Growth Drives Family Firms Crazy

So enter the shrinks, who are discovering that business-consulting skills are as critical as Freud

Lots of family companies struggle just to succeed. The struggle places tons of pressure on the family unit, within which there's always plenty of emotional inventory anyway. But growth is a huge problem too, and managing it presents family firms with rosier but no less complex issues. "My brother-in-law and I were giving each other the finger. Nobody was showing up for Easter dinner," recounts Park Kerr, chairman and founder of the El Paso Chile Co., a $10 million-a-year specialty-food company that sells salsas and snacks to the likes of Williams Sonoma and Neiman Marcus. "Dealing with change in a family...

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