Sibling rivalry. Lying. Greed. Betrayal. A controlling, narcissistic father and a crumbling family empire with no one to hold it up.
Though we could be looking at any number of Shakespearean tragedies, the above is a loose plotline for the HBO show Succession. While the show is fictionalized, there are dysfunctional families and dysfunctional companies everywhere. Often, the two coalesce in a dystopian reality that makes for great entertainment but terrible business. It also gives the false impression that families that go into business together will only ever implode their relationships with their clients, their shareholders and each other.
In truth, well-educated leaders understand that the unpredictable and shocking final episode of Succession is what it looks like when you don’t have a succession plan—something that should be in place long before the head of the company passes away or Dr. Phil is called in for an intervention.
In real life, effective succession planning can save companies, not destroy them.
No one knows this better than Ivan Lansberg and Devin DeCiantis, who co-wrote The Enduring Enterprise as a tribute to the work they do together at Lansberg Gersick Advisors, an advisory company dedicated to serving the world’s leading family enterprises.
“One of the things that’s so unique about succession is just how predictable and inevitable it is,” DeCiantis says. “Not all risks are going to present themselves in such an obvious way to every single organization.”
“This is one of the reasons why we’re out there talking about this,” he adds. “We want more people to attend to this proactively rather than reactively.”
Yet reactively is how many companies—including family-run ones—respond.
Why do so few companies think about succession planning?
“Despite the fact that we’ve been at this now for 30 years, warning [people] that this is an important thing to do,” Lansberg says, “lots of very sophisticated companies globally don’t have good succession plans.”
Domestically, data from PWC’s 2023 US Family Business Survey reveals that in 2021, only 34% of family-run businesses had a robust, documented succession plan in place. So what’s preventing so many businesses from proactively creating succession plans if they’re so important?
The answer, Lansberg says, is layered—particularly when it comes to family businesses.
“Many entrepreneurs launch into building companies, and at some point in their development… limitations of their own biology come in and hits them in the face, and they start wondering, ‘How are we going to continue this enterprise? And how do I pass it on to my kids or not?’” he says. “Wrestling with that question becomes a very important feature, not just for the family’s continuity as an enterprising family but for all of the families that live off the enterprises that… [these] founders create.”
Still, broaching topics of death and hierarchy aren’t things that most families are naturally hard-wired to discuss.
“If you do the mental experiment of sitting with your parents to talk about what’s going to happen with the family when they’re no longer with you, it’s a scary proposition,” Lansberg continues. “It raises the question of how we’re going to deal with life without them, but it also erases all of the uncertainties of… my kids being greedy. Are they pursuing other objectives and not caring about us, and so forth and so on.”
Succession planning takes time
Another issue is one of obsolescence. According to Lansberg, reinvention is often necessary for a company to survive in the current marketplace. This can include bypassing blood lineage by bringing in non-family executives who may be able to offer fresh perspectives that can move the business forward. But most families may avoid these discussions out of fear.
“The sum total of all of these factors leads many companies to get caught flat-footed at the very moment when these issues need to be clarified and thought through,” Lansberg says. “And unfortunately, because of that, many end up failing.”
Scrambling can easily be avoided, DeCiantis adds, but disaster prevention takes concerted effort.
“It behooves any organization that desires long term success to… be more proactive and not just wait for the heart attack or the final episode of an HBO series to inspire them to attend to something that actually does take a considerable amount of time,” he says. “Succession planning isn’t something that you sit down to at 3 [p.m.] on a Friday afternoon and finish at 4 [p.m.] and call it a day, and you say, ‘Okay, I’ve got the plan, [so] let’s go and execute this now,’ and by Monday morning, there’s a new regime in charge.”
Which companies are doing it right?
In their book, DeCiantis and Lansberg show family business leaders across the world who they say have gotten succession planning right. In addition to highlighting notable family-run companies like Kikkoman, Samsung and the New York Times, the duo have profiled global companies that are still standing strong after surviving military coups, war, economic challenges, terrorist conflicts, technological shifts and political instability.
Here are just a few notable examples:
Toraya
One marker of success that DeCientis and Lansberg have seen replicated around the world in many cultures and industries—as well as in this company in particular—is submitting to the patronage of a powerful political entity. For instance, Toraya’s founding family has been making Japanese sweets (wagashi) for the Imperial House for over four centuries.
“Toraya was the preferred sweet maker to the Imperial House,” DeCiantis says. Because the family’s wagashi became desirable to the crown early in the first generation, he adds, they were given an imperial crest, which cemented their lifelong relationship to the now constitutional monarchy.
“[Toraya’s] success was so tied to the Imperial House that when [the capital] moved from Kyoto to Tokyo in the 1800s… Toraya [moved] with them,” he adds. “Their success is vested in the integrity that comes with the blessing of the Imperial House.”
CEMEX
Another enduring enterprise in the book is CEMEX, a pioneering Mexican family business founded by the Zambrano family in 1906. DeCiantis and Lansberg say that the family navigated economic upheavals and global market expansions to transform the company from a regional cement firm into a global leader in building materials.
IKEA
Founded by Ingvar Kamprad in 1943, the Swedish startup leveraged its early mail-order business to become a global leader in home furnishings. It also deployed modular strategies in business and ownership to overcome significant economic challenges and shifting market dynamics and maintain its commitment to affordable, high-quality, resilient designs.
Looking to the future
For companies that are hoping to weather the storms of unpredictability—whether they’re economic, political or familial—Lansberg and DeCiantis say that while being rooted in tradition has its merit, growing with the times is a more direct route to success.
“You have to think about the company… you want to build, not the one that exists today,” Lansberg says, “and then break down the skill sets you need to be able to succeed at that company.”
DeCiantis adds that success in succession is possible—“You just need to be intentional and patient and invest the time [and resources] necessary to get it right.”
This article originally appeared in the July 2025 issue of SUCCESS+ digital magazine.
Photo by dotshock/Shutterstock.com
