Family businesses
Author
Discussion

Franco5

Original Poster:

444 posts

76 months

Tuesday 2nd September
quotequote all
Family businesses.

Most people think they are a good thing and plenty of adverts trumpet “{Insert Company Name} a family business”

In my experience the reality is that by they are terrible.

Mostly run by completely inappropriate people who wouldn’t have the opportunity to be in senior positions without the obligatory nepotism.

No innovation. No vision. Not much in the way of strategy.

No wonder they say that most family businesses don’t survive later generations.

Ham_and_Jam

3,143 posts

114 months

Tuesday 2nd September
quotequote all
OK

Mick Dastardly

282 posts

41 months

Tuesday 2nd September
quotequote all
The missus and I have owned a couple of small businesses for 20 odd years with currently 22 employees.

For the last 15 we’ve just overseen them from a hands off perspective so we could enjoy life without the daily grind, and we’ve great managers (our daughter in law does the finance/admin side brilliantly in both) who run them for us and will conservatively make £250k profit for us this year.

Not a humblebrag, just an indication that the OP is mostly talking complete bks.


Edited by Mick Dastardly on Tuesday 2nd September 20:22

Wacky Racer

39,992 posts

264 months

Tuesday 2nd September
quotequote all
A massive overgeneralization.

Plenty of examples of younger family members taking a business forward,

Morrisons,

Morgan Sportscars,

Tom Hartley Jnr.

JCB,






StevieBee

14,317 posts

272 months

Tuesday 2nd September
quotequote all
Wacky Racer said:
A massive overgeneralization.

Plenty of examples of younger family members taking a business forward,

Morrisons,

Morgan Sportscars,

Tom Hartley Jnr.

JCB,
Ford. I believe the Ford family remain the biggest shareholders.

Asda (well, Walmart to be precise).

IKEA...


But I do recognise that smaller family run SMEs can be a different kettle of fish.




Terminator X

18,048 posts

221 months

Tuesday 2nd September
quotequote all
Wow quite a sweeping statement!

TX.

m3jappa

6,765 posts

235 months

Tuesday 2nd September
quotequote all
From the few I have seen they seem to do very well indeed.

The difference I can see is a collective mindset to achieve success.

One friend I have took over the dad's business and is in a relatively short space of time a multi millionaire and by his dad's own admission his son 'made him a wealthy man' . they were quite well off before but now is next level.

Have seen others as well, one place I go is 100 years old and thriving more than ever. Decent owner as well!

borcy

8,076 posts

73 months

Tuesday 2nd September
quotequote all
I've only seen it from that bad side, people in charge you trust to go the shop for a packet of peas ending up being in charge through marriage or dna.

They'll be some decent small family companies though.

Abc321

825 posts

112 months

Tuesday 2nd September
quotequote all
StevieBee said:
Wacky Racer said:
A massive overgeneralization.

Plenty of examples of younger family members taking a business forward,

Morrisons,

Morgan Sportscars,

Tom Hartley Jnr.

JCB,
Ford. I believe the Ford family remain the biggest shareholders.

Asda (well, Walmart to be precise).

IKEA...


But I do recognise that smaller family run SMEs can be a different kettle of fish.
Bet365 - Denise Coates daughter of Mr Coates (his name escapes me, its late) had the innovation to take gambling online through the dot com era and changed the industry. I believe it is now the largest private company in the UK? So she definitely did something right.


RicksAlfas

14,111 posts

261 months

Wednesday
quotequote all
From the House of Commons library:
"Oxford Economics estimates that there were 4.8 million family businesses in the UK in 2020, making up 85.9% of all private sector businesses. These businesses employed 13.9 million workers (51.5% of all private sector employment) and contributed £575 billion to the UK economy."

So some of them must be doing something ok. However if the current government push ahead with their IHT plans, Franco5 might get his chance!

The Grouch

5,870 posts

179 months

Wednesday
quotequote all
Franco5 said:
Family businesses.

Most people think they are a good thing and plenty of adverts trumpet “{Insert Company Name} a family business”

In my experience the reality is that by they are terrible.

Mostly run by completely inappropriate people who wouldn’t have the opportunity to be in senior positions without the obligatory nepotism.

No innovation. No vision. Not much in the way of strategy.

No wonder they say that most family businesses don’t survive later generations.
Go on then, tell us which member of the family has upset you. I bet they are a lot younger than you too, hence the bitterness.

Joscal

2,397 posts

217 months

Wednesday
quotequote all
RicksAlfas said:
From the House of Commons library:
"Oxford Economics estimates that there were 4.8 million family businesses in the UK in 2020, making up 85.9% of all private sector businesses. These businesses employed 13.9 million workers (51.5% of all private sector employment) and contributed £575 billion to the UK economy."

So some of them must be doing something ok. However if the current government push ahead with their IHT plans, Franco5 might get his chance!
Exactly, wait until he works for a corporate behemoth.

Countdown

45,020 posts

213 months

Wednesday
quotequote all
The Grouch said:
Franco5 said:
Family businesses.

Most people think they are a good thing and plenty of adverts trumpet “{Insert Company Name} a family business”

In my experience the reality is that by they are terrible.

Mostly run by completely inappropriate people who wouldn’t have the opportunity to be in senior positions without the obligatory nepotism.

No innovation. No vision. Not much in the way of strategy.

No wonder they say that most family businesses don’t survive later generations.
Go on then, tell us which member of the family has upset you. I bet they are a lot younger than you too, hence the bitterness.
This.

Sounds like the OP works for a family firm and hates it.

Monkeylegend

27,825 posts

248 months

Wednesday
quotequote all
RicksAlfas said:
From the House of Commons library:
"Oxford Economics estimates that there were 4.8 million family businesses in the UK in 2020, making up 85.9% of all private sector businesses. These businesses employed 13.9 million workers (51.5% of all private sector employment) and contributed £575 billion to the UK economy."

So some of them must be doing something ok. However if the current government push ahead with their IHT plans, Franco5 might get his chance!
Makes you wonder how many of these 4.8 million family businesses Franco has knowledge of to make such a sweeping statement.

Venisonpie

4,204 posts

99 months

Wednesday
quotequote all
Monkeylegend said:
Makes you wonder how many of these 4.8 million family businesses Franco has knowledge of to make such a sweeping statement.
I'd guess somewhere in the region of 1.

theguvernor15

1,023 posts

120 months

Wednesday
quotequote all
I work for a family business, celebrating its 80th year this year with around 40 staff & are continuing to expand.

Much of our customer base is built upon recommendation/reputations & customer service which has been built up over that time.

I'm therefore in the camp that the OP's post doesn't hold a huge amount of merit.



997.1

106 posts

6 months

Thursday
quotequote all
I’ve seen some huge success stories and others collapse because of the issues cited by OP

zarjaz1991

3,880 posts

140 months

Thursday
quotequote all
Abc321 said:
Bet365 - Denise Coates daughter of Mr Coates (his name escapes me, its late) had the innovation to take gambling online through the dot com era and changed the industry. I believe it is now the largest private company in the UK? So she definitely did something right.
Peter Coates.

Scott

Countdown

45,020 posts

213 months

Thursday
quotequote all
997.1 said:
I’ve seen some huge success stories and others collapse because of the issues cited by OP
You could argue that the same applies to ANY business, it’s not unique to “family owned “ businesses.