Middle-market succession woes.

• Position: Business Briefs

The good news for middle-market firms: they have great staying power, with 63 percent of those surveyed having been in business for more than 20 years. The bad news: Only 51 percent have a CEO succession plan.

The survey, conducted by global accounting firm Grant Thornton and international strategic research and consulting firm Wirthlin Worldwide, includes middle-market firms with revenues between $50 million and $1 billion; these firms account for $2.7 trillion in annual U.S. revenues.

John Desmond, Grant Thornton's partner in charge of the Business Owners Council, says the fact that two-thirds of middle-market, entrepreneurial companies have been in business more than...