Hawaii Family Business Conference

15 Oct Hawaii Family Business Conference

Aloha!

I’m writing this blog from my hotel room at Waikiki Beach in Honolulu. I’m here to present at the Annual Retreat for 30-40 families involved in the Hawaii Family Business Conference. Over the course of two days I’ll give three separate talks, including:

1. The Rise of a Texas Patriarch, The Fall of a Family Business
2. The Strategic Use of Advisors
3. The Constructive Use of Conflict in Family Business

In addition, I’m consulting with a number of families one-on-one leading up to the Annual Retreat. It’s been fascinating to meet the companies and people behind the businesses who are so well connected to the Pacific Rim. It’s really stretched me as a family business consultant to be working all week in O’ahu, Hawaii.

The kinds of issues people are grappling with are very much the same as they are back home:

-Succession planning
-Trust and communication issues
-Role conflict
-A brilliant patriarch who won’t step down

It’s been a great experience to be in Hawaii this week. I confess I don’t look forward to the grueling, 8-hour flight back home on Monday but as my colleague Ed Hart says, ‘in order to get to heaven you’ve got to go through hell’.

Mahalo!