Walking the tightrope between family and business; the owner-manager transition towards a sibling partnership

Successfully transitioning a family business or enterprise across successive generations of family members can be a difficult balancing act on the tightrope of achieving both family and commercial goals. It is perhaps the initial transitions that are the most critical for the long-term sustainability of the enterprise. Often, what may in effect be a personal initiative or enterprise evolves, through business successes, to become a family business that sustains several close family members. Extending that owner-manager status into one that is an effective family or sibling partnership presents several opportunities and challenges. This paper forms part of a series of case studies on such transitions, this first one illustrating what can go wrong if decisions are not made at earlier stages before age or illness catches up with the founders of a family business and suitable arrangements have not been anticipated and set in place.