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Article: Passing on the crown - Family business; Family businesses.(How a family firm can avoid a succession crisis)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- November 6, 2004
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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More family firms are facing up to their biggest problem: avoiding a crisis as the business passes from one generation to the next
MOST of the world's best-known companies at some point listed their shares on stockmarkets, thus opening their ownership beyond the ranks of the families that founded them. Yet even among so-called "public" companies, many remain controlled, or at least to some extent influenced, by the very same families. Indeed, the majority of businesses are family-controlled, from unsung millions of modest firms to commercial giants such as Wal-Mart, Ford, Samsung or Hyundai. One study in the mid-1990s reckoned that more than 90% of all ...