How the world’s largest family businesses are proving their resilience

The Global Family Business Index methodology

The Family Business Index is based on a global ranking of 500 family-owned businesses according to their revenues. The criteria to enter the Index is as follows:

1. The business should be in the second generation or more and have at least one family member in the board of directors and/or the executive leadership team. If the business is still in the first generation, at least two family members should be in the board of directors and/or the executive leadership team.
2. The family should have substantial ownership and thus decision-making authority in the business. Private companies are family firms in case the family controls* at least 50% of the voting rights. Public listed companies are the family firms in case the family holds* at least 32% of the voting rights.
3. To allow wider representation of families, the Index features one business per family. If two or more companies held by the same family qualify for the Index, the Index will feature either the parent/holding business or the business with the highest revenues.
4. Revenues of featured businesses should originate from published accounts that are no more than 24 months old.
5. Data sources used to generate the Index include public domain, filed and published financial statements or annual reports, and commercially accessible databases including Bloomberg, S&P CapIQ, Orbis, BoardEx and Refinitiv.

(* directly or through a family foundation or trust)

The Index is drawn from available data in the public domain, and should not be considered a formal or certified list of the largest family businesses in the world.