It is the dominant form of business structure worldwide From farmers to small mom-and-pop shops to one-third of Fortune 500 businesses, estimates are that over 80% of businesses are family-owned or controlled,. These include global icons such as Michelin, IKEA, Tata, Ford, Roche, Henkel, Heineken, Cargill, Mars, Bacardi's, Wal-Mart, Samsung, Bosch, and countless others. Family business leaders are often the best and brightest executives in their industries. They run professional, innovative, aggressive companies that expand the horizons of innovation, productivity and efficiency. Some observers believe that family firms, with their lower leverage, long-term approach and loyalty to employees point the way to a more stable kind of capitalism in the future.

Executives around the world have been caught in a storm of market collapse, corporate failures, and mass layoffs. For a great many, the forecast remains unsettled if not downright bleak. Yet if history is any guide, the majority will weather the recessionary storm. Some will actually sow the seeds of success through the adversity while a few will, unfortunately never recover...

An Interview with Robert Glegg, CEO of 2Source Manufacturing. Robert Glegg founded Glegg Water Conditioning, Inc. in 1978. Over the next two decades he built the Guelph, Ontario-based water treatment firm to a $150mm per year powerhouse before selling it to General Electric in 1999.

An Interview with Castek Founders Fay and Yung Wu - Castek Software was founded in 1990 by siblings Yung and Fay Wu, along with a third partner who exited the business in 1999. Initially funded with $60,000 in credit card debt, the partners nurtured the firm into a successful and profitable international enterprise software company, with revenues approaching $40mm, and double that in committed order backlog. The founders risked it all and raised $70mm over three major financing rounds in an effort to become the leading insurance software vendor in the market.

As headhunters scramble to match candidates with their shapeshifting clients, process and painstaking due diligence rule the day. To some candidates such rigor may feel intrusive or simply unnecessary. It shouldn't. In fact, rigor should be embraced and used to all candidates advantage. Consider the use of references as an illustration.

Several recent articles have lauded the success of Ottawa-based Bridgewater Systems. With skyrocketing revenues, a growing market, and money in the bank, the firm's prospects have never been better and the street appears to love the story. It was a much more difficult story to sell in 2003, with one notable exception.