KPMG has released results from a survey of nearly 600 family businesses throughout Australia. The survey report, entitled 2013 Family Business Survey, was produced in collaboration with Family Business Australia and the University of Adelaide’s Family Business Education and Research Group (FBERG). A key finding of the survey was that the majority of family firms felt they outperformed their key competitors in a range of areas, including product and service quality, and innovation and growth. However, “balancing of family and business issues” was seen to be the biggest challenge, followed by “maintaining family control of the business”, then “preparing and training a successor”. In relation to business continuity planning, the survey noted, as a particular concern, the unpreparedness of those intending to enact succession in less than 5 years. Of these firms, around 25% had no retirement plan or plan for preparing/training a successor, while one-third had no plan for how ownership will be transferred. The report is available on the KPMG website.
[LTN 180, 17/9/13]