The T. & A. Bata Shoe Company was founded in the late 1800s in the Czech Republic by Tomas Bata, his brother Antonin and his sister Anna. They came from a long generation of cobblers. The family-owned international business saw its tentacles spread in the [...]

It is difficult to overstate how important family businesses are. Some two-thirds of UK businesses are family-owned – 4.7 million in total. They employ more than 12 million people, approaching half of all people employed in the private sector. They generate more than a quarter [...]

With assets still predominately held by the first and second generations, the heads of most wealthy Asian families remain as key decision makers and they are often keen to stay actively involved in managing their own assets. This is despite the fact that many of [...]

Teddy Fong runs Million Dollar Baby, a $70 million children's furniture wholesaler his parents, Daniel and Maryann Fong, started in 1990. Almost three decades ago, Daniel Fong was a venture capitalist with an urge to start a company. He did some research and bought and [...]

The investment push into private companies is one of the big investment themes of the post-financial crisis, and its just getting going. This view was reinforced by what Robert Soros, the son of one of the great investment gurus of the last 50 years, George [...]

In an insightful research material by Schwartz and Bergfeld, the authors pointed to one country that seemed to challenge the third generation curse much better than others. Japan has seven out of the 10 oldest companies on the planet and also has the highest concentration [...]

It has been said that the first generation accumulates, the second preserves and the third squanders. And experienced bankers have seen their fair share of corporate family-based customers, so promising in earlier generations, lose direction or even implode when the grandchildren take over. Recognising the [...]

Joe Bauernfreund , who runs the £993 million British Empire Investment Trust, has revealed how he is investing in family holding companies to generate returns. The British Empire Investment Trust has increased its dividend for each of the past thirty years. The trust tends to [...]

Ve Interactive is the latest high profile name that serves as a reminder that many tech scale-ups have failed. There are many causes, but it shows that the short term goal of making the participators wealthy does not always pay off. A scale-up can engage [...]

There are many reasons why building a family business, is appealing. You might want build something with your children, work with family members you know and respect, as well as creating a foundation for generational wealth. There are processes you need to structure to give [...]

A family business can range from a small mom and pop business to large multi-million dollar publicly traded companies. Family businesses and their leaders often experience many of the common problems of a regular business, but also have an added layer of problems and dilemmas [...]

As much as 98 per cent of the world’s economic activity is accounted for by family businesses but for many companies, making that transition from entrepreneurship to a smoothly-run family business is difficult, says Allan Cohen, a professor in global leadership at Babson College, a [...]

Business people often have a tendency to concentrate so much on their day-to-day business that they end up losing sight of some pretty important basic matters, like their values. Values form the unconscious base of everything we do, and they impact so many of our [...]

Family office principals interviewed by Campden Wealth researchers for the new Private Equity and Co-Investing for Family Offices report, out today, said restricted access to high quality deals, limited team resources, and knowledge gaps were obstacles on direct investments. However, higher expected returns, absence of [...]

LEE Kum Kee International is a Hong Kong-based food company that manufactures oyster flavored sauce and a wide range of Chinese and Asian sauces. The brand was founded in 1888 by Lee Kum Sheung, a chef working in a small eatery that sold cooked oysters. [...]

Imagine a mom and dad at the age of 67 who own a small, but profitable bed and breakfast in New Hampshire. They want to retire soon, but their two kids aren’t interested in taking over the family business. What do they do? As the [...]

The business magazine Forbes-Middle East released the 2017 rankings for the top 100 Indian business owners in the Gulf region. The 61 year old retail magnate, Yusuff Ali M.A., Managing Director of Lulu Group International, came at the top of the list. Yusuff Ali hails [...]

The French tycoon, Vincent Bollore, aims to merge the media giant Vivendi and advertising firm Havas, the two groups that his family conglomerate controls. As per the merger plan, Vivendi offers to buy Group Bollore's 60 percent stake in Havas at a price of 9.25 [...]

Nicole Kushner Meyer, the next generation member of the Kushner properties group, invited rich Chinese investors to make investments in the group's luxury apartment complex Kushner 1, in New Jersey. She gave presentations to rich Chinese citizens and urged them to invest USD 500,000 in [...]

The 120 year old, Mumbai based Godrej Group's flagship company Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL) gets a new Chairman. The company has appointed Nisaba Godrej, Chairman Adi Godrej's younger daughter as its executive chairman. According to the succession plan, the 75 years old patriarch, Adi [...]

Two family foundations are to gift USD 25mn each to the business school of the Utah State University. The gift from the Huntsman Foundation and Charles Koch Foundation will help the school expand its faculty and increase its student scholarship offers. The money will be [...]

Moldex Composites, the carbon composites technology arm of auto components firm, Rockman Industries, has set up an office in the UK. The Gurgaon based Hero group company has made the move with an aim to enter into Europe and the USA. “We just opened an [...]

The Olayan family, which owns one of the biggest conglomerates in Saudi Arabia plans to take public a part of its business and list it on the country's Tadawul stock exchange. The group may setup a holding company for 20 of its business units that [...]

The publisher of Business Insider, Berlin based publishing and digital media firm Axel Springer SE bought a stake in the taxi service firm Uber Technologies. Though the company did not disclose the amount of stake acquired or investment made, Springer said that the stake was [...]

The Arnault family, which controls the French luxury products maker, LVMH Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy SE, announced a $13bn plan to buy the 25.9% outstanding stake of the fashion firm Christian Dior SE. With this, the Arnault family will take complete control of Christian Dior. [...]

