We Asked European Family Businesses What Their Top Priorities Are

The latest European Family Business Barometer has recently been released, revealing that family businesses are optimistic and are preparing for further growth. For many, the next step is the delicate and crucial operation of scaling up their operations.

Additionally, European family businesses preparing to do business on the world stage will have to factor increased global competition into their growth and expansion plans. Undoubtedly, family businesses hoping to expand must continue adapting their offerings and remaining agile.

The study was carried out by European Family Businesses (EFB), a federation of national organizations representing almost 10% of Europe's GDP, together with KPMG Enterprise. More than 1,500 family business executives in 26 countries across Europe were surveyed.

Survey highlights

In the survey, 73% of respondents reported being confident or very confident in their family business's economic prospects over the next twelve months.

However, while confidence is up across Europe overall, the UK was a notable exception. With Brexit negotiations ongoing, British family businesses are looking to the future with caution: their confidence has dropped from 83% in 2017 to 68% in 2018.

The top three priorities for the next years are improving profitability (mentioned by 49% of respondents), increasing...