When Being a Family Business Becomes a Competitive Advantage

Managers of family businesses often feel pressured to “professionalize” their businesses, adopting the structures and behaviors of non-family businesses. However, when they take this too far, they can inadvertently destroy their most distinctive competitive advantages: the trust, long-term commitment and multigenerational relationships that naturally arise between family businesses. What researchers call family is often underestimated or treated as a weakness to be overcome, as if family involvement were a handicap rather than a strength.