The ‘lucky sperm club’ as Warren Buffet calls the group of heir generally more extensively and expensively educated but lack of managerial and leadership skills compared to their parents; and the most common succession failure of family business succession is simply passing down the company to the eldest son. Given the same desire to preserve legacy to offspring, royal families also face succession issues: skills and capabilities are not biologically inherited. Nevertheless, reigning royals of monarchies, kingdoms, and emperors have survived wars, revolution, and throne succession for centuries while 70% family business fail to survive in the first generation. Thus, this study aims to draw lessons from the royals.
Family business under this study is SM Company, which was the cable market leader in Indonesia during the pre 1998 crisis. The family faces succession planning issues by adopting a highly familial culture. Therefore, by using a qualitative case study approach and triangulation, this study assess and aim to explore typical family business issues: gender preferences, first son (長子) belief, inadequate succession planning, siblings rivalry, child comparison aversion, child reluctance, and founder’s postponement to retire.
By examining various strategies of monarch’s robust succession contest and succession planning, a family can adopt the strategy to select and prepare the candidates, mostly family members, to inherit the throne. Malaysia’s crown rotation and Pope’s cardinal election is suitable for low nepotistic familial culture in which the degree of intervention is low and high, respectively; while uniting the elites and well regulated group of House of Saud is applicable to the high nepotism and high intervention family business environment. However, when the father favors nepotism and no one could intervene the decision, primogeniture succession planning must be carefully designed.
Learning from the Chakri Dynasty, balancing the sovereign power when the chosen successor is either reluctance or inadequate is the key to keep the continuity of a business. Furthermore, learning from House of Wangchuck, succession is not an event but a lifetime process; hence, status is earned not given. Proving oneself is the key for acceptance and smooth transition. Siblings rivalry can only be constructed by an affectionate parents and the chosen successor to the siblings, as learned from House of Windsor. Professional evaluation of House of Norodom can select the suitable highborn, compared with unstructured family business’ selection formulae. A new position for the sticky incumbents can minimize the possibility of founder’s attachment. Lastly, learning from Russian Kingdom and successful Japanese family firms, marriage and adult adoption can preserve the legacy intergenetaionally.

The ‘lucky sperm club’ as Warren Buffet calls the group of heir generally more extensively and expensively educated but lack of managerial and leadership skills compared to their parents; and the most common succession failure of family business succession is simply passing down the company to the eldest son. Given the same desire to preserve legacy to offspring, royal families also face succession issues: skills and capabilities are not biologically inherited. Nevertheless, reigning royals of monarchies, kingdoms, and emperors have survived wars, revolution, and throne succession for centuries while 70% family business fail to survive in the first generation. Thus, this study aims to draw lessons from the royals.
Family business under this study is SM Company, which was the cable market leader in Indonesia during the pre 1998 crisis. The family faces succession planning issues by adopting a highly familial culture. Therefore, by using a qualitative case study approach and triangulation, this study assess and aim to explore typical family business issues: gender preferences, first son (長子) belief, inadequate succession planning, siblings rivalry, child comparison aversion, child reluctance, and founder’s postponement to retire.
By examining various strategies of monarch’s robust succession contest and succession planning, a family can adopt the strategy to select and prepare the candidates, mostly family members, to inherit the throne. Malaysia’s crown rotation and Pope’s cardinal election is suitable for low nepotistic familial culture in which the degree of intervention is low and high, respectively; while uniting the elites and well regulated group of House of Saud is applicable to the high nepotism and high intervention family business environment. However, when the father favors nepotism and no one could intervene the decision, primogeniture succession planning must be carefully designed.
Learning from the Chakri Dynasty, balancing the sovereign power when the chosen successor is either reluctance or inadequate is the key to keep the continuity of a business. Furthermore, learning from House of Wangchuck, succession is not an event but a lifetime process; hence, status is earned not given. Proving oneself is the key for acceptance and smooth transition. Siblings rivalry can only be constructed by an affectionate parents and the chosen successor to the siblings, as learned from House of Windsor. Professional evaluation of House of Norodom can select the suitable highborn, compared with unstructured family business’ selection formulae. A new position for the sticky incumbents can minimize the possibility of founder’s attachment. Lastly, learning from Russian Kingdom and successful Japanese family firms, marriage and adult adoption can preserve the legacy intergenetaionally.

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