Last Tuesday, 15 September, we organised a webinar with Renée de Kuyper as our guest. She shared her knowledge and experience of family businesses with the participants. In this article we share the highlights of the evening.
Family businesses 71% of the businesses in the Netherlands are family businesses. That is 180,000 in total, which together account for 27% of the Netherlands' total turnover. Family businesses provide 29% of the jobs in the Netherlands, a total of 2.1 million jobs. 89% of family businesses employ fewer than 10 people.
Family businesses: a complex system As the image below shows, only 3 per cent of family businesses manage to stay afloat after 3 generational changes. According to Ms de Kuyper, this has several causes. Some of the causes she named were:
- Children are involved in the business too late
- Family management or external management. Many family businesses find outside involvement difficult.
- Shareholders often do not know how to divide the tasks fairly
- Differences in mindset between generations
- Strained family relationships
How has the 325-year-old family business Koninklijke De Kuyper succeeded? The company has been in the hands of family members for 10 generations and 325 years. They have achieved this by making clear agreements with each other and having these properly recorded by notaries. They have also set guidelines among themselves on the minimum requirements for sitting on the board of Koninklijke de Kuyper. One of the guidelines is that they must have completed at least a higher professional education (hbo) degree. In addition, they aim to involve the next generation in the company at an early stage. Renée de Kuyper was already a supervisory board member at a young age and also ran her own businesses, so that she could gain experience outside the family as well.
Partly because of her experience within the sixth-oldest family business in the Netherlands, she has set up an advisory firm to help family businesses with organising the family and the family assets, improving mutual cooperation and communication, and more.
For more information, see her website. If you have a personal question for Renée de Kuyper, you can email her at: renee.dekuyper@familiebedrijfadvies.nl
If you would like to see the recording again, please send an email to info@hogiaf.nl
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The largest cross-cultural and multisectoral business association in the Netherlands.
