SARA ALZAABI (ABU DHABI)
Family businesses have long played a central role in the UAE’s economic growth, but a rapidly changing commercial landscape is redefining what it takes to succeed over the long term.
Industry experts told Aletihad that structured governance, continuous innovation, and early preparation of future generations will be critical to sustaining business resilience.
Nazneen Abbas, a wealth and inheritance planning expert, said preserving a family business legacy means protecting its core values while actively embracing change.
“When we think of legacy, we must think of the values that built a business. Some founders end up preserving the org chart and the old ways of working, when the thinking behind them is what actually needs protection,” she said.
She explained that strong governance, a shared family vision, and early preparation of the next generation provide the foundation for long-term success, allowing businesses to adopt new technologies, bring in professional management, and expand into new markets without losing their identity.
To build long-term continuity across generations, Abbas advised family businesses to replace informal arrangements with structured governance frameworks.
“Family businesses remain resilient across generations by replacing informal understandings with formal governance. Plenty of structures exist, from a family charter and shareholder agreements to foundations, trusts – even a simple Will – and sophisticated vehicles like the dynasty trust,” she noted.
She stressed that governance should be anchored with shared values, clearly defined ownership and voting rights, and proactive succession planning, noting that each family's framework should be tailored to its specific assets, jurisdictions, and long-term goals rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all model.
Highlighting the role of family enterprises in driving the UAE’s economic diversification, Abbas said: “Family businesses have always been central to the UAE’s economic growth. Names like Al Futtaim, Al Ghurair, Al Naboodah, Al Rostamani, and so many more have built themselves across all the foundational industries of the nation, having taken plenty of entrepreneurial risks along the way. Their contribution has brought the UAE to where it stands today.”
Looking ahead, she noted that the future of family businesses will be shaped by how effectively they prepare rising leaders: “It will come down to how ready they are for what they’re about to inherit, no matter what the size of that inheritance might be.”
She added that families with clear decision-making structures and formal succession plans remain better positioned to raise capital and achieve sustainable growth.
Meanwhile, wealth and inheritance planning expert Akshay Sardana emphasised that the true inheritance family businesses must safeguard lies not in physical assets, but in the values and decision-making principles that drove their initial success.
“Legacy often tends to get misunderstood as a set of things to protect, but legacy is not entirely about the buildings or the trade name or the way the founder used to run meetings,” Sardana said, adding that enterprises are far more likely to thrive across generations when given the freedom to evolve while remaining rooted in core values.
He warned that the greatest threat facing family businesses often stems from internal ambiguity rather than external market pressures. “The bigger risk is internal ambiguity, and an inability to say, out loud, who decides what,” Sardana explained, noting that clear governance frameworks, transparent ownership, and formal succession plans should be established well in advance to transition businesses from individual-led ventures into enduring institutions.
“If ownership sits in one layer and management in another, the two can quite easily get conflated and become an additional, almost existential, problem,” he added.
Addressing future market opportunities, Sardana urged family businesses to expand their global perspective while continuing to leverage their strong local foundations.
“Competitive advantage has moved towards those who can orchestrate talent, capital, technology and partnerships across multiple jurisdictions, and run the whole thing as a single operation,” he said.
He noted that family-owned entities are uniquely positioned to drive investment into emerging sectors due to their ability to deploy patient, long-term capital.
“Family businesses built much of what the UAE economy runs on, and most of that was property, trade and traditional sectors that rewarded being early and building patiently,” Sardana said. “The next building phase will ask for that same patience, but in sectors like healthcare, technology, education and other more nascent industries.”
By maintaining a longer investment horizon than traditional external investors, family businesses can support emerging industries and reinforce the UAE's long-term global competitiveness.
Ultimately, Sardana concluded that institutional structure will define the next era of family enterprise success: “The next generation of successful family businesses will be defined less by the assets they inherit and more by the institutions they build around them.”