Entrepreneurial tendencies were found to be at least 48 per cent related to genetic factors, according to a study at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, USA this month. Professor Scott Shane and colleagues estimated that at the current rate of scientific development, future shrewd business people could be determined purely through DNA testing.

Traits such as being more likely to take risks, the ability to learn and adapt, and a keen sense of persistence are all those thought to be passed down from parents to children, both via genetics and learned behaviours while growing up. It’s this advantage that allows many business owners to keep business in the family across multiple generations.

This in turn allows businesses to maintain a consistency in service and branding; for example, while younger generations are likely to push new social media-based marketing strategies, long-lasting management are more likely to understand the importance of reaching out to a wider demographic through the use of print media.

Other entrepreneurs have not been so lucky; many, such as Hong Kong’s richest man Li Ka-Shing, have developed business skills as a result of growing up in a situation where few opportunities for success were available to him.  Clearly, upbringing has a powerful but not completely defining role in a person’s success; the correct traits are already born into the top business moguls!