In a 2007 article published in the New York Times, author Nora Klaver of May Day! Asking for Help in Times of Need says that asking for help “makes business sense.” Yet, it is rare that small-business owners — especially family owned businesses — will [...]

A common question for family business succession, and particularly for primary production family business, is when control of the business should be passed to the next generation, without risking the valuable assets of the business if something goes wrong. Unfortunately, it is far too common [...]

Fast-growing, mid-sized family businesses around the world have identified corporate social responsibility (CSR) as an important element for their success, according to a joint report by Citi Private Bank and UK-based family business information provider Campden Wealth Research. The report, entitled The Top 50 Global [...]

It strikes me that one of the most interesting areas of research around the world of family enterprises today is innovation. There are a number of reasons for this, but, from my perspective, two stand out. One is obvious and involves how family businesses continue [...]

Hermès and LVMH announcing record profits for 2016 suggests the French family businesses are resuscitating the moribund $1.1 trillion global luxury market despite ongoing political and economic uncertainty. Hermès Group, the French high fashion clothing and accessories manufacturer and retailer started its 180th anniversary in [...]

An oft-cited statistic is that only 30% of family businesses make it through the second generation, 10-15% through the third, and 3-5% through the fourth. These are disheartening numbers. But let’s put them in perspective. A study of 25,000 publicly traded companies from 1950 to [...]

In business, few things can be as stressful as running a company that’s staffed and managed by a mix of family and non-family employees. The constant juggling of family drama, emotions and entitlements conflicting against the needs of your non-familial staff can quickly contribute to [...]

Amid a politically uncertain landscape, the main concerns for the world’s and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s (KSA) most affluent people are wealth preservation, capital growth and succession planning, according to Knight Frank’s annual Attitudes Survey, produced exclusively for The Wealth Report. The Survey looks [...]

The concept of corporate governance was invented after the recent economic crisis that led to the bankruptcy of several European and American companies. This new concept is an integrated system based on the construction of three main pillars of direction, control and execution. There lies [...]

Could something called the Lindy Effect help to understand why family businesses often survive for so long? Possibly - but one thing is for sure, the Effect offers an intriguing explanation for why some businesses survive longer than others. The Lindy Effect says that the [...]

PwC Family Business Survey Being the ‘boss’s child’ throws up some unique challenges for the next generation of family business leaders.  There are a number of ‘gaps’ that the next generation face: the generation gap between their experience and expectations, and those of their parents’; [...]

Family businesses form the backbone of the Irish economy, accounting for more than 40 per cent of all private sector employment. The benefits of families working together, with uniquely intimate closeness and trust, have provided a foundation for a proven business model. Family business leaders [...]

Lynda Smith Swann is the president and owner of National Wholesale, a women’s apparel business, started in 1952, which is now celebrating its 65th year of business. Although Lynda grew up at National, she went into counseling after receiving her undergraduate in psychology and her [...]

Pat Menzies was 19 when he got a job at Spencer Wade shoe store in the then brand new Canterbury Arcade on Auckland's Queen Street. Just a few years later, in the early 1970s, Wade offered his employee the opportunity to take over the business, [...]

Joining a family business isn’t for everyone. It’s a risky decision that needs a lot of careful consideration. You might build a successful dynasty that grows into a Fortune 500 company, with generations of family continuing to lead the business. Or, like the vast majority [...]

The Wallenberg family’s main philanthropic vehicle, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg foundation (KAW), which celebrated its 100th anniversary this year, is the second-biggest backer of basic scientific research in Europe, having distributed SKr24bn or $2.7bn in its lifetime. As much as the foundation has done [...]

Family firms aren’t typically thought of as particularly innovative. More often, they’re viewed as risk averse, traditional, and stagnant. However, many family-owned businesses are among the most innovative in their industries. Consider Herr’s Potato Chips and Enterprise Rent-A-Car. There are countless other examples of family [...]

Shortly after Woodrow Cross founded Cross Insurance out of his family’s home in Bangor, Maine, in 1954, he sold his first insurance policy for just seven dollars. More than 60 years and nearly 115 agency acquisitions later, with roughly 800 employees and offices throughout New [...]

Gaylord’s oldest restaurant and one of the city’s most iconic businesses is temporarily closed after longtime owner Bob Doumas sold the Sugar Bowl and retired. As of 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 15, the Sugar Bowl, located at 216 W. Main St., closed. It has been [...]

According to legend, The Rockefeller Foundation coined the term ‘impact investing’ in 2007, putting a name to investments made with the intention of generating both financial return and social/environmental impact. Has the concept reached maturity nearly a decade later? Family offices around the world are [...]

Family owned corporations are subject to the same statutory requirements regarding entity governance as non-family owned businesses. Thus, in order to fully comply with the applicable statute for the state where the business is incorporated, a family business should pay attention to all provisions that [...]

Razak Dawood ’68, the chairman of Descon, a family-run power, engineering, and chemical conglomerate based in Pakistan, manages more than 14,000 multinational employees across seven countries. Dawood spoke about his own experiences and offered five crucial tips for running a successful family enterprise at Columbia [...]

If it snowed more than 7 inches on New Year’s Day, customers who had bought a fur, leather or other coat at Ribnick Luxury Outerwear in December would have been entitled to a full refund. Bill Ribnick, president of the Warehouse District business, wasn’t sweating [...]