1. Draw from the lecture “Strategy in the Family Business” and develop a SWOT analysis for The Woodville Republican (only bullet points, please!). In the SWOT, would you view the family’s involvement in the business to be a strength or a weakness?
2. What role does Elise “Lili” Lewis play in the family business? Describe the role that Lili adopted as the CEO Spouse. Is Lili in her role as CEO spouse an asset or a liability for The Woodville Republican (TWR)?
3. Does Andy Lewis possess the appropriate knowledge, skills and abilities for the job of editor and publisher of TWR? List and discuss his key strengths. Assess Andy’s level of family-firm commitment relative to all four bases of commitment discussed in class.
4. Case Exhibit 5 provides profiles of Andy’s three daughters. Based upon the information in Exhibit 5 and other information in the case, do you see that any of Andy’s daughters would be inclined to join TWR? Explain your reasoning.
5. Help Andy convince his daughters to join the family business! What are the personal advantages for family employees to work in a family business such as TWR? There are several negatives and disadvantages mentioned in the case that may discourage his daughters to join. What are they? Why would you recommend Andy Lewis to avoid forcing any of his daughters to join the family business?
6. Why does Andy Lewis not have a succession plan in place?
7. In the table below, there are several alternatives listed that Andy Lewis could pursue to move forward. For each alternative, identify and discuss the potential advantages (positives) and disadvantages (negatives).
| Alternative | Potential Advantage/Positives | Potential Disadvantages/Negatives |
| Taking little or no action and letting things go naturally as they have been | ||
| Strongly encouraging his daughters to join the family businesses immediately | ||
| Bringing in a non-family editor to serve as a bridge until a family member may be ready to take over | ||
| Selling the paper and the insurance agency to someone outside the family | ||
| Growing the paper electronically and expanding coverage of the newspaper beyond Woodville |
8. If Andy Lewis decides to look for a successor, who, besides his daughters, could follow him in his leadership role at TWR? Where should he “hunt” for a potential successor? What qualities and qualifications should the successor ideally have? Develop a successor profile (bullet point format, please)!
9. Discuss the positive and negative effects of Andy’s involvement in the family-owned insurance agency on his role as publisher and editor of TWR.
10. Draw from the Socio-Emotional Wealth (SEW) perspective and discuss the differences in the level of “affective endowment (i.e. the non-financial rewards)” that TWR provides for Andy and Lili versus the members of the fifth generation (i.e. the three daughters).
11. One of Andy’s alternatives is to sell TWR. Who would be the best buyer for TWR (aside from financial considerations)? Help Andy to formulate a sales pitch for TWR! What would be the key selling point? In other words, what would you consider to be the most strategically relevant resource(s) of this enterprise as it evolved over the generations?
12. Let’s assume Andy decides to sell TWR to an outsider. What is the value of TWR? Refer to the income statement provided in Case Exhibit 3. Calculate a conservative estimate of the value of TWR with the discounted future earnings approach for 10 years of Cash Flow. Assume that the rate of return on a similar risk investment is 15 percent (this is the WACC: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/w/wacc.asp). Assume that there will be no earnings growth for the next 10 years (although the income statement shows a net income increase since 2009). Use https://www.mortgagecalculator.org/calcs/business-valuation.php (or your accounting and/or finance textbook and/or if you have not taken accounting or finance do your own research for the formula) for your calculations. Again, your estimate should be a conservative low-end figure.
