Business relationships: excecutives and experts talk about what makes family-owned businesses a different breed.

• Position: FAMILY BUSINESS ROUND TABLE - Interview

Stewardship, conflict resolution, adaptation, These are consistent themes when discussing family business Even the most successful, face challenges but the difference is how they deal with them. Discussing how their companies have done so were key executives of this year's North Carolina family Business of' the Year Award winners Cliff Birth president of Waxhaw based Birch Brothers southern Inc.: Jim Griffith, president of Charlotte-based Griffith Real Estate Services Co.; Mike Ziebell, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Goldsboro-based pate Dawson Co.; and Jennifer Sexton, director of operations of Charlotte-based Partners in Care LLC, and her brother, then, Matt Olin, the company's business manager. Offering expert insight were Kathy Baker; director of the Wake Forest University Family Business Center in Winston-Salem, which hotels the annual competition; and Charlotte Office President Chris Cecil and, Senior Partner Steve Salley of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.-based GensSpring Famliy offices, which sponsored and hosted the panel. BUSINESS North Carolina Publisher Ben Kinney moderated the discussion. Following is a transcript, edited for brevity and clarity.

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How has being a family business contributed to your company's success.

Olin: I think a big part can be attributed to the family sensibility that we bring. When we meet a potential client, it is usually a family member or members who serve as sort of the spokespersons for the family and are trying to negotiate through a difficult time, a difficult situation. Since we've been through these situations with our own grandparents, Mom's mom and dad, we're able to bring that sensibility--and understanding--to their situations and help them figure out how to take that next step.

Birch: Something that's contributed to our success has been that the people running the business have never been afraid to look at new things--new technologies and ways to branch out. When the business came over from England, the two brothers here were in engineering services. They did plant design and things like that and happened to get into selling the equipment that went into them. That's happened through every generation--sometimes it's marketing, sometimes it's been technology, sometimes it's been diversity of applications for the things we build. But that's been probably the strongest thing that's kept the place successful and moving forward.

Ziebell: We've adapted from a retailer co grocery wholesaler to a restaurant wholesaler. But also it's due to the way we treat our customers. We were talking customer intimacy long before it was a buzzword. It's not just ownership but stewardship of the company--initiative, whole-person servant leadership, which is very important to us, change, commitment to goal achievement, communication, growth, learning, superior performance and teamwork. Those are our core values that help us be successful.

Griffith: I'm very big on putting family businesses in good systems because it does tend to improve behavior when they are a part of the process.

Salley: In all the family businesses that we work with, we have tried to pull...