Global Family Business Report 2025 (Video) – Corporate Governance

How can your family business build long term growth and
sustainability?

Growth matters for any business – it is essential for
building prosperity and sustainability. However, for family
businesses, how you grow matters beyond sales and bottom-line
profit. Success is multi-faceted involving not just financial
performance, but social responsibility and environmental impact
underpinned by the legacy and identify of the family, its purpose
and values.

Family businesses continue to play a significant role in shaping
Saudi Arabia’s private sector in 2025, driving growth,
innovation and long-term resilience. Comprising over 95 percent of
private enterprises and contributing 66 percent to the sector’s
GDP, these businesses are attracting increasing attention for their
resilience, governance and long-term sustainability.

KPMG Global Family Business 2025

Our latest research report prepared in collaboration with STEP
Project Global Consortium and KPMG Private Enterprise using data
collected from 2,683 businesses from over 80 countries provides a
deeper understanding of the core drivers of family business growth
– effective governance and leadership, a focus on
sustainability across generations and the capacity for strategic
investment to enhance performance.

Specifically, this report considers:

• “Why growth and value creation matter” and “what
  constitutes good growth?”;




• What are the characteristics of boards of high performing
  businesses and how their composition influences future growth;




• The correlation between high performance and sustainability and
  the impact of multi-generational engagement; and




• How “Growth” capital and M&A activity can be
  harnessed by family businesses keen to diversify their markets and
  secure the foundations for future growth.

Download full report

Download the executive summary

Key facts and figures

67%

of High Performing businesses had formal boards (10% more than
the total sample).

32%

of the 2,683 of the businesses surveyed reported “High
Performance” relative to their peers.

48%

exhibited High Sustainability of these 70% had formal boards and
over 80% reported High Performance.

46%

had high levels of transgenerational entrepreneurship (TES) of
these 46% reported high performance 43% more than the global
sample.

Creating value through ‘good growth’

Long term value creation within a family business requires
careful consideration of the business’ financial performance,
sustainability and capacity to generate ‘good growth’.

Growth which is unplanned can have a disruptive effect leading
to an erosion of value and potential conflict with ‘family
values’. In short, how you grow matters.

Value creation through growth is crucial for a family
business because it ensures long term sustainability and ultimately
the successful transition of the business across
generations.

Family businesses should focus on:

Characteristics of high performing boards

Good Governance is crucial for the growth of a family business
because it establishes clear decision-making processes, reduces
conflicts and ensures long-term sustainability.

Our research underlined the relevance of formal boards in
enhancing business performance and found that High Performing
businesses were more commonly large scale (more than 250 employees)
as against the global sample.

We also found that the characteristics of the boards of High
Performing businesses included nearly one quarter of seats being
occupied by non-family members and nearly one third being
female.

How High Sustainability generates high performance

For many sustainability practices are ‘business as
usual’ with a focus on the long term being deeply ingrained.
However, developing deliberate approaches to sustainability is
increasingly becoming a strategic priority for family
businesses.

Importantly, we found 80% family businesses that were positively
engaged in their community, the environment, their employees and
suppliers, and consequently, displayed “High to Medium”
levels of sustainability, also reported High Performance.

Nearly 70% of High Sustainability businesses also had formal
boards, 15% more than the global average.

However, work still needs to be done on measuring their impact
at an environmental level with less 50% considering they were able
to do so.

Fostering ‘growth’ through M&A and Private
Equity

Growth capital is essential for family businesses to scale
operations. It provides fuel to help scale business operations,
expand into new markets, fund innovation and enter long- term
strategic investment opportunities.

Increasingly, Family Businesses have recognized the opportunity
to source ‘growth capital’ from third parties, keen to work
with family-owned enterprises such as private equity funds and
other private providers of capital, like family offices.

Private Equity ‘growth capital’ has the potential to add
not just financial capital but the chance to ‘leverage’
expertise and enhance operational performance

For family businesses, it is important to find the right
partners, understanding the value they are looking to gain from
engagement and being willing to undertake ‘due diligence’
on such issues as cultural fit.

Our research identified that M&A activity was becoming an
increasingly important priority for family businesses. Nearly 500
of the family businesses in our survey had undertaken acquisitions
in the last three years.

We measured the marginal effect on performance of M&A
activity and found that on average, these businesses had a 14%
higher business performance than those that had not engaged in
M&A activity.

In understanding the key attributes of family businesses
undertaking M&A activity we found that 63% of acquisitions were
targeting family businesses and that those businesses undertaking
M&A activity were:

• Larger scale than the global average.




• Led predominantly by Baby Boomer CEOs.




• 73% had formal boards.




• With greater levels of independent representation.

Global Family Business Report 2025

Don’t miss the opportunity to gain valuable insights from
our comprehensive report that delves into the core drivers of
growth for family businesses. Download the full report or the
executive summary today and discover how effective governance,
sustainability, and strategic investment can propel your family
business toward long-term growth and success.

To learn how KPMG Private Enterprise can help assist your family
business review our range of services and contact (local
representatives).

The content of this article is intended to provide a general
guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought
about your specific circumstances.