New Year’s Resolution: Help Businesses Focused on Improving Our Community

By Steve Coleman, Partner, Platinum Group All of us are living different priorities today. Wise observers say we are experiencing in this pandemic what would have normally taken ten years to change. My personal awareness of what it means to live out a core value – do the right thing – has been sling-shotted into a top priority for 2021, no longer an idea of […]

Take Time to Reflect, Monthly

By Bill English, Partner After talking with a CEO friend of mine this week, she thanked me for asking the questions I raised. They made her stop and think, and then explain what she accomplished last year and what’s in front of her to achieve in 2021. I didn’t ask profound questions. She was thankful for the opportunity to stop working, think, and then articulate […]

Benefits of a Common Family Vision

By Tom Hubler, Executive Consultant This article is Part 4 of a continuing series about the delicate issues among family businesses. Part 1 discussed financial vs. emotional equity and this article deals with trust and gratitude, which are necessary for emotional equity. Part 2 described family business challenges relating to trust and gratitude. Part 3 addressed the essential need for family meetings to balance the boundary between business […]

Give More by Giving Wisely

By Randy Kroll, Partner It’s that most wonderful time of the year, a time to exercise abundant generosity in gift giving within our families, to our friends and neighbors, and especially, to community organizations that help those facing life crises or challenges. But hold off on contributing to your favorite charities until you consider this approach for making what could be the biggest and boldest […]

Family Meetings: Balance the Boundary Between Business and Family

By Tom Hubler, Executive Consultant This article is Part 3 of a continuing series about the delicate issues among family businesses. Part 1 discussed financial vs. emotional equity and this article deals with trust and gratitude, which are necessary for emotional equity. Part 2 described family business challenges relating to trust and gratitude. Family meetings are essential Family meetings are intended to balance the boundary […]

Responding to Unforeseen Business Challenges: Blizzard, Winter, Ice Age

By Steve Coleman, Partner Two months into this pandemic shutdown, I was included in a Zoom offering new perspectives on how to make our way through challenges not seen in our lifetime. Evercore Wealth Management invited clients and family business advisors across the country to participate in a webinar that turned out to be disturbing, then challenging, then encouraging in ways to address this uninvited […]

Economic Conditions Are Improving, At Least for Now

By Dale Kurschner, Executive Consultant U.S. commercial Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings through September outpaced the number filed in all of 2019. And the 747 filings made that month represented a 77 percent increase from the same period a year earlier, according to AACER court data. Yet Minnesota’s economy appears to be rebounding quite well from the depths of the Covid-19 recession earlier this year, based […]

Family Business Challenges: Trust and Gratitude

By Tom Hubler, Executive Consultant This article is Part 2 of a continuing series about the delicate issues among family businesses. Part 1 discussed financial vs. emotional equity and this article deals with trust and gratitude, which are necessary for emotional equity. Trust Builds Emotional Equity When family members do not trust each other, everything suffers. Trust does not come automatically in a family. It […]

3 CEOs Share How They’re Leading During the Pandemic

By Dale Kurschner, Platinum Group Minnesota CEOs have had to rapidly adjust to new ways of operating their businesses, including leading employees and serving clients during one of the most intensely uncertain times in U.S. history. In May, “One Take CEO Interviews” was launched to discuss (via Zoom) how they were dealing with the Pandemic and planning for the future. Since then 14 episodes have […]

The Bottom line in Family Businesses: Financial vs. Emotional Equity

By Tom Hubler, Executive Consultant The entrepreneurial spirit flourishes in today’s society. People want their own business – for the freedom, for higher earning potential; or because they have a great idea, because they are the next generation. And people who have their own business naturally bring along their families. Even family members who do not work in the business are still part of it […]