Watching New Economy starlets like Amazon steal all the headlines, it would be easy to assume family empires are a dying breed, rapidly being replaced by corporations where meritocracy rules, capital runs free, ownership is traded swiftly and the financials are posted for all to see. Not quite. The family-controlled firm remains at the heart [...]

The role of the family business leader depends on the background of the family, its structure and the conditions under which he assumes that role. Someone who becomes the leader during times when the family and its business is struggling may face very different kinds of challenges than one who becomes a leader in a [...]

The concept of family togetherness has changed considerably in the Indian context in the past few decades. India was a largely holistic society in which people lived in large joint families. They shared their roof, wealth, occupation and emotions with all other members of the family. The family was always held together by its trusted [...]

Statistics show that family businesses employ about 80% of the labor market. Although it may be difficult to distinguish family from nonfamily businesses, in Asia (as in the rest of the world) businesses are predominantly family-owned. The character of a business changes when professionals come aboard and are given greater autonomy than family members to [...]

In study done by the Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family Enterprise at the Indian School of Business, significant trends in transition in family businesses were noticed. Leadership in family business seems to be undergoing a phenomenal change. While earlier it was autocratic, now it is gradually becoming participative. The younger generation is joining the family [...]

Singularity, the private investment office of the Nigerian-based Dawlish family, is one of a handful of family offices based in Africa that’s investing directly in the continent’s vibrant startups. Since it was set up three years ago, Singularity has made more than 14 direct investments, with a number of these in Africa or connected to [...]

It is very difficult to generalise and say that dynastic succession is bad for family firms. In the end, firms that are well-governed and professionally managed, irrespective of being family-managed or not, are the ones that are sustainable. It is easier for the incumbent family business leader to appoint someone from the family as his [...]

It's our belief that a significant percentage of family business failures are a byproduct of families and their advisers having given comparatively much less attention to the antecedent imperative to succession planning- employment planning. Without thoughtful employment planning, families increase the risk of succession planning failures for a variety of reasons, including the possibility that [...]

PwC conducted in-depth conversations with 35 next gens from 21 countries and polled more than 100 additional next gens for its new report, Same passion, different paths: How the next generation of family business leaders are making their mark. ​ The results showed an incoming generation of family business leaders confronting generational gaps and culture [...]

Indian family businesses flourished and contributed significantly to the growth of the economy in the post liberalisation era   A study conducted by the Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family Enterprise at the Indian School of Business (ISB) reveals that liberalisation led to the rise of Standalone Family Firms (SFFs) in India and they were the [...]