The vast majority of businesses operating in the Western world’s free economies are actually Family Businesses… up to 90%!! Surprised? Not only, but did you know that 86% of new job creation in the U.S. over the past twenty years has been attributable to Family Businesses? Or that Family Businesses account for between 64% and 75% of all Western nations’ GDPs? Yes, it is Family Business that makes the world go round!
And no business has a story to share like a Family Business… just ask brandstory.
For more than twenty years now, brandstory has been in the business of developing the multi-functional Strategic Brand Story™ business tool for its clients - many of whom are, of course, Family Businesses, both large and small. And, yes, we can testify that there is no story as potentially motivating as a Family Business story.
Not because other types of businesses don’t have important story potential themselves (because they do – as every company, every organization, every institution, every brand has its own unique Strategic Brand Story™ waiting to be unearthed, developed and shared!)… but a Family Business – especially a small to medium-sized Family Business – has a particular advantage vs non-family-owned businesses when it comes to having its own unique, differentiating and motivating story to share!
And yet… even if, as implied above, small-to-medium-sized Family Businesses are actually the backbone of the Western world’s economy (especially in Italy!)… and yet… only 13% of Family Businesses actually “survive” into their third generation!!!??? Serious food for thought.
Family Businesses? Special challenges for special circumstances. A Strategic Brand Story™, anyone?
A relevant anecdote or two? For many years, brandstory’s Co-Founding Partner has taught a focused university course on “Leadership in Family Business” (where the majority of his students were actually members of a Family Business!)… and at one point in his career he was also recruited as a “nonfamily-member” Managing Director for the U.S. subsidiary of an Italian family-owned, family-run business. Yes, many hard-learned Family Business lessons were absorbed in the trenches!
And both anecdotes can contribute meaningfully to brandstory’s innovative and insightful approach to the development of a meaningful Strategic Brand Story™ for any Family Business!