Foreign Relations
Looking for a partner overseas? Try a fellow family business.
You've finally made the decision to venture overseas. Now
that you're starting to forge alliances with international
partners, should you seek out family businesses such as your own?
In most cases, the answer is yes.
Working with family businesses abroad is comparatively easy for
family businesses in the United States. After all, well-run family
businesses, no matter where in the world they're located, share
many of the same characteristics. They have their family name on
the door, their integrity is high, and they stake their personal
reputation on their products or services. Family businesses
worldwide take pride in their close relationships with customers.
The CEOs and high-level executives in family businesses are
generally also owners--which usually means they're easily
accessible and stay in their positions for quite a while. Such
stability helps these companies make solid decisions that lead to
long-term success instead of being lured by short-term profits.
Family businesses often have one more major trait in common:
their children, who also happen to be their successors, says Fran
Thaw, founder and owner of Bulbtronics Inc., a 22-year-old
Farmingdale, New York, specialty lighting company. Thaw, whose
company buys bulbs from and sells bulbs to many companies in
different countries, has a close personal relationship with the
head of a family-owned business in England. When visiting the
other's country, the business owners often stay at each
other's homes. "We even had their son here for a couple of
weeks teaching him what he needed to know to expand their business
into medical lighting," Thaw says. Why all this closeness?
"We have so much in common--family and business."
Content Continues Below
Patricia Schiff Estess writes family business histories and
is the author of two books, Managing Alternative Work
Arrangements (Crisp Publishing) and Money Advice for Your
Successful Remarriage (Betterway Press).
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