DURHAM, N.H. - Whether it's due to intergenerational conflict or sibling rivalry, family members often have difficulty communicating with each other about their family business's most important issues. The University of New Hampshire Center for Family Business will assist business leaders in this critical area with the program "Effective Communication in Family Businesses: Why is it so hard?"

The program, which takes place Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2010, will help family business leaders understand how family dynamics often complicate communication within family businesses and provide guidelines for effective communication. Participants will have the opportunity to apply those guidelines through a discussion of case studies and through role playing those dynamics which commonly surface in family businesses.

It will be held at The Derryfield, 625 Mammoth Road, Manchester, NH. The event begins at 8 a.m. with a continental breakfast, with the program following at 8:30 a.m. Lunch will be served. The program ends at noon, followed by lunch.

"Since their lack of communication can interfere with making sound business decisions, it's crucial for family members to understand the root of their reluctance to communicate and to learn how to move past it," said Barbara Draper, director of the UNH Center for Family Business.

Thomas Davidow, founder of Thomas D. Davidow Associates and Genus Resources, will conduct the session. Davidow pioneered the interdisciplinary approach to family business consulting. He created a methodology to address family issues that typically interfere with sound business decision making. Davidow has more than 25 years of experience working with hundreds of national and international family controlled enterprises. He has worked with businesses in diverse fields including retail, distribution, manufacturing, real estate, construction and more.

Please register by Friday, Jan. 22, 2010. To register or become a member of the Center for Family Business, call Barbara Draper at 603-862-1107, or barbara.draper@unh.edu. The event is free for Center for Family Business members. The cost is $99 per person and $250 per family for nonmembers.

The Center for Family Business, under the UNH Whittemore School of Business and Economics and the UNH Graduate School, is sponsored by Mass Mutual Financial Group, Thomas Davidow Associates, Baker Newman & Noyes, Pierce Atwood, MPI Management Planning, Inc., and Optima Bank and Trust. It is a membership program to provide owners and managers of entrepreneurial businesses with an opportunity to exchange ideas and information and to discuss business challenges, concerns, and solutions. For more information, visit http://www.familybusiness.unh.edu/.

The University of New Hampshire, founded in 1866, is a world-class public research university with the feel of a New England liberal arts college. A land, sea, and space-grant university, UNH is the state's flagship public institution, enrolling more than 12,200 undergraduate and 2,200 graduate students.

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