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Why does growth and value creation matter for family businesses?

Long term value creation within a family business requires careful consideration of the business� financial performance, sustainability and capacity to generate ‘good growth�.

Unplanned growth can have a disruptive effect leading to an erosion of value and potential conflict with ‘family values�.

Value creation through growth is crucial for a family business because it fosters long term sustainability and ultimately the successful transition of the business across generations. Family-owned businesses should focus on:

• effective diversification and risk management practices
• embracing innovation and a willingness to invest in new ideas and markets
• strong community engagement that enhances the business and the family’s reputation
• clear governance frameworks that assist long term strategic planning
• continuity with effective succession planning
• alignment of the business and family values.

What are the characteristics of high performing boards?

Good governance is crucial for the growth of a family business because it establishes clear decision-making processes, reduces conflicts and ensures long-term sustainability.

Our research underlined the relevance of formal boards in enhancing business performance and found that high performing businesses were more commonly large scale (more than 250 employees) as against the global sample.

We also found that the characteristics of the boards of high performing businesses included nearly one quarter of seats being occupied by non-family members and nearly one third being female.

Does high sustainability generate high performance?

For many sustainability practices are ‘business as usual� with a focus on the long term being deeply ingrained. However, developing deliberate approaches to sustainability is increasingly becoming a strategic priority for family businesses.

We found that 80% of family businesses that were positively engaged in their community, the environment, their employees and suppliers consequently displayed “High to Medium� levels of sustainability, and also reported High Performance.

Nearly 70% of High Sustainability businesses also had formal boards, 15% more than the global average.

However, work still needs to be done on measuring their impact at an environmental level with less 50% considering they were able to do so.

Is fostering growth through M&A and private equity important?

Growth capital is essential for family businesses to scale operations. It provides fuel to help scale business operations, expand into new markets, fund innovation and enter long- term strategic investment opportunities.

Increasingly, Family Businesses have recognised the opportunity to source ‘growth capital� from third parties, keen to work with family-owned enterprises such as private equity funds and other private providers of capital, like family offices.

Private Equity ‘growth capital� has the potential to add not just financial capital but the chance to ‘leverage� expertise and enhance operational performance.

For family businesses, it is important to find the right partners, understanding the value they are looking to gain from engagement and being willing to undertake ‘due diligence� on such issues as cultural fit.

Our research identified that M&A activity was becoming an increasingly important priority for family businesses. Nearly 500 of the family businesses in our survey had undertaken acquisitions in the last three years.

We measured the marginal effect on performance of M&A activity and found that on average, these businesses had a 14% higher business performance than those that had not engaged in M&A activity.

In understanding the key attributes of family businesses undertaking M&A activity we found that 63% of acquisitions were targeting family businesses and that those businesses undertaking M&A activity were:

• larger scale than the global average
• led predominantly by baby boomer CEOs
• 73% had formal boards with greater levels of independent representation.