Family businesses at risk as children go their own way
Family businesses are at risk of dying out as new generations decide to pursue careers elsewhere, Grant Thornton warned today.
The firm?s conclusions, found in its PRIMA International Research Report, also shows owner managers are now spending increased time working in other enterprises before joining the family firm while parents no longer automatically expect their children to come aboard.
Andrew Godfrey, Grant Thornton?s director of PRIMA, said: ?The family business world is changing and perhaps reinventing itself and advisers need to change with it. UK family businesses are increasingly being started and run by individuals with both a broader knowledge of business than even 10 years ago.?
Only 2% of UK owner managers actually intend their children to join the family business, according to the report, which surveyed 6,519 owner-managers across 16 countries and was written by Prof Sue Birley of Imperial College for Grant Thornton.
Thought to be the first piece of academic research of its kind it also 78% of owner-managers worked in other family business before joining the family company. However 73% of those surveyed admitted that the direction that their children?s career takes should be a ?personal choice?.