Some successful business empires are built by entrepreneurial founders. Other business empires are built by entrepreneurial leaders who take over an existing small company and transform it into a vast enterprise. The latter often originates with a small company run by the entrepreneur’s father. Either way, the entrepreneurial leader takes a tiny company and turns it into a vast business empire.
When the entrepreneurial leader who built the business leaves, the business is at a point of potential vulnerability. After this point, the direction the business takes will depend heavily upon what the new leader does after replacing the titan that built the business empire.
It is often hard for successors to achieve the phenomenal business growth that their predecessor attained. Mote realistically, the successor’s challenge is to keep the business reasonably successful and to possibly identify areas that can bring additional modest growth. As successors take on the new leadership challenges, their ability to successfully lead the empire has still not been proven. Some successors will do very well. Others may do poorly. This outcome is generally still unknown at the time the successor takes over the business.
The above discussion is especially relevant today as the vast business empire built by 92 year old Rupert Murdoch has shifted its leadership over to Rupert’s son Lachlan. The September 22, 2023 Wall Street Journal article “Rupert Murdoch to Step Down, Elder Son to Take Over Empire “ by Joe Flint and Amol Sharma says, “Rupert Murdoch is stepping down as chair of Fox and News Corp, after building a media empire over seven decades that revolutionized news and entertainment and made him one of the world’s most influential and controversial business tycoons.” As the article points out, “Murdoch inherited a small Australian newspaper business and built it into a colossus.”
As with all business change of commands, time will tell how well the Murdoch empire does under its new leadership. Lachlan has played a major role in the company and that could be good preparation for his new leadership challenges. Yet, as with all business change of command, only time will tell how well a company performs under new leadership.
Some successful business empires are built by entrepreneurial founders. Other business empires are built by entrepreneurial leaders who take over an existing small company and transform it into a vast enterprise. The latter often originates with a small company run by the entrepreneur’s father. Either way, the entrepreneurial leader takes a tiny company and turns it into a vast business empire.
When the entrepreneurial leader who built the business leaves, the business is at a point of potential vulnerability. After this point, the direction the business takes will depend heavily upon what the new leader does after replacing the titan that built the business empire.
It is often hard for successors to achieve the phenomenal business growth that their predecessor attained. Mote realistically, the successor’s challenge is to keep the business reasonably successful and to possibly identify areas that can bring additional modest growth. As successors take on the new leadership challenges, their ability to successfully lead the empire has still not been proven. Some successors will do very well. Others may do poorly. This outcome is generally still unknown at the time the successor takes over the business.
The above discussion is especially relevant today as the vast business empire built by 92 year old Rupert Murdoch has shifted its leadership over to Rupert’s son Lachlan. The September 22, 2023 Wall Street Journal article “Rupert Murdoch to Step Down, Elder Son to Take Over Empire “ by Joe Flint and Amol Sharma says, “Rupert Murdoch is stepping down as chair of Fox and News Corp, after building a media empire over seven decades that revolutionized news and entertainment and made him one of the world’s most influential and controversial business tycoons.” As the article points out, “Murdoch inherited a small Australian newspaper business and built it into a colossus.”
As with all business change of commands, time will tell how well the Murdoch empire does under its new leadership. Lachlan has played a major role in the company and that could be good preparation for his new leadership challenges. Yet, as with all business change of command, only time will tell how well a company performs under new leadership.
