As a child growing up in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas, nothing quite seemed to catch and hold my attention more than the nearby Schwinn shop. On Saturday afternoons, my friends and I would walk to the shopping center. While they were cruising the pet store, the Woolworth's, and eating their banana split at the DQ, I would pace in front of Mr. William's bicycle store, staring at the Black Phantoms and Sting Rays lined up in perfect order along the sidewalk. When a new bike would arrive, I was there asking if I could take it for a test ride, offering as collateral, the lame notion that "I was thinking about getting a new bike." He always smiled, and said, "sure, go ahead Jim, but don't be gone too long."

In the late 50s and early 60s Schwinn was, in my world, the only bicycle to own. For the unaware parents that bought Raleigh's or worse, a no name from Sears, they only guaranteed their kids would receive ridicule. This was a time when Schwinn was the standard for quality and controlled 25% of the American market. A time, according to Crown and Coleman, when the leadership of the family business was still in good hands.

Ignaz, a German Immigrant, with his partner Adolph Arnold formed the Arnold, Schwinn & Company in 1895 to make and sell bicycles. Ignaz, a slight man with a huge vision and appetite for work, captained the family business until he was in his 80s. His only son, Frank, known as F.W., successfully held the business reins through the American Depression and into the highly profitable 50s. F.W.'s ambition to pass the leadership to his business heir, son Edward, failed to materialize because of Edward's early death. F.W.'s other son, Frank, took the helm instead. At this point, the authors conclude, the company forever lost good family leadership which eventually resulted in the great grandson of Ignaz, Edward, Jr. steering the family business into bankruptcy in 1993.

If you are a student of family business issues, no doubt you have heard the oft-cited statistics: 66% of all family business fail during the founding generation and only 10% survive past the second generation of management. Compelling, scary, and hopefully, a call to action.

For many, business survival depends on a concept that others will want or need, effective business planning, competence and experience among the management ranks, and adequate capital. Family businesses, such as Schwinn, have the added difficulties of intergenerational issues, arrogance, jealously, conflict, and succession.

Internal family strife and competence are the primary reasons that family businesses become less competitive and less steady and move toward failure. Although the Schwinn family took action by hiring capable consultants, their eventual demise, according to the authors, was cast with family rules such as "No one but a Schwinn would ever run Schwinn" and daughters will be kept out of the business. Rarely are outside competitive market forces as powerful and debilitating to a family business as the internal family issues and beliefs.

No Hands is great storytelling with a potent message for family business. When you read this book, get ready to go back to your youth, when being cool meant having handlebar streamers, a banana seat and cards in your spokes. The difficulty of reading this business book is that too often you are likely to find yourself re-reading the same page over and over because you are lost in a dream.