What would happen to and within your business or practice in the event of some unexpected emergency or disaster? Can you quantify your risk? Do you know what kind of internal or external threats could cripple your company?

What kind of emergency could cripple your company?

For the past couple of weeks many people have been watching the news coming from AIG. For investors, the recent news has been mixed: a significant sale of a division that could enable the company to pay back much of its remaining debt to the U.S. Government and the word that CEO Robert Benmosche has been diagnosed with cancer.

We have been referring to American studies of family businesses for months. Most were consistent in finding that about 60% of family owned businesses have no succession plan in place. The more recent study by PriceWaterhouseCoopers demonstrates that this is neither an American phenomenon nor a listing ship that is making progress righting itself.

It appears that the Buffalo Bills are teetering on the edge of catastrophe. A recent article in The Street points out that Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. (owner of the Bills) is now 91 years old and without a succession plan. What is he thinking?