At the start of a new academic year, let me first extend a warm welcome to everyone! The Chair of Family Business team is back, with our batteries fully charged and ready to continue offering you new insights and ideas to boost your firm’s performance. For my first article of 2023-24, I would like to […]
How employee incentives drive innovation in family firms
Innovation is the name of the game in today’s hypercompetitive markets: in order to survive, companies need to continuously innovate their products, processes and operations. Based on conventional wisdom, family-owned firms are at a disadvantage in this regard, with risk aversion, conservative attitudes, organizational rigidity and limited capital commonly cited as obstacles to innovation. At […]
How family firms are guiding the sustainability journey
Stakeholder capitalism has gone mainstream with the rise of the sustainability agenda. For family businesses, the fundamentals of shared value are well-known and woven throughout the family capitalism business model. As explored in the newly released KMPG report “A Road Well-Traveled,” family businesses have a unique opportunity to take a leadership role in guiding others […]
The purpose of work: when productivity becomes a religion
Guest contributor: Carolyn Chen Sociologist · Author · Professor of Ethnic Studies, University of California-Berkeley · Co-Director of the Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion Much has been written about the role of purpose in the realm of family business. But what happens when organizations take it too far? Prof. Carolyn Chen explores the […]
Succession and family vision
Succession is the most critical challenge faced by family businesses since it touches the very heart of family and firm: its foundational bricks and future legacy. It’s difficult because it affects people – predecessors and successors, the company and the owner family – as well as complex since it can impact all three different spheres […]
Other things that tend to happen in family firms
In my previous post, I highlighted two of the most common mistakes in family businesses. To avoid going on about mistakes, I’ve decided to entitle this post “Other things that often happen in family firms.” To be sure, lots of good things happen in family firms. My colleague, teacher and friend, Prof. Miguel Ángel Gallo, […]
Family enterprises are outstripping the global economy
According to the 2023 EY and University of St.Gallen Family Business Index, the largest family enterprises are growing faster than the global economy: 10% compared to the world’s 6%. Once again, the Index highlights the huge contribution of the world’s largest 500 family enterprises as a global economic driver. How the largest family enterprises are […]
Why Building Trust Benefits Your Company
Trust has been the crux of economic exchanges since the creation of the world’s first marketplaces millennia ago. While several research studies have focused on trust in bilateral relationships, less is known about its broader social and economic ramifications and the specific role of family businesses. In this Forbes article, IESE Prof. Jeroen Neckebrouck shares […]
Two of the most common mistakes made by family-owned firms
In my last post, I offered five strategies that family firms should follow if they have hopes of long-term survival. Today, the focus is on two of their most common mistakes, which can also make life much more complicated for their top leaders. (1) Bringing family members into the fold It’s not unusual for founders […]
5 strategies for a new model of family business
As Heraclitus said more than two millennia ago, “Nothing is permanent except change,” yet the very nature of change has shifted dramatically in today’s volatile, hyperconnected and fast-paced world. Family firms are generally better equipped to weather the storm thanks to their comparatively longer-term perspective and financial resilience. Yet other traits aren’t as positive, says […]
