When Tradition Becomes Terrain
Family-owned firms form the bedrock of Europe’s private economy, comprising an estimated 70 – 80% of all businesses and employing nearly half the region’s workforce (European Commission, 2023). But their continuity is fragile: only 30% survive to the second generation, and just 12% make it to the third (OECD).
Faced with the statistical fragility of inherited enterprises, many heirs are reconsidering their role. Some step into leadership roles, others create ventures of their own. According to UBS’s global survey of 156 entrepreneurs from business families, 52% believe their ventures will outpace the legacy firm, and 68% cite personal values, not inheritance, as their core motivator. This is not rebellion, but reframing.
From Legacy to Launch
Marco, a third-generation heir from Zurich, represents a growing cohort of next-gen entrepreneurs who seek to complement rather than replicate the family legacy. In an interview with Altoo Insights, he shared the contours of his journey. His family had built a sizeable enterprise in high-precision machinery, with roots dating back to the post-war industrial boom. Marco, however, studied biomedical engineering at EPFL in Lausanne, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at a biotech lab in Boston.
On returning to Switzerland, he began developing a biomedical diagnostics platform targeting early-stage neurodegenerative diseases. Instead of embedding the project into the family’s existing industrial holding, Marco insisted on launching a completely separate vehicle. His rationale was both personal and strategic: different risk profiles, different regulatory regimes, and a different timeline for value creation.
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The family agreed to support him: on the condition that operational governance remained fully independent. Marco raised external seed capital and appointed a board composed entirely of non-family executives. Oversight and reporting are managed through Altoo, the digital wealth platform already used by the family office, allowing Marco to share financial updates transparently while maintaining full control over management. The arrangement, supported by Altoo’s reporting infrastructure, draws a clear line between what is family capital, and what is Marco’s own.
Impact Within the Perimeter
Others are reimagining legacy not from the outside, but from within. Hayley Morris, second-generation leader at Morris Group in Australia, inherited not just capital but a firm cultural blueprint: the family office, founded by her father Chris Morris after the success of Computershare, was built around commercial property and hospitality. Hayley brought a different focus. With degrees in sustainability and a strong philanthropic impulse, she established a renewables and impact investing division inside the family office, an initiative backed with substantial internal capital.
In interviews, she describes the process as one of “building shared outcomes from different instincts.” The structure she implemented included clearly defined impact metrics, separate reporting lines, and an independent advisory committee to evaluate projects beyond the traditional asset classes. Her initiative now operates semi-independently but remains capitalised and governed by the broader Morris platform. For family offices, the lesson is clear: younger generations don’t need to leave the fold to innovate, only to be given room to do so.
Independence Through Distance
Brad Harris took a different route. The son of Flight Centre co-founder Geoff Harris, Brad observed the challenges of unstructured leadership firsthand. “My old man had zero process,” he noted in an interview with The Australian. After completing his MBA, Brad launched a corporate training company aimed at institutionalising management development—a pointed contrast to the family’s more informal model.
Rather than draw on family equity, he self-financed the early stages and hired professional coaches as co-founders. Governance was formal from day one: external board members, quarterly audits, and defined growth metrics. His company has since grown into a leading provider of B2B training for scale-ups and family-owned firms, many of which mirror his own experience.
Brad’s success lies in his use of formal governance not as a constraint, but as an enabling discipline. His venture remains independent, but the entrepreneurial, irreverent, growth-driven ethos still echoes the Flight Centre DNA.
Lessons for the Family Office
These narratives carry practical implications for family offices tasked with guiding intergenerational transitions. First, structure matters. When next-gen entrepreneurs are treated as mere custodians, they resist. When given frameworks—separate boards, segmented capital, transparent KPIs, they often flourish.
Digital tools, such as the Altoo platform used by Marco, can support transparency without intrusion, an increasingly important balance as family offices expand across jurisdictions.
Next-gen ventures can complement, rather than compete with, the core family business. Whether it’s Hayley’s clean energy portfolio or Brad’s leadership institute, these ventures extend the family’s relevance into new markets and generations.
The Policy Context
Governments, too, are paying attention. Germany anticipates over 230,000 SME successions by the end of this year, yet many businesses face closure for lack of a prepared successor (Reuters, 2025). In response, ministries are piloting support schemes for heirs and women founders, including subsidised coaching, startup capital, and training in family governance.
OECD reports suggest that Europe still underperforms in entrepreneurial mobilisation: only 11% of men and 6% of women under 40 in the EU are involved in early-stage start-ups, despite far higher interest levels (OECD, 2023). This gap (amounting to over 7.5 million underrepresented entrepreneurs) is not merely statistical, it is a drag on long-term competitiveness.
Governance: From Shadows to Structure
Effective transitions increasingly rely on two-level governance: one for the legacy firm, another for the new venture. The Swedish Wallenberg family offers one of the most instructive models for modern dynastic wealth management. Through foundation-owned holdings, they maintain influence over major firms like Ericsson, ABB and AstraZeneca while enabling younger family members to pursue academic, philanthropic or entrepreneurial ventures—with financial and governance guardrails provided, not imposed. The result is a balance between freedom and stewardship. Few dynasties manage both so effectively.
Key mechanisms include:
- Family constitutions outlining core values and decision-making authority.
- Advisory boards with independent directors added to counterbalance nepotism.
- Clear KPIs and fundraising milestones for next-gen ventures.
- Digital dashboards (via platforms like Altoo) to track performance and provide transparency.
Such mechanisms do not dilute legacy. They institutionalise it, making continuity possible across generations.
Legacy with Latitude
The new generation of European entrepreneurs is neither disloyal nor disengaged. They are builders, not borrowers. They understand that wealth, while inherited, does not confer identity. That must be forged.
Family offices must create space for new ventures that build on the legacy rather than weaken it. When governance is clear, digital infrastructure is sound, and families trust their own successors, the results can be lasting. In the end, legacy is not a fixed inheritance, but something shaped continually by those who come next.
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