I try to do all of those things in this column, although some of my editors like to point out that in the War of the Word Count, ideas, information and issues consistently lose out to opinions. One thing columnists should do more often is check the pulse of those they write for - in my case, the people who own, run, work for and serve family businesses. I considered assigning this column's Department of Statistical Peculiarities, a crack team of M.B.A. students who spend their weekends at the race track solving probability equations, to call all of you at home during the dinner hour and ask a lot of offensive questions. Individual answers and identities will remain confidential. Some families point to their businesses' longevity under family ownership.
Some owners are most pleased with the financial security that the business provides for the family.
And there are those who feel best about the number of people the company has kept employed. Goals can be immediate, long term or lifetime in scope, either broadly corporate or precisely personal. Some families in business strive to create greater business success than their predecessors did. Others just want to hang on quietly until they can get out. And some say their goal is to make every family member proud to share the company's name.