Developing policies to guide decision making can help the family business avoid serious problems. When everyone in the family understands the basis for decision making there is very little room for feeling slighted-- yet few businesses take the time to work together to develp their policies. The authors provide a step-by-step process for engaing family members in developing policies which cover issues such as: dealing with conflicts of interest; retirement timing; distribution of profits; loan programs; compensation and succession.
