New Family Business Leaders Embrace Digital Change, But Face Hurdles

Among the next generation of family business leaders, three in four have big plans to take their business forward. However, generational challenges persist, largely in the areas of digital and innovation.

PwC conducted in-depth conversations with 35 next gens from 21 countries and polled more than 100 additional next gens for its new report.​ The results showed an incoming generation of family business leaders confronting generational gaps and culture change.

“Our research shows that digital is one area where the generation gap can be a real positive,“ said David Wills, PwC’s Global Entrepreneurial & Private Business Leader. “While next gens are excited to tackle digital, the current generation is often more cautious to embrace the proposed pace of change.“

In today’s business landscape, all firms need to address the digital challenge, and next gens seem to grasp this. Three quarters of those polled believe it’s very important or essential to have a strategy fit for a digital age. As digital natives, they feel much more comfortable with digital technology and see its potential for change. That said, only 7% of respondents believe their firm is currently doing this well.

Partly due to a greater degree of transformation and investment needed to effect digital change, many current generation leaders may be cautious about committing to it. About a third of next gens polled (36%) expressed frustration that the current generation does not fully understand the potential for digital and the risks it could pose.

Likewise, the vast majority of next gens see innovation as a core component, with 82% responding that innovation is very important or essential to business success. However a mere 15% of those polled see innovation being implemented well at their firms.

In the study, PwC identified four main approaches next gens are taking to build their own paths to success: stewards, transformers, intrapreneurs, and entrepreneurs. Some next gens straddle more than one of these continually evolving paths, but they can provide a helpful way to separate the different challenges, risks and opportunities that the next generation faces, and how success can look and feel different depending on the route they choose to take.

While next gens will take their family firms down different paths, a set of common success factors emerged from the research. Regardless of the chosen path, the “five Cs“ comprise guiding principles for all family businesses. Those are culture, communication, clarity, credibility and commitment.

“Sustainable success in the world of family business depends on give and take, and the ability to balance the needs of firm and family, next gen and current gen,“ said Siew Quan Ng, PwC’s Asia Pacific Entrepreneurial & Private Business Leader. “If any of these pieces are missing or misfiring, the succession process becomes a risk not an opportunity.“