Generation to Generation

Acknowledgments

THE FIRST PEOPLE we need to thank for making this book possible are the families who have taught us what we know about family business. We have met hundreds of families of all sizes from all over the world. They invited us into their businesses and their lives. In the process of working with us on their goals, each family added something—a new story about child-rearing, a unique estate planning dilemma, an illustration of cultural differences in Chile or Norway, an industry with unusual constraints on strategy—and it is those stories and the lessons we learned from them that created this book.

In particular we want to mention the executives at Caterpillar Inc., especially Dave Lewis, Bob Kinne, and Ron Bonati, who sponsored the ...