger uses his own family as an example. An immigrant family who survived the Holocaust and moved to Australia to create a textile industry unlike any other, on that is still thriving well into the 21st century. Using his own family business as a backdrop and with a Masters of Entrepreneurship, Werdiger helps redefine how people look at the family business model, giving ways to resolve potential conflicts, establish trust, and most importantly, knowing when to be hands off. As soon as I found out what Transition by David Werdiger was about I was interested. Being part of a burgeoning family business myself I'm always on the look out for new information and pitfalls to avoid. Werdiger delivers his message in easy to digest chapters and refers to an online workbook where readers can easily put his tips into action. It's not a dry read at all and almost feels like a one on one session with a mentor who has been in the trenches and has come out on the other side. I thoroughly enjoyed the information presented in Transition by David Werdiger and look forward to referring to it time and time again. A great read for any entrepreneur looking to bring their business to the next level of sustainability.