Books
Randel is author and co-author of several books and articles - you can buy his latest book online at Amazon.com along with these well received and previously published examples.
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When Family Businesses are Best - The Parallel Planning Process for Family Harmony and Business Success
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![]() Professor Randel S Carlock and
Professor John L Ward Available on Amazon and in leading bookshops Families are about caring and businesses are about money—not a likely formula for a successful partnership. Unfortunately those are the facts and family enterprises around the world have found that planning for these two often-conflicting systems is critical to family harmony and business success. The authors explore how planning about values, vision, strategy, investment and governance in parallel for the family and business helps create high performing multi-generation family enterprises. This is the first family business book based on positive psychology; showing business families working together at their best. |
![]() Available in Chinese
家族企业最佳实践:家族和谐与企业成功的双层规划流程 兰德尔•卡洛克(Randel S. Carlock)、约翰•沃德(John L. Ward)、谢芳、 高皓 东方出版社 (2012-06) ![]() La Excelencia en la Empresa Familiar : El proceso de planificación para la empresa y la familia. Randel S. Carlock y John L. Ward. Grupo Planeta (GBS), 2010
Spanish version of When Family Businesses are Best ![]() ファミリービジネス最良の法則
ランデル カーロック (著), ジョン ワード (著), 階戸 照雄 (翻訳) 2015 Published January 2015 Japanese edition of When Family Businesses are Best, translated by Dr Teruo Shinato, Nihon University. Available on Amazon.co.jp |
Book Review: When Family Businesses are Best: The Parallel Planning Process for Family Harmony and Business Success by Randel S. Carlock and John L. Ward |
What's your "elevator speech" when someone asks you "What does it take for a family business to be successful?"
It's not so easy to provide a meaningful response to this question - in the time it takes to ride an elevator! When Family Businesses are Best: The Parallel Planning Process for Family Harmony and Business Success, by Randel S. Carlock and John L. Ward, can help you to craft your elevator speech - and have a clear understanding of the keys to family business success. |
There are many things to like about this book. It includes concepts as well as practical tools and real-world examples; it is culturally sensitive to family businesses around the world; it addresses issues relevant to family enterprises beyond family businesses; and it is intended to be of value to family businesses as well as family business advisors and students.
But what is most impressive about the book is that it has taken a complex field and given it a simple organizational structure. (Read more from Donald Levitt and add comments.) |
![]() Family Business on the Couch: A Psychological Perspective by Randel S. Carlock with Manfred Kets de Vries and Liz Florent (John Wiley and Sons, 2007)
The challenge faced by family businesses and their stakeholders, is to recognise the issues that they face, understand how to develop strategies to address them and more importantly, to create narratives, or family stories that explain the emotional dimension of the issues to the family. The most intractable family business issues are not the business problems the organisation faces, but the emotional issues that compound them. Applying psychodynamic concepts will help to explain behaviour and will enable the family to prepare for life cycle transitions and other issues that may arise. Here is a new understanding and a broader perspective on the human dynamics of family firms with two complementary frameworks, psychodynamic and family systematic, to help make sense of family–run organisations. Although this book includes a conceptual section, it is first and foremost a practical book about the real world issues faced by business families. The book begins by demonstrating that many years of achievement through generations can be destroyed by the next, if the family fails to address the psychological issues they face. By exploring cases from famous and less well known family businesses across the world, the authors discuss entrepreneurs, the entrepreneurial family and the lifecycles of the individual and the organisation. They go on to show how companies going through change and transition can avoid the pitfalls that endanger both family and company. The authors then apply tools that will help family businesses in transition and offer their analyses and conclusions. Readers should draw their own conclusions from careful examination of the cases, identifying the problems or dilemmas faced and the options for improved business performance and family relationships. They should ask what they might have done in the given situation and what new insight into individual or family behaviour each case offers. The goal is to avoid a bitter ending. |
![]() Available in Chinese
家族企业治理:沙发上的家族企业. 曼弗雷德•凯茨•德•弗里斯(作者), 兰德尔•卡洛克 (作者), 伊丽莎白•弗洛伦特-特雷西 (作者), 钱峰 (译者), 高皓 (译者).东方出版社; 第1版 (2013) ![]() Available in Arabic
Title الشركات العائلية من منظور نفسي Translator حنان لطفي زين الدين Publisher الدار العربية للعلوم/لبنان Arab Scientific Publishers 2008 ISBN 978-9953-87-462-3 Title الشركات العائلية من منظور نفسي
Translator حنان لطفي زين الدين Publisher الدار العربية للعلوم/لبنان Arab Scientific Publishers 2008 ISBN 978-9953-87-462-3 |
Strategic Planning for the Family Business by Randel S. Carlock and John L. Ward (Macmillan in Arabic, Chinese, English, Hebrew, Russian and Spanish, 2003)

Family business planning has traditionally centered on two issues - estate planning and succession. These goals are far too limited for today's family firm. Business families want to turn the business into not only a tool for profit, but for self-expression, innovation and legacy.
