Next-generation family businesses

Overview

We found that in today’s family businesses, a new generation is emerging with many highly qualified young men and women, often with experience in other companies and abroad, ready to face the challenges ahead, such as internationalization, innovation and digitisation – whilst maintaining the core family values of the business and respecting the legacy of the generations before.

Key findings

Challenges

The main challenges that the next generation of family business leaders face:

• To maintain the family character of the business and keep the family values alive

• To grow the company in a rapidly-changing economic and business environment

• To retain independence in ownership, although 40% of respondents do not rule out the possibility of external investors
  

In their own way

The next generation of family business leaders intend to make changes when they take over:

• 80% say that their leadership style will be different compared to the previous generation

• 56% will change the family company’s strategy

• 56% will change corporate governance structures

• 51% intend to take more risks than their predecessors, but in a more controlled way
  

Innovation

Innovation is important to the next generation:

• Top 3 priority for 76% of respondents

• 55% say that their companies innovate at a faster pace than competition

• The previous generation of family members is well aware of the need for innovation (61%) but is not so willing to take on the associated risks (40%)