business header graphic

Leadership Development...
is the key to 21st. Century Success in business. Harness the power of your peers to help you develop your employees, managers & successors!
D-I-Y Strategic Planning...
allows you to make strategic decisions about your company's direction every time - all with the help of your peers!
You'll Make Better Decisions...
when your ideas are challenged and your assumptions tested, continually and strategically - by a caring group of your peers!

Cargill, One Of The Largest Companies On The Planet, Is A Privately Owned Company!
By Kenneth R. Blankenship
This is no home based business, at least not for the last 100 or so years. It started out as a home because it mission was to serve farmers and that's where farmers have their busineses.

Because I am interested in what people are saying about the universe of privately held and family owned businesses I read several lists of the largest privately held companies in the United States when they are published each year.

It is very possible that you've never heard of Cargill, depending on where you live and what you're interested in. The point is these huge companies, that look like their Fortune 500 cousins, are in fact far more numerous than those listed publicly on all the stock exchanges.

If you're like most people it probably didn't occur to you that Cargill is owned by the family, like yours, and not the general public. It's not the sort of company you would think of as a family business, but neither are Sinclair Oil, Gulf Oil, or Gulf States

Article continues...

The New Customers Are In Town
Today's customers are increasingly demanding, in Asia as elsewhere in the world. Henry Astorga describes the complex reality faced by today's marketers, which includes much higher expectations than we have been used to. Today's customers want performance, and they want it now!
Bridge Story - A Tale of Two Dragon Cities
For first time visitors to China, one of the most stunning entry points is Shanghai. The view from the mouth of the Yangze River, which looks out over Shanghai and other cities, reveals an incredible urban and industrial panorama, clearly one of the most rapidly developing areas among all the cities of the world. And yet . . . The Chinese have described themselves as "A plate of scattered sand grains" that would never join or unite with each other. Piset, in his latest Awakening Dragon column, tells the story of Two Bridges to illustrate just some of the underlying dynamics of China's explosive economic growth.


Toyota examples you would use to describe a family business. They and the millions of other family owned companies account for almost two thirds of our GNP.

There is a lot to be learned by studying companies like Cargill to find out what they are doing that keeps them ahead of their competitors. What they're doing that you too can do.

From what I have seen, companies like Cargill are masters at self-promotion, perhaps we have not heard much about them but if you check out their web site you'll see links to articles written about them and every other PR strategy possible.

But they have dozens if not hundreds of people helping them with their publicity, something you can not duplicate - or can you?

The simple answer is yes, you can. You can harness the power and reach of your profile, your web site, our web sites, and the search engines - by simply writing (or getting someone to write) your company story and we will publish it, completely free.

Every owner, including me, is looking for free publicity.

Back in 1999, in order to demonstrate that we understand our audience of family owners, we painstakingly interviewed almost one hundred clients and other leaders and then published their success stories on our web site.

What happened next was a huge windfall for both the folks we'd interviewed and us. The search engines picked up the stories from our web site and from the links to the stories on the web sites of businesses we'd profiled.

The result was new inquiries for the people we wrote about, free money for them from that day forward till today.

For us, we still get a lot of visitors each day, people reading those stories on our web site before clicking the link to find out more from the company's web site itself. My question to you is, how would you like to get free search engine traffic, more visitors, and new customers? If the answer is yes, we have created a simple template so you can post your story on our high traffic we site.

Take five minutes and read the simple instructions for telling your company's story to millions of prospects, customers, and competitors!


Kenny Blankenship is an experienced family business consultant and business coach who specialized in helping business owners and farmers understand the power of effective communications and marketing. He knows that the above company success story is fascinating to read, but not directly relevant to most people, he is asking you to take a few minutes and tell the world about your company! Click here for the simple instructions and announce your family company to the world - what makes it special!

Here are some more business articles...

Knowing The Types And Sources Of Business Opportunities
By Mario Churchill
Contrary to popular opinion, business opportunities abound in all kinds of economies; you just have to know where to look for it. And sometimes, you should consider creating business opportunities Read more...
How To Find A Profitable Australian Business Opportunity
By Jim A. McDonald
All large business enterprises must have started with a simple business opportunity. Starting a business in Australia is almost the same as starting a business anywhere else – you’ve got to comply Read more...
Taking Your Business To The Next Level – When Is It Time To Move Out Of Your Home?
By Yvonne Weld
The best indicator you have a thriving business is that your home office is no longer the best alternative for your business. For many just starting out, running your business from home is a Read more...
C&S Wholesale Grocers, The Huge Wholesale Grocery Company, Is A family Business!
By Kenneth R. Blankenship
Are you interested in business success stories, especially those of mom and pop family businesses? Well about every company of the planet started life as a small home business, a real mom and Read more...
An enterprise, commercial entity, or firm in either the private or public sector, concerned with providing products or services to satisfy customer requirements.


business news: