[Claire Halliday]

Each month, apparently, the world’s richest man, Bernard Arnault – the bloke behind the $708 billion LVMH empire that owns some of the world’s most recognisable fashion houses – has lunch with his five adult children to decide who his successor will be.
Doesn’t he already know which one his favourite is?
But when it comes to big business, it’s about more than acknowledging whose company he prefers, I suppose.
And according to news reports that label him as ‘the wolf in cashmere’, sentimentality may not be his strong suit.
It does make me wonder if any of those five children really want the burden, though.
It’s likely that your own business wasn’t as big as Louis Vutton, Dior or Veuve Clicquot, but did you have to agonise over which one of your kids might take over your professional legacy? Or which one definitely would NOT?
And how did you cope with the realisation that your kids had no interest in taking over the family business?
According to a recent article in Entrepreneur, there are some sobering statistics around family business succession. For starters, the average lifespan of a family-owned business is only 24 years. Essentially, just one generation.
Then there’s the fact that 60 per cent of family-owned businesses fail to make it to the second generation, with almost 90 per cent never seeing it to a third generation owner.
fail to make it to the third generation.
If you own a business, are you thinking of selling it, or passing it on?
And do your kids care?

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