Family Businesses are Facing a Skeptical Next Generation

Whenever a family business looks to its next generation on matters of succession, it can encounter four types of responses. The next generation family member could be eager and ready. Or he or she might want to get some valuable external work experience before returning to the fold. A third possibility is no urgency to get involved, knowing that the family business is always there. Finally, the family member could have little or no interest in joining the business at all. Family business leaders tell us that this last option is becoming increasingly common, as more millennial family members are balking at the thought of joining the business or being developed for a future leadership role. This can be particularly perplexing to current senior leaders since many of them, like the generations before them, typically saw the family business as their calling from an early age.