Family to Family: Laird Norton Tyee Family Business Survey 2008

Data for the 2008 Laird Norton Tyee Northwest Family Business Survey was collected by conducting 200 phone interviews with family businesses in the states of Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

The companies were identified as family businesses based on set criteria and a number of questions asked of the person surveyed once they were contacted. The primary identifier for selecting businesses to participate was having at least two people in the top management team who had the same last name. Once these businesses were contacted, the person responding for the business was asked a series of questions to make sure they were indeed a family business. From those questions, we identified businesses that were at least partially owned by the family, but more important, heavily controlled by members of the same family.

The largest portion of businesses surveyed (69 percent) were in the retail and service sector. There were also businesses surveyed in the agricultural, manufacturing and construction sectors (a total of 18 percent for those sectors) and some businesses (13 percent) that would fall into the category of professional services.

For the purpose of our report, we analyzed our survey data in two ways. In order to gain insight and benchmarks about the trends of more established family businesses, we used information from the largest 25 family businesses measured by revenue that we surveyed. Looking at these 25 businesses informed us of the practices and needs of firms which face the full range of family business issues.

The second analysis was of the data provided by all 200 businesses. This larger sample statistically allowed us to draw correlations between the profitability of a business and its willingness to receive input from management, ownership and the controlling family. The data from all 200 families was used in the stakeholder correlation section of the report, while all other areas were informed by the 25 largest survey respondents.

Within the group of the largest 25 businesses, we surveyed 13 people who were identified as the founder or owner of their respective business, two who were identified as the co-founder, seven people who were identified as children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren of the business founder, a spouse of the owner of the business and two people who fell into the “other” category.

Within this group, the family owned an average of 95% of the company and the business had an average of 37 full-time employees. On average, 3.52 family members were employed as full-time employees by the family business.