Why are family enterprises successful?

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By Cathy-Anne O’Brien This Harvard Business Review blog on the success of family businesses got me thinking, what are the typical characteristics of these businesses that give them staying power?

Sure there are certain strategies that allow family enterprises to be successful during recessions according to this research, such as their commitment to a marketing program, launching new products, maintaining their ad spend and corporate social responsibilities, but why were they making these choices in the first place? Why are family businesses, often more than other businesses, willing to take on the risk, and not shy away from spending and staying the course?

As co-owner of BlueSky Communications with my sister Julie McCarthy, we’ve been in business for 12 years. We work together well, complement each other’s skillset and have built something we are very passionate about. And for a business to be successful, passion is key. But from my experience, it goes beyond passion.

Unlike a job you love or a company you start to build a certain lifestyle, the family business may be that much more personal.  Sure it’s about the commitment we made to employees, our families and ourselves, but it’s also about the commitment we made to each other – and being sisters, it goes beyond your typical business partnership.

BlueSky is a topic of conversation during family get-togethers, spouses are involved, parents and in-laws have opinions, our mother gets involved when there is a disagreement  – the lines of what’s professional and what’s personal have blurred in a whole new way.

Being surrounded by this level of support can be a good thing. It makes us more comfortable risk-takers. We make decisions knowing the other has our back. We hash things out around the dinner table, loudly disagree with one another in a way a business partner may never forgive – there’s more of a motive to figure things out and come to a resolution when it’s your sister. After all, you’re family.

Being raised in the same household by the same attitudes and values also plays a role in the success of the family business. Partners work well together when they are like-minded – at least when it comes to expectations for the business.

That is not to say that diversity doesn’t play a role. Dissenting opinions and challenges to the status quo can help a company grow – and just because you’re related it doesn’t mean you always have the same perspective.

But when environmental and hereditary traits are at play, there is bound to be similarities that are beneficial, such as how you think about and approach solutions; what you want out of the business must be agreed upon. Poor communications, one of the greatest sources of conflict in relationships, really isn’t an issue when you are working with someone you’ve known your whole life and you can practically finish one another’s sentences.

There’s a lot businesses can learn from family-owned companies. Identifying and emulating some of the traits that define the culture of family owned businesses, such as trust, a personal connection, having similar long-term goals, respecting and leveraging one another skills and open communications aren’t surprising findings when examining thriving businesses. But they are qualities that many family businesses often have naturally that other businesses must work hard to create.

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