Family businesses worldwide are entering a period of widening performance gaps, according to PwC’s 12th Family Business Survey. Only one in four family firms achieved double-digit sales growth over the past year, down sharply from 43% just two years earlier. Yet amidst economic volatility, technological disruption and shifting stakeholder expectations, a subset of family enterprises is managing to accelerate.
Jonathan Flack, global and U.S. family business and family office leader at PwC, says the firm’s latest research reveals a clear pattern: today’s highest-performing family businesses are deliberately leaning into four core strengths — purpose, structural agility, long-term capital and reputation.
Purpose as a Catalyst for Growth
The PwC survey found that 80% of family businesses can articulate their purpose in a single sentence, and firms with a clearly documented purpose are twice as likely to grow aggressively. Flack says the data — and the lived experiences of families PwC interviewed — underscore how powerful a codified mission can be in driving both culture and strategy.
After analyzing responses from the firms that saw double-digit growth, Flack notes, “The family businesses with double digit growth indicated that their purpose was what was driving their ability to scale their business. So, they indicated to us that they had a clear, codified long-term mission that united them both in their culture and their strategies.”
Purpose, however, must be lived, not shelved in a governance binder or posted on the wall. “They know that their purpose is critically important for their employees, for their family and for their customers. And in order for that purpose to come to life, the family has to actively engage with each of those three stakeholder groups,” Flack says.
That intentionality aligns with survey findings showing that purpose-driven family firms are substantially more likely to innovate, encourage experimentation and link their mission to customer value. Nearly two-thirds said their purpose is actively communicated internally, and 60% said it is directly tied to how they deliver products and services.
Agility Rooted in Structure
PwC’s survey showed that agility is born from strong governance. Among high-growth family firms, clear decision-making processes, diverse boards and structured oversight were common traits.
Flack says families often assume governance slows them down, but the opposite is true. “Good governance, concentrated ownership, flat hierarchies, streamlined decision-making — these are the things that allow families to make decisions quicker, be more agile and achieve that higher level of growth.”
When disruption hits — whether through geopolitical shocks, market dislocation or supply-chain pressure — governance helps families to make more clear-headed decisions. As Flack explains, “When things become hard, a disciplined process for making decisions largely takes the emotion out of it.”
Yet governance gaps remain widespread. Only nine percent of the surveyed family businesses have diverse boards, and just 30% have a family constitution. Both tools, the report notes, are “major levers for agility.” Flack also stresses the value of diverse experience among board members, especially in an environment where unforeseen challenges are becoming the norm. “If you’ve got people on your board that know more than just your family and your business, they likely are bringing in expertise and experiences that become highly valuable when that business and that family gets a curveball.”
Putting Long-Term Capital to Work
Some of the survey’s most compelling findings center on how long-term orientation and patient capital continue to differentiate family businesses. Eighty-five percent reinvest profits into the business — far more than non-family firms — and 75% lean toward long-term or balanced investment horizons. Flack says this “steady-hand” philosophy generally works in families’ favor.
But patient capital does not mean ignoring change. Families, even younger ones, have typically weathered multiple transformation cycles — from the dot-com era to the financial crisis to COVID-19 — and those experiences inform today’s methodical approach. Those families, Flack says, approach change “with the long-term horizon in focus” rather than making radical transformations that alter their core in ways they can’t recover from.
Activating — Not Just Protecting — Reputation
Reputation emerged as one of the survey’s strongest through-lines. Nearly 80% of family businesses say protecting the business and preserving the family legacy are top long-term priorities. But high performers go further: they proactively promote their brand reputation. According to the survey, companies that view reputation as a growth lever have stronger purpose communication, more formal governance and higher observed trust levels than those that are more focused on reputational risk.
Flack says this shift was one of the study’s standout insights. “When we interviewed some of the successful families that had double-digit growth they said, ‘We’re carrying our brand and our reputation out every day. We’re sharing our story. We’re leaning into it rather than ‘just being in a reactive, defensive state.’”