“The fundamental task of parents is to raise responsible adults who have high self-esteem and can function independently in this world,” David Bork, The Little Red Book of Family Business.

The Family Firm Institute, a professional organization for individuals involved in family businesses have a list of recommended books on family businesses. The Little Red Book of Family Business is one of them. It is a pocket-sized book of wisdom about the complex and rewarding world of family businesses.

The advice in the book was culled from the author’s 40+ years of experience working as a family business counselor, covering topics such as family-work boundaries, competence, competition, being rich, sibling relationships, and spousal roles. Each point is brief, to-the-point, insightful and sometimes humorous. Their strength is probably as a conversation-starter for an indepth dialogue with family members.

The main focus of the book is helping owners manage their families rather than their business. Interference in business decisions, double standards in employment, and succession wars can make families the worst enemies of their own businesses.

Some of the advice from Bork includes:

• If the business does not prosper, the family will not be prosperous
• Money is a tool, but it should never be used as a hammer
• If the family ownership is used in marketing, then it is important for all family members to practice the values the family claims to have, and
• Sparking solitary soul-searching- from the section on wills: “Don’t try to legislate from ‘the other side.’”

Bork’s red book doesn’t provide a solution to every problem, nor does it claim to. “This is a little book, not a big one,” he writes. But its pithy phrases provide a benchmark for determining the strengths and weaknesses of a family’s relationship with their business.

Available from Amazon and other book sellers.