Versatile leadership that promotes trust, transparency and a clear focus on business goals amid changing conditions is critical for family businesses in today’s vigorously competitive linen, uniform and facility services markets.

That was the core message that 20-plus members of TRSA’s Young Executives group heard during a July 21 seminar in Chicago led by David P. Ransburg, founder and senior adviser of the Family Business Consulting Group, Deerfield, IL. His presentation at the Allegro Hotel downtown, was titled An Uncommon Thread of Success in Family Business.

Ransburg, a former marriage counselor who grew up in his ...