Guide to the Family Business Canadian Edition
Authors: Peter Leach, Bruce Ball and Garry Duncan
Family businesses across Canada now have a resource specifically for their needs. Accounting and consulting firm BDO Dunwoody LLP has used its experience in helping family businesses reach their goals, to develop a book over 250 pages, titled "Guide to the Family Business". This book is available in stores across Canada as well as through the publisher, on the Carswell website.
"According to the Canadian Association of Family Enterprise (CAFE), family businesses generate more than 45% of Canada's GDP and a paycheque for about 50% of working Canadians, so it's very important to keep this sector strong," says co-author Garry Duncan, BDO Partner who has extensive experience in helping family businesses.
"There's almost nothing else out there to act as a guide in helping family businesses achieve their goals. Family businesses face challenges different from any other form of organization," Duncan adds. "One of these is that inter-family relationships sometimes conflict with individuals' roles within the business. Another is that all too often, the founder of the organization is unwilling to delegate authority to someone they may still think of as being a child."
Family businesses also have their unique strengths, Duncan says. "They offer a special blend of caring and commitment, and often treat their employees as members of an extended family. Many people find that attractive. They also provide a stable culture that is focused on long-range objectives."
Bruce Ball of BDO's National Office, part of the three-author team together with BDO international family business advisor Peter Leach, says that the book's topics reflect the issues the firm has encountered in helping family businesses.
The book's coverage includes the sometimes-complex relationships between the company founder and the company itself, the role of each generation in the business, the transfer of business from one generation to the next, and how succeeding generations can play their part in making the organization a success. "Some of these issues are technical, and relate to matters such as taxation," says Ball. "But in our work advising family business, we find that the human factors and issues are often the most challenging."
BDO Dunwoody LLP is a firm of chartered accountants and consultants who act as business advisors to growing entrepreneurial businesses and the people behind them. We provide accounting and auditing, taxation and business advisory services, through over 95 offices nationwide.
For more information, please contact Bruce Ball at (416) 369-3096.
