Studio guest: Professor Sabine Klein from the European Family Business Center in Wiesbaden

DW-TV: And let's bring in Sabine Klein. She is Professor of Strategy and Family Business at the European Business School. Ms. Klein, are family businesses better able to withstand this recession? Sabine Klein: Some of them are, some aren't. Those who have done their homework prior to the crisis will withstand it. They have customers and they know how to serve them. They have employees that are motivated to serve those customers and they've got their finances straight. The others probably won't survive the crisis. DW-TV: OK, so we've got these two classes of family businesses right now: the ones that prepared and the ones that didn't. Here in Germany we're expecting about half a million more unemployed people before the end of the year. Do you think most of those job cuts are going to come from big companies and not from family-run businesses? Sabine Klein: I can't foresee that, but again I would assume that it will come from those companies which are dependent on the financial market to a great extent at the moment. DW-TV: You know it's interesting, family businesses here in Europe -- particularly here in Germany -- are not reporting dramatic drops in sales. Now just a few days ago, right here in Germany, more than 200 family business entrepreneurs gathered in the western German town of Bonn. It was a summit of family businesses from across Germany. They gathered to show solidarity and strength in the crisis. Now sixty percent of all jobs in Germany are created by family businesses. Ms. Klein, let me ask you, for the worker is that somewhat of an insurance policy when you go to work for a family business? Sabine Klein: Well, you know that your boss wants to be in that same company for the next twenty years. That is somehow different compared to an anonymous company where the boss changes every five years. Yes, I would say so. DW-TV: That actually makes a family business more attractive than a multi-national corporation in the age of globalization, doesn't it? Sabine Klein: It does. DW-TV: It makes us all wish that we had a little store around the corner where we could work. Sabine Klein: Well, we are not talking about only little stores around the corner. If you're thinking of those family businesses that gathered at Bonn, those are multi-nationals themselves. So they are serving the needs of customers around the globe, but they do it in a very, very personal way. DW-TV: And they are not running to the government right now asking for bail-out money like a lot of big corporations are doing. What do you say to that? Should the government be rescuing certain sectors of the economy? Sabine Klein: If the government invests huge amounts of money into sick companies they might make those who are healthy, in the same sector, sick too. So I would really ask them to refrain from that and let the family businesses -- and all other businesses --- work. DW-TV: What do you say about the auto industry, for example, because I know that there are a lot of smaller, family businesses that depend on the survival of the auto industry? Sabine Klein: That's true, but we've got a market that has 77 milllion cars potentially made per year. We needed 50 million prior to the crisis. And now there are some forecasts that we could go down to 35 million cars per year. You can't save this kind of industry. And yes, of course, there are many family businesses that are supplying the car industry and they will have to look for different markets. DW-TV: We'll definitely have to see what happens as this plays out....Ms. Klein, thanks you very much for talking with us. (Interview: Brent Goff)

DW-World | May 12, 2009

Tags:. .wiesbaden. .foresee. .withstand. .unemployed. .solidarity