Entries for August 2012

Oh, it seems like yesterday. I was ending my military duty (drafted #4) and returning back to corporate America. My employer, Procter & Gamble, kept its promise of accepting all military draftees back into its workforce. They assigned me to Detroit, MI as a sales representative in the Packaged Soap and Detergent Division (Tide, Ivory, Cheer, etc.).

It was cool to go to Detroit as it was a big Black city with a strong Black mayor, the Honorable Coleman Young. Little did I know that Motown was about to go through a blistering “white flight” that would leave the remaining people in the middle of an economic collapse. It was 1974 and Black Power and the Sexual Revolution were about to crash head on into each other.

In my role, the grocery stores were the lifeblood of our growth and development. Win the marketing support of the major grocery entities; couple that with TV and radio advertising plus couponing sales were bound to increase provided you managed shelf and display space within the grocery stores.

The biggest challenge for Chaldean family businesses is being isolated from the outside world says small business consultant Norman Haisha.  Chaldean’s work long hours, weekends, and holidays.   The incredibly long work schedule is a huge sacrifice.  Another is the boundary issue.  Chaldean business leaders are often forced to look at all family and business challenges as being intertwined.  So they’re making business decisions based on family issues and vice versa.Great Chaldean family businesses share certain traits: loyalty among the team, vigilance and competitiveness in their fields.

Those that pass successfully from one generation to the next have a sense of cohesion because, deep down, Chaldean family members really do care about each other and they can get through the hard times. They’ve found ways to manage conflict—not always resolve it, but manage it. They’ve also figured out ways to make decisions when there are differences of opinion. Yet, real pitfalls lurk.