In my Family Business Management class at Baruch we are now in the process of scheduling a family meeting. One of the most important practices of any successful multi-generational family enterprise, family meetings are a form of governance. They are forums for the discussion and establishment of critical procedures and policies for managing organizational processes and relationships.

Whether a family enterprise is in its second or fifth or thirtieth generation, family members must come together to discuss the unique needs and challenges that face individuals within each of the three family business subsystems, i.e. the family, the business, and the ownership of the business.

These meetings are all about the family talking about the family in the context of the business, but not about the business per se. The conversations may include working out policies for bringing the next generation into the business. For example, the policy might require that next generation members work somewhere else after completing school, and prove themselves there before returning to the family business. Other conversations may be about the children’s career interests or how the demands of the business impact upon the family.

Our class will be holding a “family meeting” based on a case study of a second- generation CEO announcing his intention to retire. There has been no prior succession planning. At stake are the future of the company, the equity of the family members who have ownership in the business, and continued harmony within the family itself. Armed with a better understanding of best management practices than most family businesses have, students take on the roles of the family members in the case.

The founder of the business being discussed passed leadership to his oldest son who is now planning to retire. Ownership of the business went equally to the founder’s five children. The second oldest son of the founder is the only other second-generation sibling working in the business. Both have a third-generation son working in the business.

The roles the students will enact include all five current second-generation family members, the third generation cousins, including two contenders for CEO. There are also a fourth-generation cousins who look forward to their own leadership roles in the future, as well as the intrigue of a disenfranchised equity owner.

The outcome sought from the role play is a strategy and process for selecting the next CEO. Inherent in this is the question of who will lead the family in the next generation, and how equity will be handled as the family grows.

During the role play, students will learn to navigate the emotional challenges of leadership, family and self-interest to arrive at a solution that supports multigenerational success.

I recently had the good fortune to hear Dennis Jaffe and James Grubman, internationally known experts on family enterprises and wealth preservation, speak at an event in New York City. Participating on the panel as well was Abby Raphel, co-founder of The Redwood Initiative, an organization focused on family sustainability through wealth education.

Dr. Jaffe recently authored a research paper entitled Building a Hundred Year Family Enterprise. Too often family businesses stories are about those that don’t make it. There is more benefit though, in studying successful family enterprises. Jaffe uses the term ‘Generative Family’ to describe successful businesses that have sustained a family enterprise across generations. In his research he found seven qualities that characterize generative “enterprising” families that can trace their unity, shared core purpose and family capital over a century.

Dr. Jaffe has agreed to generously share his research paper. The seven qualities of a 100-Year Family Enterprise are listed on page 3. If you would like to receive a PDF of the paper, please send me your request by email to: info@thefamilybusinessleader.com.

There exists today a common view that the majority of family businesses do not survive beyond the third generation. But there are family firms thriving worldwide whose legacies date back for centuries. Some families are in the same business, working at the same location where they originated generations before–their products are modern classics. Others have evolved through the years, changing their venue, products and services with the times. Some remain relatively small in scope, others have seen major growth through mergers and diversification. Operating locally, or as players in the global marketplace, these businesses are the stuff of history. Real-life time machines, they have brought the past into the present, and they are building the future.

Professor William T. O’Hara, author of Centuries of Success and President Emeritus of Bryant College in Rhode Island, along with his associate Peter Mandel have recently combined and updated their two previously published lists: “America’s Oldest Family Companies” and “The World’s Oldest Foreign Family Companies.” The resulting list compiles the 100 oldest continuously family-owned firms, dating back as far as the year 578.

Their research adds a undertone to history as we generally learn it. Our view is usually focused on the big events, the golden age of Greece, the rise and fall of the Roman empire, the Middle Ages in Europe, the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution. But a subtle thread runs through it all–family businesses begun centuries ago, family-held for as many as 46 generations. These companies have outlasted nations and governments, kings and queens and mighty corporations.

The list identifies businesses that are at least 225 years old. They are working today in France, Italy, Ireland, Germany, the UK, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Japan, Austria, South Africa, Mexico, Chile, in the Netherlands and in the United States.

There are builders, innkeepers, paper manufacturers, goldsmiths, vintners, shipbuilders and designers of ceramics. There are glassmakers, perfumers, bankers, bell makers, confectioners, jewelers, textile manufactures, farmers and weavers. There are distilleries, iron mongers, funeral directors, publishers and breweries. One company has been making cymbals for centuries. One makes some of the best hoists in the world. The oldest of them all is Kongo Gumi which began building Buddhist Temples in Japan more than 1,400 years ago.

Among these 100 are a few whose names resonate in our modern sensibilities as familiar as those of old friends: Waterford Wedgwood makers of crystal, china, ceramics and cookware. Kikkoman, whose soy sauce products are seen on thousands of supermarket shelves. Faber-Castell whose quality pens and pencils are indispensible for artists worldwide. And although their family name may not be a household word, their product certainly is–Farina Gegenüber, creators of Eau de Cologne.

The list is evidence that family firms have the capacity to live and grow for centuries. Through enterprise and innovation their longevity has virtually created our modern world. Given their global reach and influence their continuation may even be considered universally essential.

One of the first assignments I give to students in my Family Business class at Baruch is to write about their family history.

Today Social Scientists are finding that throughout our lives we are impacted by the experiences, behaviors, thoughts and actions of our three preceding generations.

Exploring this discovery for myself, I took some time to look three generations back into my own family’s history. I grew up in a family construction business, started by my grandfather, developed by my father, and grown by my older brother. He was the oldest sibling. He loved the business, took it over and continues to be successful in running it. I am the second son. I liked the business, worked in it while in school, but lacked the passion for it that my brother has. However I did go into business for myself and so did my two other siblings.

Looking even further back into our family legacy a noteworthy surprise awaited. I recently learned that my great-grandfather was an architect and builder in Italy. So through looking at four generations of my family’s history, a significant pattern has emerged. I now see this entrepreneurial spirit that characterizes my own generation as a product of our ancestry, learned in part from the conversation and stories heard at our dining room table each night.

Teaching at Baruch College of The City University of New York is part of my entrepreneurial activities. Baruch is one of the most ethnically diverse schools in the United States and my students come from around the world. The histories they write are they filled with dedication, perseverance, strong family values and even stories of escaping from grave danger in the course of emigrating to the United States. I remind them that such legacies are part of their families’ foundation and will to succeed.

I have found that completing this assignment unearths rich source materials that often lead to extraordinary insights. Among these are legends that shine light on what their families symbolize to them. These stories contain clues that reveal to today’s generation those values that were held by earlier generations. They inform and inspire. They act as a source of pride for the families and for their businesses that transmits itself as well to non-family employees. Equally important they can be diagnostic, providing clarity as to the condition of their business, its experiences and its family dynamics that may either strengthen or jeopardize the family and the business.

In this way students learn that where they come from strongly impacts where they are going. The knowledge gained from this assignment ideally serves as a guide to taking the right steps along the road.