Leading transformation in a family-owned business: insights from an Italian company

Abstract

The increasing volatility of the global economy, coupled with the pace of technological innovation, presents new challenges for family-owned businesses. The complex business dynamics and business inertia of family-owned business require a comprehensive perspective when developing the capability to manage transformations in the face of a business context such as this. This article draws on literature from the field of organisational change and development, organisational behaviour and family business, and proposes an integrative framework. The study is embedded in a collaborative research project with an Italian fashion design company, and portrays a five-year transformation process, starting with the family’s decision to hire an external CEO for the first time in its hundred-year history. What has been learned from the case serves as the foundation for a further advancement of the proposed process-model for the management of a transformation in a family-owned business. The implications for research and practice are discussed.