Inc. Magazine dedicated its May 2019 issue to businesses tackling big, complex challenges that affect everyone—companies that are pushing fresh approaches and creating the industries of the future. Inc.’s editor noted the mindset of one the companies they profiled—now successful and hardly standing still. One major theme running through this issue is about ‘Helping Entrepreneurs Change The World.’

This got me thinking about family businesses that are making significant impacts on the world.

Family-operated businesses have some advantages over non-family-operated businesses when it comes to initiating innovation in response to market changes. They can make decisions and implement them faster. But innovation and staying relevant in the marketplace are not the same as ‘world-changing.’

There are credible reasons that can interfere with a family business implementing world-changing initiatives. Decision making must coordinate with the interests of family, the business and the ownership. And the heads of family businesses tend to stay in control longer than leaders of non-family businesses. This tendency carries both pros and cons. A long tenure sustains stability and family values. However, long-serving family heads may have blind spots and not recognize the need for change when it’s readily apparent.

Despite these impediments, examples exist of family enterprises that are about changing the world. In his book, Family Champions and Champion Families: Developing Family Leaders to Sustain the Family Enterprise, family-business consultant Joshua Nacht describes how innovation rises from the energy and skills of younger family members who take initiative and introduce new ideas. He calls these youngsters ‘family champions,’ and tells how they are balancing tradition and innovation, values and profits, with both short-term and long-term views.

Reviewing Nacht’s book In his Forbes Magazine article “How Champions Of Change From The Rising Generation Transform Their Family Businesses,” long-time family-business consultant Dennis Jaffe comments that, importantly, these young champions have the ear of the family leadership in a way that does not exist in non-family companies. But, unfortunately, many families do not facilitate exchange of ideas between generations; a necessity for developing champions. https://www.forbes.com/sites/dennisjaffe/2018/10/03/how-champions-of-change-from-the-rising-generation-transform-their-family-businesses/#b4b45b05a55f