Resilience and ethical leadership are key to the survival of family businesses

Family businesses are among the most responsible types of enterprise. Their owners often put everything into the business, including their name, reputation and energy, and not infrequently devote their whole lives to it. Another clear advantage is their strong ties to the region, their employees, their customers and the wider community.

Yet today they face not only strong competition from global giants and pressure to perform, deliver results and grow. Their success increasingly depends on how their leaders cope with uncertainty, conflict at work and within the family, responsibility and the risk of long-term exhaustion.

"If a leader keeps losing energy, inner calm or touch with their values over a long period, sooner or later it starts to show in their decisions, their relationships and the atmosphere in the company," Zuzana Čmelíková, Forvis Mazars expert on ethical leadership and resilience, said during a workshop at the Family Business Congress. Forvis Mazars was the expert partner of the congress, organised by the Family Business Institute on 17 and 18 September 2026 at Château Bela. In her view, resilience and staying true to ethical values are essential if family businesses are to survive and succeed.

A leader must remain true to themselves

Many entrepreneurs see the foundation of success in a well-crafted strategy, marketing campaigns or technological innovation. According to Zuzana Čmelíková, however, a successful family business starts long before strategy, numbers or succession. It starts with people and with what the family can agree on.

"A family business has one huge advantage: it can have a very strong story, identity and values. But that is exactly what makes it more vulnerable. What happens in the family is often reflected in the business and vice versa," she explains.

Her workshop on resilience, energy management and ethical leadership focused on why resilience and ethical conduct are essential for leaders at a time of growing uncertainty and pressure. "That is why, for me, values-based leadership is closely linked to resilience. A resilient leader is not someone who can handle everything. It is someone who can remain true to themselves even under pressure," says Zuzana Čmelíková.

The safeguard against these risks is a firm grounding in values, which she compares to an inner compass. "It does not mean the company will never change its strategy. It means that even in uncertain times, we know what guides our decisions," she adds. If a leader loses this compass, the consequences are felt across the entire ecosystem of both the company and the family.

The Golden Rule from the US

Running a business honestly, with care for people and a long-term vision, is a huge challenge in today's tough business environment. Yet as Forvis Mazars guest Bobby Ukrop, an American entrepreneur, stressed at the congress, it is the only way.

Bobby Ukrop represents the second generation of a family business founded by descendants of emigrants from Dobrá Niva in Slovakia. In 1937, his parents opened a small grocery store in Virginia that grew into the Ukrop's chain, which went on to lead the local market for a quarter of a century. When Bobby Ukrop joined the business as a part-time worker in 1962, it was a small network of local grocery stores. Over time it grew to 25 stores with more than 5,000 employees.

Today the family focuses mainly on food production under the Ukrop's Homestyle Foods brand, where Bobby Ukrop serves as Chairman & CEO. The values his parents built into the company have remained the same. The most important of them is the Golden Rule: treat others as you would like to be treated.

"We believe we can continue to run our business successfully by following the Golden Rule. This approach is one of the main reasons for our long-standing success," says Bobby Ukrop, while admitting that it is not easy: "Over the years we have made plenty of mistakes, and we keep learning from them."

Where family businesses have the edge

Both speakers agreed that the strength of family businesses lies above all in personal responsibility. When owners tie their own name and lifelong energy to the business, they see it through a completely different lens than a corporate manager.

Bobby Ukrop, who served for many years on the boards of publicly held companies, can compare both worlds. "In family businesses I have seen much more 'heart' and, above all, long-term thinking. Decisions can also be made much faster because there is less bureaucracy," he says. There is, however, a flip side: "Conflicts between family members can be very disruptive."

Success means aligning three identities

To keep family ties from harming the business, Zuzana Čmelíková sees professionalisation and clearly defined roles as key. "It is very important to be able to align three identities: who I am as a parent, who I am as an owner and who I am as a leader. Families sometimes avoid difficult conversations about money, influence or the future. Yet putting off these conversations can be far more costly than the conflict itself," she warns.

Ethics is not the enemy of performance

In an era of cut-throat business, ethics may seem like a luxury companies cannot afford in a crisis. Zuzana Čmelíková counters this with the motto "Good Ethics Is Good Business". "Long-term performance without trust is not sustainable performance. A family business must have clearly defined boundaries that it will not cross, even if doing so would bring short-term profit," she says.

In her view, trust is not built with slogans on a website but through the principle of "Walking Our Talk", meaning complete consistency between words and actions. In a family business this applies twice over, because employees watch closely whether family members really live by what they preach.

According to Bobby Ukrop, this requires leaders to lead by example at all times. "It means building trust by keeping promises to customers, suppliers and colleagues, inspiring continuous improvement, showing gratitude and bringing joy to work," he says.

A leader's true character shows in moments of greatest pressure. Under pressure, we make decisions not only according to our values but also according to our current energy levels and our ability to regulate emotions. That is why resilience is crucial: the ability to remain true to oneself and think rationally even in a crisis.

Generational change: passing on assets or character?

The greatest test for any family business is generational change. According to Bobby Ukrop, there is no universal recipe for getting through it, but he recommends keeping personal relationships outside work and not tying the company down with restrictive rules. "Years ago, someone told me something wise: the more rules you have, the more rules you have to break. Too many rules can do more harm than good," he says. In his view, the best school for the next generation is to build a successful career outside the family business first.

For Zuzana Čmelíková, the success of a family business cannot be measured in economic value alone, but also by what it leaves behind for the community and future generations. "A truly successful family business is not one that merely survives a single generation. It is one that can pass on not only its assets but also its character, values, trust and the ability to make good decisions. That is where family business, ethical leadership and resilience meet: in the ability to stand firm on what matters while staying flexible enough to grow and change," she concludes.