Marriott

Mormon businessman Bill Marriott, who transformed his father’s restaurant business into a global lodging company, has put aside the religious values of his church to launch a marketing campaign celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) inclusion. 

Launched this month, the campaign, which features transgender model Geena Rocero and gay basketball player Jason Collins, includes a series of billboards and a dedicated website where customers are invited to share their travel stories on social media using the hashtag #LoveTravels.

A fourth-gen Italian pasta mogul has sparked controversy by saying his family business would never feature a gay family in its marketing campaigns, causing gay rights activists to call for a boycott of the brand.

Guido Barilla, chairman of the eponymous family business, told Italian radio station Radio 24: “I would never do [an advert] with a homosexual family, not for lack of respect but because we don’t agree with them. Ours is a classic family where the woman plays a fundamental role.”

Size matters in the US, which is home to some of the world’s biggest family businesses. The country’s five largest family-controlled firms – Walmart, Ford, Cargill, Koch Industries and Comcast – had combined revenues of $911.9 billion (€694.8 billion) in 2012, more than Indonesia’s GDP.

Three leading American family businesses have been making the headlines for different reasons, although all were recession related. Katie Barker analyses how Marriott, Ford and Huntsman have survived to fight another day