Asian Family Businesses: Time to Face Up to Succession

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Harvard Business Review – Asian Family Businesses: Time to Face Up to Succession

Family businesses account for over 50 percent of large corporations in the Asia-Pacific region and many will soon be facing leadership successions for the first time. Managing these transitions effectively constitutes a major challenge, write Sonny Iqbal and Jörg Ritter, co-leaders of Egon Zehnder’s global family-business advisory, and Claudio Fernández-Aráoz, a senior adviser at Egon Zehnder, in a blog entry for the Harvard Business Review. Unfortunately, cultural norms are a major barrier, note the authors. Asian family firms tend to mismanage succession either by ignoring the issue or automatically appointing children or nieces and nephews. To defuse this ticking time bomb, the authors advise Asian family firms to strengthen their governance, assess and develop top family and external talent, and to professionalize their succession practices.

Full story: Claudio Fernández-Aráoz, Sonny Iqbal and Jörg Ritter: Why Family Firms in East Asia Struggle with Succession a blog entry for the Harvard Business Review (24 March 2015).
Read more about Family Gravity and Structured CEO Succession Key Drivers to Long-Term Success of Family Businesses.