Planning practices in Australian family businesses

Australian family businesses have a poor track record of undertaking formal business planning. This paper reports on the business planning behaviour of
Australian family businesses from a survey of 5,000 businesses across all types and sizes of industries. Our survey found that around one-third of family
businesses undertake formal planning activities. Thus, there has been no improvement in family business planning practices from that reported in 2003. The reluctance of Australian family businesses to undertake contingency and risk planning, as well as human resources planning, leaves Australian family businesses highly exposed in these difficult economic times.