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About the Survey
 
About the PwC Family Business Survey 2012
We’ve talked to almost 2,000 respondents, large and small, around the world, from both developed and emerging markets, across a broad range of industries. We found remarkable similarities among the diversity.
Scaling Up
 
Scaling Up
The next frontier for more and more family businesses is overseas expansion: 67% of respondents had some level of international sales in 2012. By 2017, that number will jump to 74%.
Skills
 
Skills
Recruiting and retaining the right talent is a challenge for family businesses: 64% of them are planning to bring in non-family management in 2012.
Succession
 
Succession
While 4 in 10 respondents will pass on ownership and management to the next generation, 25% will pass on ownership but bring in professional managers,citing the next generations lack of skills as an issue.
Territory insights
 
Territory insights
While our survey revealed striking similarities among all family businesses, we found -- as might be expected, given the vastly different regional economic conditions around the world -- some significant variations in outlook and habits.
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Read our report on what family businesses in 2012 are thinking and planning as they look to compete in an increasingly global marketplace.
 

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Download the Family Business Survey 2012: Family firm: A resilient model for the 21st century

 
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Download Scale, skills and succession: Tackling the tipping points for family firms

About the main survey

We talked to more than 1,952 family business owners and managers in 35 countries over the last few months. We wanted to speak to the leaders in these businesses to see what challenges they were facing now and what sorts of challenges they believe they will face in 5 years time. We wanted to gets their views on how supportive they think their local governments are and we wanted to hear from them on what they think makes them unique.

Our results show that family businesses are positive about the future and the majority are looking to grow the business in the next 5 years. The results prove that family firms are robust, vigorous and successful.

They are ambitious and entrepreneurial and delivering solid profits, even in the continued uncertain economic environment. These businesses make a substantial but under-valued contribution to stability and growth but we believe that governments could do more to offer the sort of targeted support that would make a significant difference.

About the tactical conversations guide

The PwC Family Business Survey shows that family firms across the world continue to be resourceful, profitable and confident about the future. With strong values, long term decision making and a commitment to employment and local communities, the family way of doing business has unique strengths. However, there are also specific challenges, and long term success depends on the effective negotiation of three key tipping points: scale, skills and succession. We discuss each of these tipping point in greater detail in this short report.