I recently spoke with Willem van Eeghen, whose family business — founded in 1662 — has outlasted wars, revolutions, and economic upheaval for more than 360 years.
When I asked him how they navigated times of uncertainty and adaptation, he offered this heuristic: “Like many things I started, I always did it in a kind of embryonic way… add it on to an existing division and give it about a year and a half to see if it can keep its pants up.”
