Ranked #1 in the World
Patient family ownership matters in times of crisis
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
By Ernesto Poza, Thunderbird Professor
What do Wal-Mart, S.C. Johnson, Hallmark Cards, Grupos Femsa, Bimbo and Cemex (Mexico), Hermès (France), Salvatore Ferragamo (Italy), Bacardí (Puerto Rico), BMW (Germany), LG Electronics (Korea) and Zara (Spain) have in common? For one thing, they are all family-owned or family-controlled businesses. All of them have proud entrepreneurial traditions, and many of them confound management experts by continuing to enjoy success after several generations of ownership by the founding entrepreneurial family. And this in an era when, according to a recent Bain and Company study, the lifespan of the average U.S. corporation has shrunk to 14 years.
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