In its online “Insights and Publications Section” McKinsey & Co. recently published an article subtitled “What will it take to shift markets and companies away from a short-term way of thinking” with excerpts from “Perspectives on the long term,” a book of essays contributed by leading executives and academics. In the article, the issue of shifting from “quarterly capitalism” to longer-term thinking is called out as being “particularly essential.” http://www.mckinsey.com/Insights/Leading_in_the_21st_century/Perspectives_on_the_long_term?cid=other-eml-alt-mkq-mck-oth-1503.

Many multi-generational family businesses have proven successful in thinking long-term. Family Business Magazine has listed 100 of the world’s oldest. http://www.griequity.com/resources/industryandissues/familybusiness/oldestinworld.html

The youngest of these, Laird & Co., a New Jersey-based brandy distiller, was founded in 1780. The oldest, Kongo Gumi, is a Japanese construction company that built the Buddhist Shitennoji Temple in Korea 1400 years ago. It was founded in 578 and is in its 40^th generation.

A critical factor in this kind of success is an “intention” that the family continue to own and operate their business for many generations. A “best-practice” of this long-term thinking is often initiated by considering what the family and the business should be like when the grandchildren assume leadership.

This illustrates that what the McKinsey article states as requiring “wide-ranging shifts in both mind-set and practice” is in fact a way of thinking that has governed the operation of family-owned business for centuries…”ahead of the curve.”