What to Consider Before Taking a Job at a Family-Owned Business

Kellogg Insight Article

July 2022

Perhaps you envision sordid scenes from the HBO drama Succession, where conniving and backstabbing are the rule of the day. Or perhaps you picture a small, regionally focused firm mired in the past, clinging to the vision of a long-deceased founder.

These perceptions don't always mirror reality, says Jennifer Pendergast, a clinical professor at Kellogg and the Executive Director of the John L. Ward Center for Family Enterprises.

For one thing, family businesses are hardly niche. In the U.S., over 32 million family businesses employ 83 million people - 59 percent of the private-sector workforce. And far from being mired in an unprofitable past, family businesses can actually offer superior financial returns, particularly in down markets. More recently, the financial picture has been even brighter: an analysis from Credit Suisse finds that since 2006, the top 1,000 family firms have achieved higher growth, profitability, and return on equity than a benchmark set of nonfamily firms.

Of course, not everything is rosy at family firms...

Click here to read the article on the Kellogg Insight website.