A "Pandemic Check" on the Strength of Family Businesses

Today’s episode focuses on family businesses and what the challenges of the pandemic economy teach us about the unique strengths, vulnerabilities, and resilience of family-owned businesses.  Chris Cuneo and Josh Bobich, members of the firm’s Owner-Managed and Closely Held Businesses Practice, host a discussion with Jon Keimig, director of the St. Thomas University Family Business Center.

Jon discusses the types of resources that the Family Business Center, and other similar institutions across the country, offer to owners of family businesses. The conversation offers insight on the characteristics that, by many measures, cause family businesses to consistently produce better results than similarly sized non-family businesses. Included in the group’s discussion is whether those characteristics continue to provide benefit during times of intensified risk like the pandemic; what impact the pandemic has on the multi-layered relationships that must be stay aligned to maintain success; and whether the pandemic experience has reinforced or modified thinking about the types of actions that family businesses need to taking to maintain their strength and resilience. Jon also offers thoughts about what service providers, including lawyers, can do to most effectively meet needs that are specific to family business.

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