Are Family Businesses Justifiable?

Friends, here is this week’s episode.

I find businesses fascinating and family businesses even more so. Mess up a company you were not born into–that’s rough, but, at least you won’t have to spend Thanksgiving with all the people you let down.

I honestly don’t know if I could handle that kind of responsibility, but for a long time I have been wanting to talk to someone who has taken that on. And Chappall Gage said yes. Chap is CEO of Susan Gage. 

Twenty-five years ago, he took over the business that still has his mom’s name. But it’s not clear if his kids will succeed him. In this conversation, you hear him grappling with the idea of whether they should succeed him. And he definitely does not want family money or unfair expectations to ruin their lives.

Relatedly …

Many Family Businesses Outperform

McKinsey released a study in which they said family-owned businesses account for 70% of global GDP and in general, “exhibit stronger performance than businesses that are not family owned.” I did not know this. They attribute this out-performance to nine factors.

To Provide Some Balance, Here are Two Horror Stories About Family Businesses

Patrick Radden Keefe’s book “Empire of Pain” is the story of the Sackler family, the dynasty that unleashed OxyContin on the world. It’s a grim tale wonderfully told. I hasten to add that Radden Keefe was a British Marshall Scholar, just like me. Tally-ho!

New Yorker writer John Seabrook grew up in a clan that pioneered mass production and distribution of frozen vegetables in southern New Jersey, which he describes as the northernmost part of the Deep South because of labor practices that cheated and exploited Black and Asian American workers. I wish America as a whole would account for its collective history the way Seabrook does with his family’s legacy. His book is “The Spinach King.”

Thanks for listening.