Are more conservative in a family business parents or their offsprings?

Felipe Luis Vera Serrat
CEO eFreeCommerce.com
Sept.14/2009

According to my experience of many years as an advisor to small and medium enterprises, I have encountered numerous generational clashes between parents and their offsprings in family businesses. The question now is who are more conservative and resistant to change , parents or their offsprings ?. It is difficult to answer this question, because apparently while young people should be more open to change, that is not always the case. Some companies have seen parents much more open and willing to make changes that allows them to escape from a "limbo" kept for years and sometimes even decades, which in turn will enable them to grow their businesses, while their  offsprings sometimes oppose all or most of what is being proposed to improve the work of such enterprises. That is why I consider age not being a problem, liberality is not precisely related to youth and conservative related to old age as far as the administration of family businesses is concerned.