Chapter 4
DEVELOPING ENTERPRISING FAMILIES
Growing families and businesses are both good at consuming assets, notes John Davis,1 a family business advisor and educator at the Harvard Business School. And the return on assets declines over time. Enterprising families continuously regenerate. When their core business is built on a unique and enduring natural setting like hot springs or on a product that endures over centuries, renewal and regeneration focuses on maintaining harmony with changes in the environment and customer needs. For example, Japanese inns like the Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan or Houshi Ryokan (in fifty-second and forty-sixth generation of family leadership respectively) continue to evolve their services to clients, as well as management ...
Get Entrepreneurs in Every Generation now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
