The Great Survivors : Can Britain’s oldest family businesses show us a new way forward?

Nigel Cope looks at some of Britain’s oldest-established firms still in the hands of their founding families to ask what lessons other companies can learn from them

From Tiptree jam and Walker’s Shortbread to Barbour jackets and the brewer Shepherd Neame, some of the UK’s most trusted trading names are still owned by their founding families. How have they survived for two or three centuries when so many other companies fall by the wayside? Could it be that family businesses, with their long-term thinking, conservative approach to financing and broader definition of success, offer a compelling alternative to the approach of the big PLCs?Family businesses are the backbone of the UK economy. There are five million of them, accounting for 90 per cent of all private-sector employment. Yet their importance is often overlooked. Focusing in detail on a dozen great survivors, from household names to the silk weaver which made the fabric for Princess Diana’s wedding dress and a 300-year-old chain of funeral directors, Nigel Cope distils their experience into lessons from which other companies can learn – and which could be vital in helping our economy grow.