Family-owned manufacturing companies invest more in 4.0 and green technology than non-family ones. And they do it even more when the management is entrusted to an external manager.
The picture, which affects a very high percentage of the 130 thousand Italian manufacturing companies: 8 out of 10, in fact, are family business, emerges from a survey by the Centro Studi of the Tagliacarne Institute and tells us that – although in manufacturing there is still a long way to go on the tech and green front: the numbers, on the whole, are still low – the percentage of family businesses that have invested in 4.0 technologies between 2017 and 2020, in fact, is equal to 17%, against 15% of non-family ones. A similar scenario when it comes to green investments: 27% of family businesses made them, against 24% of non-family businesses.
Territory and relations
“We must stop thinking that family ownership represents a limit for companies – explains Gaetano Fausto Esposito, general manager of the Study Center – and these data prove it: if well managed, a reality that belongs to a family turns out to be more dynamic”. The reasons are different: “The knowledge and proximity to the territory which, for example, affects the desire to reduce the environmental impact of production”, continues Esposito. Which cites a data in support of this thesis: family businesses, after the pandemic, will continue to invest in sustainability even after the crisis linked to the pandemic, by 2023. And they will do it more than non-family businesses: 18% against 12 percent.
The high level of relationality (and therefore the possibility of creating a network of excellence in the area) is another point in favor of family businesses: in businesses with family managers the propensity to invest in 4.0 technologies goes from an average of 17 % to 35% precisely in the case of a high level of relationality.
Few external managers
The management of the company entrusted to managers within the family is not always the most effective choice for business development. But in Italy there are only 9 out of 100 (18 out of 100 if you look at medium-large companies) family-owned manufacturing companies that have chosen to rely on an external manager. A phenomenon that depends above all on a cultural problem: “While in countries such as Germany the family businesses managed internally are less than 30%, in Italy the entrepreneur often tends to play a master role, considers the company an offshoot of the family and it does not trust to hand over its management to an external person “.
However, it is a sin of lack of foresight: 70% of family businesses with managers found on the market, in fact, expect to return to pre-Covid production levels by 2022, against 60% of those led by family managers, and 63% of non-family-owned businesses. «The family businesses have reacted well to the“ challenge ”imposed on them by the pandemic. But the realities led by external managers are more competitive, also thanks to the wealth of experience that these professionals can bring to the company », says the general manager. Often an international background: according to the survey, 69% of managers who work in family-owned businesses have had experience in business management in Italy or abroad, against 52% of family managers.