Family businesses dominate trade and are of high adaptation capacity

The Minister of Economy and Trade, Alain Hakim, inaugurated this morning the “Innovation Forum for Family Businesses” organized by the Lebanon Business Management Organisation in collaboration with the Economy and Businesses Group (EBG), where some 200 participants from Lebanon and the Arab region took part in this event.  Participants’ profiles ranged from family business holders to senior managers from banks, insurance companies, exporters and service providers in addition to a number of directors general and heads of economic institutions.  In his opening address, Hakim highlighted the importance of family businesses in the Lebanese economy and added that these are present in all sectors and are quite common in the commercial sector.  Hakim also noted that the key to the success of such enterprises is their ability to adapt to any economic environment.  The head of EBG, Ra2uf Abu Zeki noted that the main problem facing family businesses is their reliance during their inception phase on charisma of the founder, often a “self-made man” (!?) with strong personality and able to innovate in business or in industry. For his part, the president of the federation of chambers of commerce, industry and agriculture, Mohammed Choucair, added that these businesses helped Lebanon overcome the implications of the global financial crisis and protected Lebanon from the various setbacks caused recently as a result of the subsequent crisis that the country was subjected to.
Source: Al-Diyar, Al-Safir 12 December 2014