In cooperation with PwC and INSEAD (Wendel International Centre for Family Enterprise), we have launched a global study combining qualitative and quantitative research on the “Success Criteria for External Managers in Family Businesses”. Topics will include the selection and recruitment of top executive positions in family-owned companies and, above all, the critically important role of active onboarding during the first months of tenure.

The number of family members of the “next generation” who are willing and able to enter their family company in an operational capacity is at a record low, so that an increasing number of successions can no longer take place within the family. In addition, we see a steady trend towards the separation of management and ownership, especially in third-generation family businesses and beyond.

Many family businesses believe that they can organise the onboarding process themselves – but in reality, this is often not the case. We analyse the integration challenges, the reasons for the frequent failures, the success factors for a successful integration, and provide best practice examples for onboarding external executives into family businesses.

We are currently interviewing CEOs and owners of 60 of the largest and most important family businesses in eight countries, including a member of the Peugeot family, the CEOs of Heineken, Randstad and Lindt & Sprüngli, the Executive Chairman of Lego, or the CEO and shareholder of Pernod Ricard. The results will be published in several languages next year and presented and discussed in several countries.