Otterbine-Barebo, Inc.: Testing the Sibling Partnership
By
Henry D. Landes
Issue 2 1998
Sibling partnerships have a reputation for their roller coaster-like
interpersonal dynamics. Last June our Family Business Forum featured
the "tell it like it is" Barebo siblings who run Otterbine-Barebo,
Inc., a water quality management company in Emmaus, Pennsylvania.
The program focused on the hard-hitting dynamics of a sibling partnership.
Their ability to tell the truth, feeds the courage, commitment,
passion, respect and love they have for each other. The result is
a leadership and management balance that maximizes their talents
drawing on the best they all have to offer.
We were pleased that Family
Business magazine selected the Barebo family business story
for a major feature in their Winter 1998 edition. Congratulations
to the Barebo siblings! Complimentary copies of this article "Testing
the Sibling Partnership" (which includes the Barebos’
Eleven Commandments) are available.
"At their worst, meetings of the Barebo
siblings used to degenerate into shouting matches, won by nobody.
With the help of family business consultant, Henry Landes–jokingly
called Moses by the family–the three devised this code of
conduct they describe as the Eleven Commandments."
(Excerpt from Family
Business magazine, Winter 1998)
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