Buddenbrooks!

The ‘Buddenbrooks’ phenomenon is characterized by “the gradual decline in entrepreneurial talent from the first generation to the third,” says Francis Fukuyama in his book ‘Trust’.

The term originates from a 1901 German novel by Thomas Mann, whose title when translated means ‘Buddenbrooks, The Decline of a Family’.

A resource in the Web says, “The novel is the saga of the fall of the Buddenbrooks, a family of merchants, from the pinnacle of their material wealth in 1835 to their extinction in 1877. The novel traces the story of the family and its business over four generations, showing how an artistic streak not only unfits the family’s later members for the practicalities of business life but undermines their vitality as well.”

That’s one of the arguments against family-held businesses. How members of successive generations rarely have the same passion for the business nor have the skill. And yet families are reluctant to exit from the business. But of course, there are obvious exceptions (BOCTAOE), as Scott Adams would say.

Those families find a way out by recruiting professionals to run the show while still maintaining overall control.

But isn’t it only natural that different members of the same family aren’t equally gifted in ‘a’ particular area of interest?

Buddenbrooks, I believe, will always apply in cases where successors are chosen because they belong to the family that runs the show, and not because they are able.

This holds true for family-run business or even political parties!

BOCTAOE