Italian family businesses are the ones that have withstood the crisis best, that have grown the most, that have created the most employment and profitability. Provided, however, that they are less and less familiar. This is the paradox that emerges from the ninth edition of theAUB observatory on family businesses, organized by Bocconi University, presented in Milan at Palazzo Mezzanotte: “Family businesses have saved Italy”, said Bruno Pavesi, managing director of Bocconi.
But how familiar do they have to be to produce this result? Less and less, especially from the second or third generation onwards. “There is a saying in the business world – explained the professor Guido Corbetta, research coordinator – which the first generation builds, the second consolidates and the third destroys”. And it is also thanks to the growth of non-family or non-family management that the performance of family businesses remains excellent, in particular those examined by the Observatory or those with a turnover of at least 20 million (there are around 10 thousand), which represent two thirds of all companies with revenues of at least 20 million.
In fact, in the last two years, out of 253 cases of succession of an Italian family business with a turnover between 20 and 50 million, in as many as 59 cases (almost one out of four) there was a change from a family leader to a non-family leader. With unequivocal results: in the last five years, the companies analyzed by the AUB Observatory have seen employment grow by 15% against, for example, the +10% of consortia or even the negative balances of state-owned companies or branches of multinationals. More generally, in the last decade family businesses have grown by 147%, ten percentage points more than the +137% of the others, operating profitability and net profitability are significantly better, while debt is slightly lower, equal to 5% of equity, against 6% of non-family businesses.
The result is still evident in the benchmark of large companies selected by the study for further study: the top 300 family businesses with a turnover of at least 50 million are those even more prone to mixed or external management and are even more performing on internationalisation, exports and acquisitions. “Usually the third generation has problems, but this doesn't happen the bigger the company is, the more the Board is open to external figures and the more collegial the leadership, overcoming the figure of the sole director who instead still works in the more small ones”, explains Corbetta, recalling that of the 178 family businesses with a turnover of at least half a billion, only 37% are family-run, against 65% of all those with a turnover of at least 20 million.
Over a third of benchmark companies, 36%, exports at least 70% of its production, 54% operates with offices abroad and 38% is present in at least 6 countries. In the period 2010-2015, almost one in four companies made acquisitions, with the average number of acquisitions being 4,1. Family businesses with these characteristics are also the longest-lived: "Not so much in terms of size - explains Corbetta from Bocconi - as in the composition of the management". In fact, century-old companies show greater openness towards non-family members on the board: only 23% of them have a "pure family" board, against 45% of the total companies analyzed by the AUB Observatory. Most centenary companies are in the food sector.
Finally, family members listed on the Stock Exchange, which are 130 out of a total of 194 listed companies with a turnover of more than 20 million. These are even longer-lived (28% "live" over 50 years, against 10% of the average of the Observatory), grow more, have a debt rate two percentage points lower than the total of family businesses examined, are more international and have a management model that is even more open to the outside world: only 44% have a "pure family" leadership while 40% are pure outsiders, against 12% of the general average. None of them, the 0%, have a board composed only of family members.
The listed companies are also the youngest and inclined towards women's quotas: in fact, a good generational turnover is missing among family businesses, so much so that one company out of four is still led by a leader over 70 years of age. Among listed companies, only 18% of leaders are over 70 years old while the majority are in the 50-59 range. 92% of family companies listed on the Stock Exchange have at least one woman on the board at the end of 2016, with a boom from 57% in 2011. At that level, around 55,5%, the female share of non-family companies remained quoted.
