10 Reasons Why…

What happens when your co-founder is your father? Entrepreneurs explain the best and worst parts of running a family business--and how mom always gets called in to settle disputes.In 1997, Steve Heinz decided to sell the business that he had founded 17 years earlier, EnergyCAP, which makes software for managing utility bills.The buyer? Enron.Five years later, after Enron had gone belly-up, Steve rescued the business from bankruptcy court."I picked up the pieces of my business, so to speak,” he says.

A little friendly rivalry can boost employee performance. But if you don't handle contests carefully, they can backfire. Whether on a sales team or anywhere else in an organization, reward programs and contests are supposed to motivate each member of a team to perform at the top of his or her game.But I’ve seen situations—even in large, sophisticated companies—where the program becomes a hotbed of resentment and frustration.If you want your award program to promote achievement and team morale while taking you closer to your corporate goals, follow these five rules.1. Announce the Program Well in AdvanceIt’s amazing how many companies wait until mid-year to announce an award program that, by then, has been going on for months, unbeknownst to the team