Family Business

Self-Assessment

Family firms, even if often underestimated, are the backbone of the worldwide economy: it is estimated that in U.S. and Canada, the 90 percent of all the businesses are family-owned and the majority of the world’s most successful medium-sized companies are also family firms1. They employ the 48 percent of the work force and produce the 50 percent of the total GDP2. The reasons of the success of this type of business are numerous and different but it is crucial to understand that, the most of the time, it is the family itself the key factor which defines the outcome of the company. Family and business are tightly interconnected and have clear effects on each others, as the first is a precondition of the other: family has influence on the firm’s vision, behaviors, perpetuation, and growth. The dynamics inside the family shape the ones inside the business and it is easy to visualize the opportunities that this added value can create in a working environment: sharing the same values, entrepreneurial culture, mission and beliefs, having a common goal and a long-term commitment can really make the difference in the management of a business. These internal features create something that is perceived also externally, something unique that non-family businesses simply cannot replicate: that feeling of integrity and commitment, that confidence that costumers have in a family name and in a person, that sense of personal involvement. In particular in Asia, family names act as a guarantee of honesty for fellow businesspeople and quality for consumers, and family ties allowed businesspeople to operate across countries and regions. Furthermore, family managers feel a stronger sense of responsibility to create jobs, and will make more strenuous efforts than other companies to keep their staff, even during tough times. This