What Are the Most Successful Family Run Businesses?

When looking to manage with, or indeed pass your business on to a trusted and determined successor, sometimes family really is the only way. Many would disagree, saying they couldn’t think of anything worse than the inevitable bickering that would ensue. However, there are well-known businesses in various industries who have made this work and wouldn’t choose to run it any other way.

Let’s take a look at several successful UK businesses that are family run:

Dyson

With two of his own sons as non-executive board directors at Dyson and even announcing in 2015 that his eldest son Jake would eventually be heir to the technology giant, James Dyson has made it clear that he intends for Dyson to stay a family run business.

Commenting to the Financial Times from a personal perspective, the renowned innovator described how “I want the business to remain a family business… He’s [Jake} got all the things I had and more, because he’s more inventive… The Dyson business, not just me, got really keen to pull Jake in”. It’s plain to us that James wishes for his personality and DNA to remain a core part of the Dyson brand and running of its everyday operations.

In regard to the innovative side of things, he had this to say when asked by Financial Times: “The beauty of a family business is that you worry about getting the product right, not about any investors with short-term views or what others think… We can be patient.”

Associated British Foods

Founded by Willard Garfield Weston in 1935, the company is still managed and run by family more than eighty years later. Indeed, George Garfield Weston, Willard’s grandson, has assumed the role of CEO since 2004.

Whilst there is not much of an insight provided by the Weston family as to why they have chosen to remain a family run business, the company is in the hands of the third generation. Without running the risk of coming across presumptuous, we would assume this is down to the stability, commitment and long-term planning that often comes hand in hand with family run businesses.

Specsavers

Having been a family run business for over 30 years, Specsavers are now onto the second generation in their family line, John Perkins.

Unlike Dyson, however, Specsavers recognised the need to partner with business-minded people in order to take their company to the next level. Speaking to Family Business United of his dad, Doug Perkins, decision to join with external partners “realising that he had got as far as he could on his own, and deciding: ‘I now need to proceed with some other people and get them to help me take it on to the next level.’”

Why are these three family run businesses successful?

One thing all these businesses have in common is an innovative and driven entrepreneur who has left their stamp on the world through their business. Because of this, it can be difficult to imagine the business without their input.

The passion for the business derives from the heart of it, the founder. As a result of this, passing it on or working with family members helps to keep family core value of the business and maintain the deeply rooted foundations within.

In hindsight, family businesses can be successful with the right management and choices made. It’s not a decision to be taken lightly but one that can have rewarding benefits in the long run, knowing that your business has been left in good hands should you choose to take a step back.