Kongo Gumi, a 1,428-year-old family business in Japan, has officially gone under. Business Week has provided an interesting article on the reasons for their success and ultimate demise.

To sum up the lessons of Kongo Gumi’s long tenure and ultimate failure: Pick a stable industry and create flexible succession policies. To avoid a similar demise, evolve as business conditions require, but don’t get carried away with temporary enthusiasms and sacrifice financial stability for what looks like an opportunity. These lessons are somewhat contradictory and paradoxical, to be sure. But if sustained success came easy, then all family businesses would have a 1,428-year run.

Simple lessons, to be sure, but all too often unheeded.