Colombian enterprising families get ready for the power transfer process

Paula Rincon, Exaudi Family Business Consulting, Colombia

According to statistics published in 2018 by Confecamaras, the network of Chambers of Commerce of Colombia, 86.5% of Colombian companies are family owned businesses. Therefore, their influence over the economy and society is a determining factor of the country’s prosperity.

Only some family businesses have successfully achieved the generational changeover. The failure rate of this process is 83.4%, according to the Colombian Council or Family Businesses. This figure is similar to the rest of the region, and indicates that in Latin America approximately 13% of family owned businesses manage to transcend from second to third generation.

On Thursday, April 5th, Pablo Aure and Paula Rincon conducted the workshop “Management of Power in the Family Business” at El Rodeo Club in Medellin, to introduce methodologies and share experiences related to the transfer of power within family businesses.

The audience, men and women founders of family businesses, as well as members of the second generation, shared their experiences on the processes of formalization and professionalization of their family projects, highlighting the importance of a new vision on the planned generational changeover to successfully preserve the family legacy.

Challenges for enterprising families are growing, as are the need to become organized and build authentic leadership to achieve continuity in the family business. This contributes to the country’s economic stability and creates balance within the society where it operates.