Most businesses are family business

After finishing school, chances are, you will either work for a family business or start a business on your own and later pass that down to family members. Businesses are key driving forces of growth and progress in any economy. But if you look closer, most businesses, not just in the Philippines, but also the world are managed by families.

In the Philippines, 80 percent of businesses are family owned and controlled. In Southeast Asia, 65 percent of total listed companies in the region are family owned. Impact of Family Businesses:

•Family firms account for 2/3 (two-thirds) of all businesses around the world (Harvard Business School)

•An estimated 70-90 percent of global GDP annually is created by family businesses

•Between 50-80 percent of jobs in the majority of countries worldwide are created by family businesses

•85 percent of start-up companies are established with family money

•In most countries around the world, family businesses are between 70 and 95 percent of all business entities

•Many of the world's modern corporations, although ran by professional managers are controlled by families or the state

WELL KNOWN FAMILY BUSINESSES

When we think of family businesses, we tend to conjure up images of homely convenience stores and humble neighborhood pizza parlors, small-scale operations competing with huge faceless multinationals. Yet a surprising number of these massive global enterprises are themselves family controlled.

•Foxconn from Taiwan, owned by the Gou family.

•Samsung of South Korea is owned by the Lee family.

•Comcast is owned by the Roberts family in the United States.

•Tata Consultancy Services from India, owned by the Tata family.

In more relatable sectors, Germany's Volkswagen & BMW, Ford from America, Peugeot of France are family businesses.

In the Philippines, data revealed that family businesses have been growing at an annual average of 3.9 percent every year since 2006 across every region and sector. In the Asia Pacific region alone, excluding Japan, the average growth of family businesses is 3.1 percent faster as compared to non family-owned firms.

To name a few, we have the SM group owned by the Sy family as well as many others such as Aboitiz, Ayala, Consunji, Gokongwei, Araneta, Gotianun and perhaps many more.

OPPORTUNITIES

For family owners, this is a field worthy of study to understand the family dynamics mixed with business to ensure that the family legacy is successfully passed on to the next generation. For professionals, this is a growing and exciting field of study and career path as well. USJR is even customizing their MBA to cater to the unique challenges and needs of family ownedenterprises.

These cover a wide number of topics such as: family unity, culture and parenting; family constitution and family business taxes; bridging generation gaps, enterprise planning and many more!

--To further strengthen relationships of Filipino families in business, the biennial Family Enterprise Excellence Conference (FEEC) is back with a powerhouse of international and local speakers to share stories and reveal best practices of running family enterprises in the era of millennials, women empowerment, and economic integration.

Family business owners, shareholders, and consultants from different parts of the country are anticipated to join the conference that will be held at the Marco Polo Plaza Cebu on September 28-29, 2018. This was disclosed in a Press Conference July 17,2018 by the Premier Family Business Consulting (PFBC) at the Marco Polo Plaza Cebu.

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The writer wears many hats: RFP®–Registered Financial Planner | Licensed Real Estate Broker | Content Creator | Podcast-on-the-go Producer & Host