Family Business Survey 2013

Introduction

PwC¹ has worked extensively with family firms across the world for many years, so we appreciate how distinctive these businesses are, compared with today's publiclylisted corporates. Decision-making is very different when it's your own money that's at stake, and as a result family firms tend to have a long-term commitment to jobs and local communities, which gives a significant but often under-rated stability to national economies. In the face of the current uncertain economic environment, governments around the world have been looking for ways to encourage– in broad terms – exactly the same 'patient' and responsible approach to business that the family firm has been practising for centuries.