Craftsmanship, though hard to define, is immediately discernable. It is the intricate detail of a rare object fashioned with the type of intuitive skill that only experience can produce. It is the hand tools, impacting materials perfectly, cutting through the silence of a shop or studio where generations work and techniques are inherited. It was, until very recently, the way in which humans made almost all things enduring.
The advent of mass production, however, coupled with our insatiable appetite for readily available consumer goods, means that these rarefied objects are becoming rarer still. Craftsmanship companies are in danger. That said, there are those firms, many of them owned and operated by families, who have found the balance between tradition and innovation, where craft is thriving. We’re kicking off our Spring 2019 issue with a Special Feature exploring the legacy of craftsmanship in family business.
In this issue we have family business stories and contributions from Lebanon, Canada, Japan, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, the US, Egypt, Taiwan and the UK as well as an examination of nepotism in three parts.