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Topic

Family Business Succession

How privately held family firms transfer leadership and authority between generations, including overlap periods and title splits.

Current stories

leadershipOne report1 publisher

China's family-run factories struggle to hand the business to the founders' children

Just 10 of 114 private Chinese firms in a University of Ningbo-led study are run by the founders' children, the Guardian reported. Founders' knowhow and supplier networks are the hardest part to pass on, so buyers of these factories face handovers that look clean only on paper.

Publishers:theguardian.com

Reality

Evidence40
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+20
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence45
investConfirmed2 publishers

Two-thirds of Korea's fourth- and fifth-generation chaebol heirs enrolled abroad as undergraduates

CEO Score counts 46 of 49 fourth- and fifth-generation chaebol heirs as educated abroad, 33 of them starting as undergraduates. With the third generation already at 78.7%, anyone judging the next owners has to look at the age at which heirs leave Korea.

Reality

Evidence62
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+8
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence60
investOne report1 publisher

Armani's will gives three preferred buyers about six months to take a 15% stake

Giorgio Armani's will allows about six months of talks to sell a 15% stake, with LVMH, L'Oréal and EssilorLuxottica named as preferred buyers. CEO Giuseppe Marsocci says the three could share it, so they may never have to bid against each other.

Publishers:fortune.com

Reality

Evidence45
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+10
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence55
leadershipOne report1 publisher

An Exit Planning Institute column puts five triggers behind half of all owner exits

The Exit Planning Institute's 5Ds framing holds that a spouse or child gets only what a founder wrote down, and the column's own remedy is a values conversation, a standing family meeting and a spoken deal about a warehouse.

Publishers:entrepreneur.com

Reality

Evidence20
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+40
Incentives78
Confidence55
leadershipOne report1 publisher

At Stew Leonard's, customers still don't recognize Stew Jr.'s successors

Blake Leonard and Jake Tavello already have the titles waiting for them, but the shoppers who stop Stew Jr. for selfies do not know their faces, and closing that gap is what the family's four-year schedule is actually for.

Reality

Evidence55
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+12
Incentives62
Confidence47