Though late on the scene, standalone family firms have established themselves as formidable players This article was first published in Forbes India magazine, Issue: March 02, 2018; Authors: Kavil Ramachandran and Nupur Pavan Bang http://www.forbesindia.com/article/column/the-rise-and-rise-of-family-firms/49485/1 The year 1991 ushered in a new dawn for the Indian economy with economic reforms across sectors. The entrepreneurial spirit [...]

Family firms usually start out as simple organizations. But as they develop and grow they face greater complexities and challenges, often leading to tensions among the owning family over how they run the firm together. A common solution is to develop a family constitution outlining the values, principles and procedures that the family agrees to [...]

In family businesses, family assets are the unique and often intangible contributions that only families can bring to their firms and are essential to their identities. Long-lived family firms always need to identify and develop those unique family assets that have been sustained and enhanced by each generation of the family. However, as these firms [...]

Germany has a long culture of family-owned and privately held businesses, the so-called Mittelstand. These businesses typically have long-term growth goals and try to align commercial goals with the interests of their employees and other stakeholders, including the communities where they are located. Germans are understandably proud of their Mittelstand. The flip side of this [...]

JAB Holdings has cooled its coffee spending spree, striking a deal to buy its first cold drinks company, Dr Pepper Snapple, in a move which has bemused market commentators. Luxembourg-based JAB, which mainly controls the wealth of Germany’s Reimann family, has announced it will buy the US soft drink maker for $18.7 billion, and merge [...]

Like many family business owners, Phil Dudderidge reached the point where he wanted to take some value out of the enterprise that he had built up over more than two decades. Mr Dudderidge, executive chairman of the company, Focusrite, describes his decision to float it on Aim, the London Stock Exchange’s junior market, in late [...]

With the passage of President Donald Trump’s tax plan, family-business entrepreneurs seem to be getting a big bump in social investment and corporate growth. Yet this tax overhaul isn’t without its problems. Especially when it comes to the private-equity space, the plans to limit deductions on debt interest can actually hurt family-business entrepreneurs who rely [...]