Nairobi, March 4 -- Last year, I had an interesting chat with the CEO of a large bank in Tanzania about its role in helping family-owned businesses adopt governance standards. Whether it is a bank that has supplied credit to a business, or a manufacturer who has sold product on credit to a distributor, or a wholesaler who has sold goods to a shopkeeper, all these entities are faced with the nerve-wracking hope and prayer that the key man (or woman) does not keel over and die before the loan or goods are paid for in full.

So, rather than the bank sending officials to the funeral to establish that the founder is dead and that they were up the proverbial creek without a paddle, the CEO engaged the founder using the sensitive lever of loan p...