The Succession Trap Causing Family Businesses To Fail

BusinessThe Succession Trap Causing Family Businesses To FailByAlejandro Cárdenas Villa,Forbes Books Author.for Forbes BooksAUTHOR POSTExpertise and opinions of authors published by ForbesBooks. Imprint operated under license. | Paid ProgramJun 10, 2026, 11:30am EDTFamily businesses are weak-link systems that can be undone by incompetent heirs.gettyA family business can survive a mediocre CEO, but rarely survives weak owners.Most family businesses spend years preparing or searching for the right CEO successor, even though the person who will ultimately determine the business’s success is generally not the CEO at all.Soccer and basketball offer a useful insight. Basketball is a strong-link system. A superstar like Michael Jordan or LeBron James can elevate the entire team and compensate for any weaknesses on the roster. Soccer is different. Economists David Sally and Chris Anderson analyzed thousands of soccer matches across Europe’s top leagues. Their research showed that soccer is fundamentally a weak-link system: success is not determined by a team’s star player but by the mistakes and weaknesses of its worst players. One player’s mistake that allows the other team to score a goal undoes ninety minutes of brilliant play. Family businesses are also weak-link systems because their long-term success depends less on the CEO’s talent and more on the competence of the weakest heirs when they become owners.Many founders, however, believe that success depends mainly on finding the next “Michael Jordan” to run the business. But if you look more closely, that belief is mistaken.Founders Retire from Three Positions at OnceAfter years of acting simultaneously as CEO, their own board, and the principal shareholder, founders identify most strongly with the CEO role when they look back on their success because it was the role they lived every day. They made decisions, solved problems, and drove growth.What these founders fail to recognize is that most of their important decision...