Post by Bridget Kustin

Thanks Jennifer Creery at Bloomberg News for interviewing me for this article. The hope among large family businesses is that planning, input, and structuring can overcome the role of luck. Certainly business schools' existence is premised on the idea that education and strategy can overcome luck as well, and shift the odds in one's favor. Do we truly believe this? Anthropologically speaking, luck (good and bad) is an inconveniently persistent part of life. "Common wisdom suggests that family businesses rarely survive beyond the third generation, although data on the subject remain thin, says Bridget Kustin, director of the Saïd Business School’s Ownership Project 2.0 at the University of Oxford. “After a certain generation, what are the chances you’re lucky enough to give birth to someone who really is the best person to lead a company?” said Kustin, speaking in general about such firms. She said that it’s sometimes better for families to maintain their shareholdings, but not “necessarily remain in an active operating role." https://lnkd.in/d6365VSc #familybusiness #familyoffices