A recent Harvard Business Review article, What You Can Learn From Family Business, compared the performance of similar sized family businesses to traditional public companies with some interesting results.

Their conclusion:  family businesses focus on resilience more than performance.  Forgoing excess returns in the good times to ensure survival in the down times.

Seven key difference were identified:

1. They’re frugal in good times and bad
2. They keep the bar high for capital expenditures
3. They carry little debt
4.  They acquire fewer (and smaller) companies
5. Many show a surprising level of diversification
6. They are more international
7. They retain talent better than their competitors do

We’ve all seen that many of the businesses that have survived this recession have done so because they have strong balance sheets.  Strong in that they are holding significant amounts of cash and little debt.  Family run businesses seek to be self-sufficient and not beholden to lenders.  They take the long view of protecting family wealth.  So, they may not be the innovative risk takers and therefore miss some opportunities; however, they are the backbone of business that provides stability in this ever volatile world.