MANY REASONS HAVE BEEN OFFERED to explain the extraordinary success of such companies as WaI-Mart, Fidelity, Cargill, and Michelin--but the fact that they are all family- controlled businesses has not been one of them. Indeed, these companies are largely believed to succeed in spite of their status as family enterprises. Surprising new research reveals otherwise. In Managing for the Long Run, Danny Miller and Isabelle Le Breton-Miller argue that the same attributes that have long been vilified as weaknesses of family businesses--stable strategies, clan cultures, lifetime tenures-- have actually created formidable competitive advantages for many of these firms. The authors have identified more than forty large, family-controlled businesses that not only dominated their markets for twenty to one- hundred-plus years but did so by defying most aspects of modern management practice.

 List of Figures and Tables

 Acknowledgments

 Introduction: In Search of Long-Term Winners

 What Distinguishes Great Family Businesses?

 Potent Priorities at the Great Family-Controlled Businesses

 Brand Builders

 Craftsmen

 Operators

 Innovators

 Deal Makers

 When Family-Controlled Businesses Stumble

 Managing for the Long Run

 Appendix A: Description of the Research

 Appendix B: Assessment Grid and Checklist

 Notes

 Index

 About the Authors