The Enduring Enterprise: How Family Businesses Thrive in Turbulent Conditions

The bulk of the world’s growth in population and economic activity in the foreseeable future will be generated in the developing world. This is precisely where enterprising families dominate, operating very differently than their peers in more stable and affluent nations. These businesses not only survive but actually thrive in turbulent times, enduring wars, lawlessness, market failures, environmental disasters, and more. The world’s most advanced economies will increasingly experience these types of structural shocks and chronic uncertainties in the years ahead. The question is, what can they do about it?

In The Enduring Enterprise, Devin DeCiantis and Ivan Lansberg bring readers into the lives of families operating in emerging and frontier economies who rely on a unique portfolio of stabilizing strategies to create islands of trust, resilience, and prosperity amidst persistent turmoil. Yet these tactics can also be deployed by any business coping with extended periods of volatility or building a more systematic approach to managing risk.

Drawing on real cases from around the world, and on their extensive research and consulting experience with family enterprises globally, The Enduring Enterprise will provide business leaders everywhere with new and useful adaptive strategies, proven to work in the toughest conditions, to help them face the world of greater uncertainty that lies ahead.

About the Authors

Devin DeCiantis is the Managing Partner at Lansberg Gersick Advisors (LGA), a trusted advisory and educational partner to the world’s leading family enterprises. Raised in Toronto, Canada, he holds a master’s degree from the Kennedy School at Harvard with a focus in finance and economics, as well as a bachelor’s in business administration from York University. Devin has advised private- and public-sector leaders throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, and has taught at Harvard University, Yale University, and Northwestern University. His writing has also been featured in the Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic, and The Walrus.

Ivan Lansberg is the co-founder at LGA, where he advises complex family enterprises worldwide. Over the last four decades, he has made significant contributions to the understanding of family business governance and succession. He was one of the founders of the Family Firm Institute (FFI) and the first editor of its professional journal, Family Business Review. After receiving bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from Columbia University, Lansberg taught at the Columbia Graduate School of Business. He became a professor of organizational behavior at the Yale School of Organization and Management for seven years before going into consulting. His books Succeeding Generations and Generation to Generation were both published by Harvard Business School Press and have been widely praised as landmark works. Lansberg is a frequent speaker at family business programs organized by universities and industry groups. He is on the faculty of the Kellogg School of Management.

The books for this giveaway are being provided by PublicAffairs, an imprint of Hachette Book Group. The giveaway will end on Monday, December 23rd.