For many family-owned companies, business relationships used to be limited to a handful of players within the same industry—and often also within the same geographical region. While this model may have proved successful in the past, today’s dynamic business environment calls it into question.

To examine this trend, the Deloitte Family Business Center polled current and future family business leaders, analyzed the results, and released a global study entitled Next-generation family businesses: Exploring business ecosystems. It identified the following key findings:

• Ecosystems offer opportunities for growth and innovation
• Third-party interactions have increased, with innovation a key goal
• Leaders value asset and intellectual property ownership, which may drive a preference for acquisitions
• Leaders may need to educate their families about the potential for digital transformation

The challenge for family businesses today is to learn how to thrive in rapidly changing business ecosystems while preserving their identity as a business and their cohesion as a family.

Read this 2018 Deloitte Insights report to discover the results of the next-generation family business leader survey and explore the steps to success

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