A business founder builds a Kenyan enterprise. He most likely started with nothing, and made extraordinary sacrifices to create the empire. Thanks to this hard-won success he is able to give their children the benefit of many things that he lacked.

Subsequent generations enjoy a high standard of living and the best possible education, often abroad. They will have the opportunity to travel widely and enjoy their leisure. So as to spread the risk, some may now be living very far away from the original shop or factory, perhaps running a completely different kind of business from the original one.

They will speak and think in the accent and style of their adopted countries, and see themselves as global citizens.

Now the founder has retired, and the successor begins to worry about the sustainability of the business beyond the active life of the initial generations. And they will be right to do so, for few family businesses survive as such beyond the third generation.

Will the founder's grandson or grandsons, or granddaughters, wish to engage? Are they suited to do so? In what immediate and eventual roles? Have they been well prepared? Let us suppose the heirs are indeed introduced into the fray: how well do they fare?

Later generations

Many studies have been carried out of such situations, and as I have been involved with family owned and run organisations, I have admired the thoughtfulness with which they spend time figuring out how to try and build sustainability. Many questions must be pondered.

First, assuming later generations have come into the business, how content are they with their lot? Insufficiently so, thanks to their seniors not wishing to let go of control?

I know that one of the main topics of discussion at meetings of the Young Presidents' Organization, where more than half their number has inherited a successful going concern, is how to ease the ageing patriarchs out of the driving seat. More enlightened elders know better, understanding that Young Turks have much to offer too, and much that they do not.

The youngsters should perhaps gain experience elsewhere before entering the family business. Once in the system, they will need to be given challenges that are stretching enough but not beyond their capabilities - often reporting to direct bosses who are not family members.

They must be carefully mentored, read about best practice among family businesses. If they are to thrive in the family business ways must be found to build their confidence, so they can grow to positions of competent leadership.

An important part of this is to carry out a personal SWOT analysis, followed by introspection on where their SWOT should lead them in terms of their life purpose. The idea is to have their talents matched with available opportunities.

Decisions must be made on the extent to which the business operates as a "welfare state", where all are provided with equal benefits, or whether remuneration should be responsibility and performance related? How liberal or conservative should the policy be regarding availability of spending money? This will depend on the family's values, on the extent to which they are materialistic, individualistic and so on.

Some who come into thriving family businesses are "excessively" content, having been born with silver spoons in their mouths and having lost the hunger for achievement that defined their predecessors. Are they happy to just keep the corporate engine ticking along comfortably?

Do they balk at going for high revenue and profit growth, at launching new ventures or spreading to new locations? Are they so focused on increasing their happiness they're less concerned about increasing the family's wealth? Do they risk the "rust out" of under-stress more than the "burn out" of over-stress? Or can they find a magic that will deliver both more wealth and more happiness?

I recently wrote about the Motivation-Hygiene theory of Frederick Herzberg, who showed that once we have reached an adequacy of remuneration it is time to focus on "true" motivators like job satisfaction, recognition and personal development. And in the context of family businesses, adequate wealth is often the least of their problems. So can they keep alive the passion and the pride of those who went before them? Can they take the business to the next level?

How concerned are they with their personal legacy? The more sensitive top leaders of family businesses appreciate that they too must keep growing. They may need their own mentors - including support from younger family members in areas such as IT, where each generation has something to offer as well as something to receive.

Family businesses also worry about succession planning and about ageing leaders, who need to withdraw from their lifetime work habits and start thinking about other ways of spending their time enjoyably and profitably. This could mean engaging in philanthropic endeavours, travelling, or maybe just being with the family. Who is there to care for their welfare as they become old?

If the business is doing really well, and if not enough younger family members are available to feed the future leadership need, then what? Should the family convert from running business operations to becoming investment managers? Should they merge with other companies, or sell out, or go public?

Finally, families that manage to do well both as a family and in their business have learned how to separate the running of the family from the running of the business. It is not easy, and that's why there are so few members of the "Tercentenary Club", which brings together family businesses that have kept going for over 300 years.