The authors introduce the new concept of the Parallel Planning Process, explaining how to integrate the needs and expectations of the family and business systems in order to create an organic and entrepreneurial unit. Planning and decision making templates are included as well as studies of well-known family businesses.
Reviews for Strategic Planning for the Family Business:
"Strategic Planning for the Family Business is a very thoughtful and valuable book. It offers a superb kaleidoscope of the dynamics of the family business. Professors Carlock and Ward's notion of the Parallel Planning Process turns out to be a highly original and extremely effective way of diagnosing and intervening in such complex organizations. If I would find myself on a desert island with a family business (I agree that is quite a surrealistic thought), and was asked to help the various stakeholders, and could only resort to one book for guidance, this book would be my first choice."
-- Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries, Raoul de Vitry d'Avaucourt Professor of Human Resource Management, Clinical Professor of Leadership Development, INSEAD, France & Singapore
"The leaders of business families and family businesses will find this book a precious tool as they confront the many challenges of planning for the family and the business. Carlock and Ward draw from their many years of experience as educators, consultants and board members to make the text stimulating, relevant and of practical utility. I forecast that Strategic Planning for the Family Business will remain a benchmark of best practice for many years to come."
-- Alden G. Lank, President, Family Business Network and Stephan Schmidheiny, Professor of Family Enterprises Emeritus, IMD, Switzerland
"Of great use to family businesses that, rather than conforming to the corporate world, want to evolve, grow and pass from generation to generation without losing their family character." -- Miguel A. Gallo, Family Business Chairholder, IESE, International Business School, Universidad de Navarra, Spain
"The Carlock and Ward book is a must for everybody working in and with family businesses. The emphasis on the planning process addresses the key deficiency of far too many family businesses." -- Joachim Schwass, Professor of Family Business, IMD, Switzerland
The authors introduce the new concept of the Parallel Planning Process, explaining how to integrate the needs and expectations of the family and business systems in order to create an organic and entrepreneurial unit. Planning and decision making templates are included as well as studies of well-known family businesses.
Reviews for Strategic Planning for the Family Business:
"Strategic Planning for the Family Business is a very thoughtful and valuable book. It offers a superb kaleidoscope of the dynamics of the family business. Professors Carlock and Ward's notion of the Parallel Planning Process turns out to be a highly original and extremely effective way of diagnosing and intervening in such complex organizations. If I would find myself on a desert island with a family business (I agree that is quite a surrealistic thought), and was asked to help the various stakeholders, and could only resort to one book for guidance, this book would be my first choice."
-- Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries, Raoul de Vitry d'Avaucourt Professor of Human Resource Management, Clinical Professor of Leadership Development, INSEAD, France & Singapore
"The leaders of business families and family businesses will find this book a precious tool as they confront the many challenges of planning for the family and the business. Carlock and Ward draw from their many years of experience as educators, consultants and board members to make the text stimulating, relevant and of practical utility. I forecast that Strategic Planning for the Family Business will remain a benchmark of best practice for many years to come."
-- Alden G. Lank, President, Family Business Network and Stephan Schmidheiny, Professor of Family Enterprises Emeritus, IMD, Switzerland
"Of great use to family businesses that, rather than conforming to the corporate world, want to evolve, grow and pass from generation to generation without losing their family character." -- Miguel A. Gallo, Family Business Chairholder, IESE, International Business School, Universidad de Navarra, Spain
"The Carlock and Ward book is a must for everybody working in and with family businesses. The emphasis on the planning process addresses the key deficiency of far too many family businesses." -- Joachim Schwass, Professor of Family Business, IMD, Switzerland
The Need for Organization Development in Successful Entrepreneurial Firms (Garland Publishing, 1994) by Randel S. Carlock
Examines the organizational and human issues of some 500 high-performing entrepreneurial firms, explores CEO's evaluations of their firm's effectiveness, and identifies organizational strengths and weaknesses. Identifies employee acceptance of change, risk taking, and leadership building as important organizational behaviors which support growth.