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Brothers have nothing to wine about
Thursday 18th September 2008

by http://www.familiesinbusiness.net

Reschke Wines is based in the Coonawarra, an area renowned as being one of Australia's finest wine regions and for producing world-class red wines, particularly cabernet sauvignon. The secret lies in a marriage of Terra Rossa soil, limestone, spring water and a long, cool, grape-ripening season.

One family business is profiting from this wine-growing utopia in an unusual way. The Reschke family has a farm that has been in family hands for over a century, but today two fourth-generation family members own two different wine companies on the same estate.

In 1989, Burke Reschke and his father, Trevor, decided to expand their farm away from being entirely devoted to beef cattle. The pair set about planting the first ten acres of vines themselves, cultivating the soil and planting the grapes by hand.

Unsure of which pesticides to use, they weeded and hoed the ground, which although labour intensive, paid enormous dividends in the long-run – the grapes are unsprayed and grown to near organic standards. Reschke Wines was born.

Trevor took a 10% stake in his son's business, and Reschke Wines has gone from strength to strength. Although many would see 360 acres as a fair-sized operation, Burke insists that only the best quarter of grapes are used to make his wines, which adds to their quality and exclusivity.

The wines are stocked by top wine merchants and exclusive restaurants, including former "Best Restaurant in the World" The Fat Duck. The company's distinctive bottles can also be found at iconic UK department store Selfridges.

However, just five miles down the road from Reschke Wines' vineyard, Burke's younger brother Dru is also involved in wine, managing the Koonara Wines label. With just 20 acres of vines, it is a smaller operation than Burke's but the attention to quality is the same.

Every year since 1991, 30 cases of Koonara have been made for family and friends. In 1999, when Dru decided to sell to the public, his brother gave him some wines to help him along the way and today he continues to make a very limited number of cases. Vivienne, Burke and Dru's mother, also works for Dru.

Although the brothers keep their businesses separate, they insist there is no conflict even though they produce similar wines with the same grapes. In fact, they actually work together on many aspects of their respective vineyards.

While Burke runs his own vineyard and assists with the winemaking, Dru concentrates on marketing his wines. Burke is planning to plant another 100 acres of vines within the next two years, bringing the total area up to 460 acres. Dru is also looking to expand his business but more slowly than his brother.

Sadly Trevor passed away just three months ago, and despite being more involved in Dru's business towards the end of his life, he still acted in an advisory capacity to Burke, as well as overseeing his beloved cattle.

The success of Reschke Wines is amply illustrated by its recent sponsorship of the Hurlingham Polo Association marquee at the prestigious Cartier International Polo Day at Guards Polo Club, just outside London, where England beat Australia.

Burke has big plans for his label and you can expect to see him and his company moving from strength-to-strength in the next year.

click on family's picture above to go directly to the article's link on www.familiesinbusiness.net

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Movies on Family Dynamics and Succession Planning – Dr. Silverman recommends a viewing of the Academy award winning movie “The Lion in Winter” for a  brilliant expose of succession Planning.  This 1968 Academy Award winning movie has great performances by Katherine Hepburn, Peter O’Toole, Anthony Hopkins.  It shows many of the psychological and hidden dynamics in the succession process.

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Book Review by Dr. Marc A. Silverman

                                Sweet and Low by Rich Cohen

Family business dynamics: Are you interested in how family dynamics effect business? How family business effects families? How individual lives become infected with the family business dynamics? Rich Cohen has written a stunning account of his family's quite well known business, the Cumberland Packing Company which makes Sweet n Low, Sugar in the Raw, NuSalts and Butter Buds.

Rich is a grand storyteller and this is the story of his family. It's a colorful family that Rich traces from the Patriarch's childhood through his death. Rich paints a picture of each person's peculiarities as seen from various family members yet stays focused on the life of the business and sad life of how various family conflicts were managed and tore them apart. The author's mother was excluded from inheriting her share of the business or any family assets. How could this happen? How could a family with hundreds of millions in assets decide not to give one nickel to one of the upstanding and successful children? This is where Rich begins the story and as he writes in the end of the introduction "To be disinherited is to be set free." (p. xii)

Through reading this manuscript, you will find yourself swept into the culture of this immigrant roots of the patriarch's family who was born in New York in 1906. You will learn the character of the family members and be taken through the critical decisions both in the business and the family up to the present day.

Perhaps what's most interesting is the author's description of family dynamics. For example he writes "Betty (the wife of the patriarch) can marry well, support her mother and father, fill the world with children, and it's still not enough." He explains that as a child no matter what Betty in her family, it was not enough to raise the depression of the family circumstances and how this may have impacted her character.

Shortly after Marvin, the oldest son began working in the factory, he was given half the shares of the company. But of course there are two kinds of stock (Class A - voting stock which is where the control and power is and Class B - non-voting or common stock). Of course Marvin was given non-voting stock that way Ben (the patriarch) could give without giving. "This distribution mimics the dynamics of the family. Map the stock and you map the love." (p. 78). Was this related to what happened in 1993 where Marvin was arrested and charged with tax evasion and criminal conspiracy?

As a student and coach of family businesses for now close to twenty years. I can only say Halleluyah for an absolutely illuminating story of how families sometimes interact in business and how us professionals can help save or be a bridge for a healthy family and business.

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Family Governance and Succession Planning, presented to The Construction Executives Association in Hollywood, FL, USA on June 2nd, 2008 

http://www.constructionexecutives.org/

  Dr. Marc Silverman presented two seminars at the Young President Organization in Panama on August 28th, 2008. One entitled "The Challenge of Family Business Leadership", where he covered the various requirements Family Businesses must meet in in order to have a strong foundation for Leadership. The second seminar was entitled "Family Business Leadership - Balancing Family Business and Personal Needs".

The YPO is comprised of more then 20,000 leaders in 100 countries, YPO is the world's largest network of peers that connects memebers to exchange ideas, pursue learning and stare strategies to achieve personal growth and professional success. YPO is an invitation only membership organization.

http://www.ypo.org/

The 4th Annual Conference
Family Business & Family Office for Latin American Families, organized by the MGI, taking place on October 1st and 2nd, 2008, in the beautiful city of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Dr. Silverman is a panelist in the "Interactive Family Business Session". He will cover techniques on Resolving Conflicts in Family Business. He will also served on a Panel titled "Are the Latin American Family Businesses Ready for Family Office?"

Direct program link: http://www.mgi-direct.ch/conference/C0820-The%204th%20Annual%20FB%20&%20FO%20for%20Latin%20Amerrican%20Families-October%201%20&%202,%202008-Buenos%20AiresEM.pdf

The Private Banking Latin America Conference will take place on October 28th - 30th, 2008 at the Four Seasons Hotel, Maimi, FL USA.

Dr. Marc Silverman will present the seminar entitled "Common Reasons for Succession Failure and What to Do About It". As well as, leading an Interactive Roundtable Discussions on Family Values, Succession Planning and Family Governance.

The Private Banking conference is a three-day business event of content and networking for the Latin American private banking market, where CEOs and C-level directors of Latin American private banks, financial institutions, government departments and major fund managers gather to be inspired and put in the groundwork for future deals.

Conference link: http://www.terrapinn.com/2008/pblatam/programme.stm