Professional Documents
Culture Documents
A MarketPoint Whitepaper
America's Family
Businesses
female-owned
15%
35%
50%
1,628,837
equally male-/female-owned
Revenue Generated,
by Gender of Ownership
$415 Billion
13%
female-owned
20%
67%
1,157,291
male-owned
$629 Billion
$2,145 Billion
male-owned
equally male-/female-owned
male-owned, 15% female-owned, and the remaining half owned jointly by both males and
females (U.S. Census Bureau). And annual revenues produced by female-owned businesses
represent an even smaller share of the whole,
at 13%. But women are gaining a stronger foothold in key management positions. A study
conducted by Kennesaw State University in cooperation with Ernst & Young showed that 70%
of responding family-owned businesses were
considering a woman as their next CEO (Moran). This is remarkable, especially in contrast
to a 2014 study of the top 2,500 publicly traded
companies, which reported only 5% of all new
CEOs were women (Favaro, Karlsson and Neilson).
Family Business at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, in cooperation with Ernst & Young). The
company employs 2.2 million people worldwide
more than the next eight companies combined.
Of those employees, 1.4 million work in the U.S.
(Molla), making Wal-Marts domestic workforce almost three times larger than the U.S. Postal Service
(United States Postal Service), or approximately
the size of the U.S. Military (Global Fire Power).
RANK
1
2
3
4
5
COMPANY
Wal-Mart Stores,
Inc.
Volkswagen AG
Berkshire
Hathaway, Inc.
EXOR SpA
Ford Motor
Company
Cargill,
Incorporated
Motoren Werke AG
EST
PUBLIC
REVENUE
EMPLOYEES
1962
Public
476.3
2,200,000
1937
Public
261.6
572,800
1955
Public
182.2
330,745
1927
Public
151.1
301,441
1903
Public
146.9
181,000
1865
Private
136.7
143,000
COUNTRY
FAMILY
United
Walton
States
family
Germany
United
States
Italy
United
States
United
States
United
1940
Private
115
100,000
1916
Public
101
110,351
Germany
States
Bayerische
(BMW)
9
Schwarz Group
1930
Private
89.4
335,000
Germany
10
Groupe Auchan
1961
Private
85.5
302,500
France
Porsche
family
SHARE
50.9%
32.2%
Buffet family
34.5%
Agnelli family
51.4%
Ford family
40.0%
Cargill/
MacMillan
90.0%
family
Koch family
Quandt
family
Schwarz
family
Mulliez
family
84.0%
46.7%
100.0%
87.8%
(Center for Family Business at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, in cooperation with Ernst & Young)
One would expect these giants to skew our perception of the average family-owned business,
but they do not, because the vast majority of
family-owned businesses have annual revenues of less than $1 million. In fact, only 1% of
family-owned businesses have annual revenues
Number of
Businesses
7%
10%
12%
9%
9%
14%
15%
12%
12%
Annual
Revenues
12%
388k
9%
280k
$5,000-$9,999
14%
464k
$10,000-$24,999
12%
401k
$25,000-$49,999
12%
400k
$50,000-$99,999
15%
503k
$100,000-$249,999
9%
300k
$250,000-$499,999
7%
221k
$500,000-$999,999
10%
313k
$1,000,000 or more
eventy percent of family-owned businesses will not pass from the first to the
second generation; only 12% remain
viable into a third; and 3% will reach a
fourth (Family Business Institute). However,
among those family businesses that do achieve
longevity, CEO tenure can be quite long. Forbes
reports that the median CEO tenure of the 100
largest family-owned businesses is more than
seven years, compared to only 4.6 years in other large U.S. companies (Stadler). This longer
tenure, argues the author, gives CEOs of family
businesses more time to implement their ideas
Few Family-Owned
Businesses Make it to the
Fourth Generation
(Family Business Institute)
30%
12%
3%
last into
a second
generation
remain viable
into a third
generation
operate into
the fourth
generation
or beyond
good times and bad; they set a high bar for capital expenditures; they carry little debt; and they
retain talent longer than competitors (Kachaner, Jr. and Bloch).
Works Cited
Aileron. The Facts Of Family Business. Forbes 31 July 2013. 10 February 2016.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/aileron/2013/07/31/the-facts-of-family-business/#758b19e646e7
Baka, Jim. Protecting the Family Business Legacy. 24 September 2015. Blog. 26 February 2016. <http://tecmidwest.com/2015/09/
protecting-the-family-business-legacy/>.
Center for Family Business at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, in cooperation with Ernst & Young. Global Family Business
Index. 4 February 2016. Table. 21 March 2016. <http://familybusinessindex.com/>.
Family Business Institute. Succession Planning. 2015. Blog. 21 March 2016. <https://www.familybusinessinstitute.com/consulting/
succession-planning/>.
Favaro, Ken, Per-Ola Karlsson and Gary L. Neilson. 2014 study of CEOs, governance, and success: The value of getting CEO succession
right. 2015. Report. 21 March 2016. <http://www.strategyand.pwc.com/media/file/2014-Study-of-CEOs-Governance-and-Success.
pdf>.
Fernandez-Araoz, C., Iqbal, S., and Ritter, J. Leadership Lessons from Great Family Businesses. April 2015. 2 2 2016. <https://hbr.
org/2015/04/leadership-lessons-from-great-family-businesses>.
Global Fire Power. United States of America Military Strength. 2015. List. 21 March 2016.
http://www.globalfirepower.com/country-military-strength-detail.asp?country_id=united-states-of-america
Kachaner, Nicolas, George Stalk Jr. and Alain Bloch. What You Can Learn from Family Business. Harvard Business Review November 2012. Article. 21 March 2016. <https://hbr.org/2012/11/what-you-can-learn-from-family-business>.
Keyt, Andrew. The 4 Forces That Drive Family Business Success. Entrepreneur 9 September 2015. Article. 21 March 2016. <http://
www.entrepreneur.com/article/250416>.
Molla, Rani. The Numbers. 7 October 2014. Table. 21 March 2016. <http://blogs.wsj.com/numbers/top-employers-in-the-u-s-bynumber-of-employees-1815/>.
Moran, Gwen. Exclusive: This is the type of business most likely to promote women leaders. 18 June 2015. 21 March 2016. <http://
fortune.com/2015/06/18/family-business-women-leaders/>.
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Professionalize to optomize: US family firms are no longer winging it. 2015. Report. 21 March 2016.
<http://www.pwc.com/us/en/private-company-services/publications/assets/pwc-family-business-survey-us-2015.pdf>.
Stadler, Christian. Four Lessons Firms Can Learn From Family Businesses. 30 April 2015. Article. 21 March 2016. <http://www.
forbes.com/sites/christianstadler/2015/04/30/four-lessons-firms-can-learn-from-family-businesses/#6ca7cfd4669e>.
U.S. Census Bureau. Survey of Business Owners. 2012. Report. 21 March 2016. <https://www.census.gov/econ/sbo/getdata.html>.
United States Postal Service. Number of Postal Employees Since 1926. February 2016. Table. 21 March 2016. <https://about.usps.
com/who-we-are/postal-history/employees-since-1926.pdf>.
Zildjian Cymbals. About Zildjian: Zildjians Historical Background. n.d. 21 March 2016. <https://zildjian.com/information/
about-zildjian>.
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