Updated
Updated · KPMG Newsroom · Aug 6
Family Businesses Risk Long-Term Competitiveness as 2- to 3-Year Planning Yields to Short-Term Pressures
Updated
Updated · KPMG Newsroom · Aug 6

Family Businesses Risk Long-Term Competitiveness as 2- to 3-Year Planning Yields to Short-Term Pressures

1 articles · Updated · KPMG Newsroom · Aug 6

Summary

  • Family-owned companies are being warned that constant focus on rising costs, volatile demand, regulation and cyber risk can quietly weaken their long-term competitive position.
  • Technology is a key fault line: incremental fixes to legacy systems may preserve continuity now, but they can raise outage risk, slow innovation and make later transformation harder.
  • One discipline highlighted is explicit time allocation, with a retailer splitting leadership attention between current delivery, the next 2 to 3 years and a protected longer-term horizon.
  • Scenario planning and “no-regrets” investments—such as connected data, decision-enabling technology and deeper customer insight—are presented as practical ways to build resilience across possible futures.
  • The broader message is that resilience for family businesses is not just absorbing shocks; it requires owners and managers to keep investing time, capital and attention beyond immediate pressures.

Insights

How can struggling manufacturers afford future-proof investments when inflation and labor shortages force them to fight just to survive?
Could the daily survival tactics saving family food businesses today be the exact reason they face bankruptcy tomorrow?
Are your company's quick-fix technology patches secretly building a ticking time bomb for your entire production line?