A worldwide tendency of family enterprises is to die when third generation takes on. It seems evident that the survival of this kind of enterprises depends, among other things, on the development of systematic succession strategies able to guide the company into deep organizational changes. The present article consists in a theoretical empirical analysis of the behavior and attitudes of family enterprises predecessor and successor. The aim is to identify the strategies developed by business families in order to conduct inheritors to the managemnet of family enterprises. The method used in the study was "multi case" with qualitative analysis of data. The systematic strategies applied during succession period were analyzed through the time. The theoretical content includes strategy and business strategy notions, besides the concept of family enterprise and succession based on life circles theory introduced by Gersick and others (1997).