Family businesses use advisory boards as a means for the family to go beyond its inner circle and tap into more diverse experience and expertise. While many family businesses have advisory boards, most of them are not very helpful. It appears that this is a function of implementation as opposed to concept. A recent survey [...]

Recently, the Center for Family Business at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, compiled a list of the 500 largest family-run businesses. The list provides impressive evidence of the economic power and relevance of family firms across the world. The index is compiled by the Center for Family Business at the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland, [...]

In a recent article published in the Silicon Valley Business Journal, Jody Meacham, argues that most family business owners don’t have a succession plan in place. The reasons he says are varied and quite personal: “Many owners feel they’re never going to stop working, they’re too busy, children’s abilities and wishes vary from child to [...]

Family businesses account for about eighty percent of non-oil GDP within the Middle East region, according to Deloitte Consultancy. Ninety-five per cent of all companies in the region are family owned. Family businesses are not just the backbone of these economies; they also represent an important factor of social stability, being the largest employer in [...]

As per the results of a recent survey conducted by United Overseas Bank (UOB) in collaboration with Singapore Management University's Business Families Institute (BFI@SMU), most Asian family businesses see talent recruitment and development as the main challenge to securing long-term success. A total of 192 business families in seven Asian countries, namely China, Indonesia, Malaysia, [...]

At the recently concluded Family Business Conclave organized by the ISB in Mumbai, several fund managers remarked that family businesses make for easy, stable and resilient investments. However, they also cautioned that funds are wary of investing in companies run by second-generation family owners. Funds tend to treat them with a degree of skepticism until [...]

At a recent book launch President Pranab Mukherjee remarked that family and business have been interconnected for a long time. Echoing a similar thought, in a recent article on how Indian business families were adopting the Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) structure, Professor Kavil Ramachandran commented that it is not a new phenomenon. Rather it has [...]

Start-rite is a 200 year old shoemaking company based in based in Norwich England, with manufacturing bases in India and Spain. The firm was founded in 1792 and last year recorded profits of £635,000 on a turnover of £24.4 million. The company has over 180 staff. The ownership of the firm is distributed among more [...]