Manama: A Global Family Business Report from KPMG Private Enterprise and the STEP Project Global Consortium reveals that the sustained performance of family businesses can be attributed to several characteristics and next-generation leadership skills unique to their business models.
“The regenerative power of family businesses – Transgenerational entrepreneurship”, brings together insights from 2,439 CEOs and other leaders from top family businesses across 70 countries and territories, illustrating the common factors that make up the formula for family business resilience and regeneration: a strong entrepreneurial orientation, emotional attachment to their business and ambitious next-generation leadership seeking new experiences beyond the family business.
“Family businesses in Bahrain represent a significant part of the local economy, and therefore the success of such companies will contribute positively on the local marketplace. According to the report findings, the emotional attachment to one’s organization and the ability of next generations to take risks and experience life outside the family business are critical elements of future business success. Maintaining and accumulating socioemotional wealth is an important part of a family firm’s success. The level of socioemotional wealth can change as family firms transition from one generation to the next, which is precisely the time to ensure the family’s control and influence, identification and emotional attachment to the firm are transitioned as well,” Harish Gopinath, Partner and Head of KPMG Enterprise at KPMG in Bahrain, said.
Among the top findings of the report: Next-generation successors are setting out on other career paths before returning to the family business, often using small amounts of family capital to help them learn and take risks. This approach is ultimately shown to be a contributor of long-term outperformance among the cohort of family businesses surveyed in the report.
Potential next-generation successors are being educated on how to take calculated risks on their own, which speaks to one of three key elements that today’s family businesses are relying on for success: entrepreneurial orientation. The KPMG Private Enterprise and STEP Project Global Consortium report found that the main keys family businesses are using to unlock their regenerative capabilities.
The report also found that a family business’s leadership style can influence its performance. Based on inputs from the survey respondents, KPMG Private Enterprise and The STEP Project Global Consortium developed profiles of four family business types — from top performers to the most underperforming businesses — highlighting factors that have contributed to their regenerative power and financial, family and social results from generation to generation.
