Succeeding Generations

Introduction

BUILDING a successful business takes an enormous amount of energy, talent, hard work—and luck. Indeed, research suggests that the vast majority of startup ventures fail within the first five years.¹ Founders face formidable odds and must be relentlessly determined. Small wonder that those who succeed, through years of effort, are treated as heroes by their families and their communities.

Every successful business is, in a way, a small miracle. Family companies that are successfully passed down from one generation to another and continue to thrive represent an even greater achievement. The low survival rate of family firms is well known. Less than 30 percent of family firms last into the second generation and, of these, only about ...