The Enduring Enterprise: How Family Businesses Thrive in Turbulent Conditions

“Leading companies... have much to learn about survival and success from family owned companies,” according to this informative guide. Business consultants DeCiantis and Lansberg (Succeeding Generations) assert that family companies use “seven building blocks of stability” to persevere amid political and economic turmoil, including entering new markets when resources become scarce and “investing in backup resources and processes for all essential systems.” Illustrating the seven tenets with real-world examples, DeCiantis and Lansberg suggest family businesses thrive by targeting “an underserved niche in conditions hostile to traditional competition,” recounting how the AJE Group, a Peruvian soft drink company, was founded in the late 1980s by the Añaños family to fill the void created after rebels opposed to multinational corporations drove Coca-Cola and Pepsi from the country. Though the authors make the fascinating argument that family businesses flourish in turbulent markets because familial relationships provide the structure and stability that’s lacking from society at large, several of the case studies indicate that cozy relationships with the state might be just as important (Japanese construction company Kongo Gumi prospered for around 1,500 years thanks to their “treasured relationships with the Imperial Court,” for instance). Still, this provides an insightful dissection of the strengths of family businesses. Agent: Hilary McMahon, Westwood Creative Artists. (Nov.)