Roca voted top family business
Barcelona-based Roca Corporacion Empresarial has won the most distinguished family business of the year award, presented annually by private bank Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch and IMD, the Lausanne-based business school.
Roca, a bathroom product specialist, was started in 1917 by Matias, Mati, Josep and Angela Roca, and remains entirely owned by their descendants. It now employs 22,000 employees worldwide and boasts revenues of $2.6bn a year.
According to Lombard Odier, it deserved to win because of its environmental initiatives; design excellence, care for its employees and entrepreneurial spirit.
A report recently published by UK consultant Tomorrow's Company, sponsored by Hermes, has estimated that family owned businesses product nearly 60% of global GDP, or $5.5 trillion. The oldest family business in the world is the US-based Zildjian Cymbal company, founded in 1623 in Constantinople. Asia has a pronounced family-ownership culture, with more than half of all companies in the east of the region in the hands of dynasties.
Research by Credit Suisse has discovered that listed European companies substantially owned by families have outperformed their peers by an average of 8 percentage points a year since 1996. Studies on Danish and German statistics by data providers has found that the economic performance of companies owned by foundations is no worse - or even slightly better - than common ownership structures.
Tomorrow's Company pointed out that succession issues can be a problem. But it said there are strong perceptions that family businesses benefit from strong stewardship by individuals committed emotionally, and in a financial sense, to effective governance. The success of Germany's privately owned Mittelstand companies demonstrate the point.
When accountants PwC asked family business leaders what single legacy they would like to leave behind them, almost half the respondents said they wanted to ensure their organisation's sustainability.
Lombard Odier, like every Swiss private banking partnership, has families in secure control. Lombard Odier's eight managing partners now represent up to a seventh generation in charge of the firm. Following the credit crisis, the Swiss private banking model is increasingly seen as more desirable advisers by wealthy clients than large listed investment banks.
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