Thoughts on family-owned businesses

Image: Aditi Tailang

A family business in cinema is not necessarily creative. It is generally about prolonging your family fortune.
—Naseeruddin Shah

Never put business before family.
—Walt Disney

A lot of family members worked in the joint commodities family business. It was a classic case of capitalism at work and socialism at home.
—Uday Kotak

There is no glass ceiling when you are owner/operator… you can set your own culture around how you want women in your business to be treated.
—Corrina Wright

You have to be able to compartmentalise and be able to swing between being a family business and a business family depending on the situation.
—Lea Boyce

Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.
—Henry Ford

I believe that the tradition that follows a family through eight generations is extremely powerful, quite tangible and very relevant. The secret is to not let your tradition unreasonably burden you.
—John Lyman Iii

You have family-owned businesses that have been around for over 500 years. You cannot name a corporation that survives in fact for even a few decades.
—Nassim Nicholas Taleb

I could have been born into any family. I was fortunate that I was born to an artist as extraordinary as Picasso, and Picasso turned out to be the family business.
—Claude Picasso

When I was 18, and when I entered my father’s business, I realised that it wasn’t as easy as I thought. I had to deal with people of my father’s generation. Building trust was key to doing business.
—Binod Chaudhury

People who build family businesses are not classically trained. They have to deal with an enormous amount of politics. You think corporate politics are tough? Go work for your dad or mom.
—Gary Vaynerchuk