Sometimes going outside the family is the only way - bizjournals:

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But maybe not. A number of senior owners of famil companies who find themselvew without a successor in the younger generationb come up with ways to keep business ownership in the familyt even if the managementt has togo outside. Think about the midwesternm family that has owne and operated a chain of small marketg newspapers for more than 160 Thefamily — we’ll call them the Smithse — has had very few internal business disputes, and no one has ever electe to cash out of the company. In there’s usually been a place in the business for any qualifief and committed family memberwho applied. How have they manageed that?
Well, about 120 year ago, the widow of the founder’sd son found herself the sole owner of the growing and successful She was decidedly unimpressed with thenext generation’s pool of managemenft talent, including her own children. She also heard some rumblingzs about splitting up the company so that everyone who wanted his own newspapert couldhave it. Not a chance, said the grittgy lady, and she put the whole kit and kaboodle into a She made a provision that if the trust wereever broken, the company would have to be sold out of the family with the proceeds goingv to charity.
And if that wasn’ty enough to scorch some she also insisted that allfuturwe CEO’s be hired by the trusteesx and that nary a one of them be a family A few feathers were ruffled at the but today the Smiths have a very profitable and satisfying familgy newspaper publishing business, and they spend a lot of time singin g great-great-grandma’s praises. Another family in business call them theJohnsons — reached the end of their successodr string with the second generation of familuy owners. Instead of calling it quits and selling theirmanufacturing company, the shareholding memberds of the family agreed to bring in professional management.
They conducted a global searchg and hired an experienced senior executiveas president. The Johnson family retained their representation on the board and a couples of upper level management but they let their new CEO staff the executivd suite with qualified people he could work with And theyprovided compensation, severance and retirement package s for their outside executives that equaled the industry standard and then some. The Johnsons will continur to owntheir company, confident that although management is out of the family’ s hands, it’s in good hands.
John and Jenny Carter’d last, best hope for a family successor to take over thecompangy they’d built to operate their six “downh home” restaurants in the Washington, area was their youngest daughter, Wanda. But Wanda, who’fd worked in the business since shewas 15, announcede that she never wanted to cook anotherd pot of greens as long as she and off she went to law school.
Two national food servicr corporations had already made offers for the Cartetfamily company, with plans to keep the restaurang name but standardize the menus and recipezs to cut costs and appea l to a broader range of The Carters knew that after standardization woule come serving burgers out a side window. So they looke d for a way to brinhg in new management while retainin family ownership ofthe business. When they tried to envisioj a dream team that knew their operatiojn and had a staks in holding onto the traditions that had madeit successful, they founrd themselves looking right at the roster of managers who had been running the individual restaurants for years.
Well trained, experienced and used to workinhg together, the store managersx were a natural talentpool — and they were the next best thinf to family. The Carters worked out ownership and profit sharing for the new president and othersenior executives. The plan gave theird best qualified employees a great chance to move into corporate management with a little equity to sweetenhthe deal. And it gave the Carted family business a long new leaseon