Reports
Discussion Papers
No.040 Executive Managers in Large Mexican Family Businesses
by HOSHINO Taeko
November 2005
ABSTRACT
The
involvement
of
members
of
owners'
families
in
the
running
of
large
family
businesses
in
Mexico
is
decreasing.
Although
family
members
still
hold
key
posts
such
as
that
of
CEO,
other
executive
posts
tend
to
be
delegated
to
professional
salaried
managers.
Top
managers,
including
family
members,
share
some
common
characteristics.
They
are
young
compared
with
managers
in
other
developed
countries,
their
quality
as
human
resources
is
high,
and
many
of
them
are
graduates
of
overseas
MBA
courses.
Most
of
them
are
sufficiently
experienced.
Improvement
of
quality
among
top
managers
is
a
recent
phenomenon
in
Mexico,
and
has
been
encouraged
mainly
by
the
following
two
factors.
First,
globalization
of
business
activities
was
promoted
by
intense
competition
among
firms
under
conditions
of
market
liberalization.
In
order
to
equip
themselves
with
the
ability
to
cope
with
the
globalization
of
their
operations,
large
family
businesses
tried
hard
to
improve
the
quality
of
top
management,
by
training
and
educating
existing
managers,
and/or
by
recruiting
managers
in
the
outside
labor
market.
Second,
developments
in
the
Mexican
economy
during
the
1990s
led
to
a
growth
in
the
labor
market
for
top
managers
Thus,
business
restructuring
caused
by
bankruptcy,
as
well
as
mergers
and
acquisitions,
privatization
and
so
on,
led
to
the
dismissal
of
business
managers
who
then
entered
the
labor
market
in
large
numbers.
The
increasing
presence
of
these
managers
in
the
labor
market
helped
family
businesses
to
recruit
well-qualified
senior
executives.
Keywords:
family
business,
ownership,
management,
managers,
Mexico
JEL
classification:
K22,
L22,
M12,
M13
Please note that discussion papers are works in various stages of progress and most have not been edited and proofread and may contain errors of fact or judgment. Revised versions of these papers may subsequently appear in more formal publication series. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s). The IDE does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included and accepts no responsibility for any consequences arising from its use.