MSN recently did a story on the largest family
businesses in the world. It is an
impressive list. I must say, I was disappointed
when I started clicking through the slide show and saw how few are US
based. Spoiler alert: you will see
several toward the end.
Family owned businesses generate considerable nostalgia. We take pride in shopping at family owned
businesses. In economic development, it never fails to point out the leading
family owned businesses in the area.
Why is this?
Because it is the classic American success story. A family sees a void or has a passion and
starts a business as the result. It may grow,
establish new locations and/or products. The kids are involved and will likely
take over some day. Sometimes internal family battles get played out in the
media and that can be riveting reading.
It may even be the subject of a mini-series or feature film. It
certainly has an almost romantic feeling to it.
Enough about that.
The family owned businesses in this story run
across the world. They may be in the
first, second, or third generation of family ownership. Consider some of the challenges. For example, any non-family member will
likely never take the helm. So to hire the
best, you may also lose them to a firm who can offer the top seat. Your children know what is expected and will
likely be indoctrinated accordingly and likely at a young age. Transitioning leadership to the next generation
maybe tumultuous. Current leadership maybe
arrogant and refuse to listen to outside advisors (after all I built it, how
can I be wrong).
When I read about these companies and the accompanying
write-up, I was mightily impressed. After all, we can pick our friends, but not our family. From
my perspective, these companies instilled a company sense of values throughout
the entire organization and that carried through to future generations. The leaders of these firms navigated
extremely challenging times and events. They
adjusted their business and business model when necessary and I suspect never
sat on their laurels. Rather, they spent
considerable time thinking about how to maintain leadership in their respective
fields and listened to outside counsel.
All of the above applies to any business. But I
think family owned businesses have inherent advantages and unique challenges.
The companies in this piece have successfully navigated these challenges, so
far.
No comments:
Post a Comment