What's it all about

What is Family Succession?

Family businesses can be defined as where two or more family members work in the business and share or expect to share ownership, and intend to pass ownership on to the next generation.

Family run businesses are vital to South Australia’s continuing economic growth with around eighty percent of all Australian businesses family owned. Most don’t survive into the second generation. 

Family businesses are complicated. Not only do they need to manage the business, they must also manage social and emotional family relationships, respecting both family needs and business realities.

The generational handing on of wealth, family legacies and questions of succession, responsibility and shared values can cause real damage to the family and dissolve shared prosperity. 

Issues of inheritance, sibling recommendation, commitment, capability of the next generation mingle with the pressures of all businesses facing the demands of a global marketplace and the challenges of growth. 

Dr Jaffe believes that many of the problems facing family businesses are human matters, not legal, and that successful handing on depends on the clarity of agreements and communication, the definition of family roles and in developing individual’s sense of responsibility and leadership skills.

Adding to these internal pressures, family businesses in South Australia are also faced with some unique next generation challenges in our current economic and social climate.  Declining and ageing population and competing opportunities make the recruitment of a next generation of ownership and management difficult – if family members cannot be attracted to join the business, they must look outside of the family.  As Dr Jaffe points out, many family businesses will not be successful in that endeavour.

In order to survive and achieve the dream of passing on to the next generation, and to grow and thrive, family businesses need some unique help and support.