Stewardship: it’s a seemingly old-fashioned term, thought to have been first used in the 15th century, and, at first sight, maybe somewhat obsolete in today’s business world of quarterly profits and shareholder value. But although it’s a centuries-old term, it may still resonate today, particularly with family businesses. INSEAD Professor Randel Carlock explains more.

In the latest of the Family Business Insight series, Paul Andrews interviews Jake Karia, Managing Director of award winning Food Attraction, owners of the Jake and Nayns food brand. Hear the personal insight from Jake Karia into the growth and development of the family firm that was inspired by the tasty meals prepared by his Mum growing up. An award winning business that has grown significantly over the years, continues to invest and despite the global pandemic is looking forward positively to the future.

Ridgeview is an award-winning family business set in East Sussex run by CEO Tamara Roberts and family who are a pioneering family business producing English Sparkling Wines and celebrating 25 years as a family firm in 2020. Tamara shares her thoughts on growing up in the family firm, their journey to date and the investment that they are making for the future.

The story of Cartwright and Butler is a story of family and their love of baking that spans over five generations. You would be forgiven for thinking that the families involved were the Cartwrights and the Butlers, but this is real life and things are seldom so simple. Instead, it begins with the Adam sisters, Jennie and Kathrine who lived in a house down Derringham Street in Hull, in the North of England. The third sister Maria was already married to Charles Arnett. Upon the death of their father Henry Fearn Adam in 1903 their step mother returned to Scotland leaving them without an income. As a result, Jennie and Kathrine turned the front room of their house into a shop offering the unconventional pairing of sewing and baking. It wasn’t long before their natural talent for baking saw them leave the sewing behind with a move to new and bigger premises of J&K Adam in Princes Avenue Hull where their sister Maria also worked. The Bakery was born along with a reputation for some of the finest breads, pies, cakes, biscuits, puddings and preserves in Hull. Later, the Arnetts (remember them? We said they would be back) who had their own small chain of bakery shops by now bought J&K Adam and the families were united over their joint passion to be the finest bakers in the North. It is the direct decedents of the Arnetts, three brothers, who still run the business today, along with that same passion to make finest products possible, still burning just as bright. But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves and need to return to the 1930’s… To be an Arnett is to be a baker and so it was always going to be simply a matter of time before the next generation would continue the family legacy, with two cousins (Gordon Arnett, the grandfather of today’s owners and another Kathleen Arnett) taking over a shop and café in the village of Cottingham, Yorkshire. More tough times were around the corner and in 1939 World War Two broke out and with-it food rationing was introduced. During the early war years Gordon Arnett took over a bakery in Norfolk Street Hull and with ingredients now in such short supply the shop would sell out everything they made within the first few hours of opening each day. In 1946 immediately after the war The Cake Shop was acquired in North Bar within Beverley and the business flourished. An article in The British Baker dated 1st April 1955 at the opening of the refurbished Cake Shop which now included the shop next door, had Grandfather Arnett already looking ahead to the time when his two sons John and Charles would take over the business, despite them being only twelve and eight at the time! It wasn’t until the middle 60s that this was to happen. By now the Arnetts’ reputation for being skilled bakers was gaining national attention and they were selling their cakes and biscuits across the country in stores with such wonderfully old-fashioned British names as The Army & Navy Stores, The Civil Service Stores and the legendary Barkers of Kensington A lot of this success was down to the hampers that they were included in. Here was an opportunity to showcase their skill in making not just luxury cakes and biscuits but also classic puddings and mince pies. Now diversification was happening with the starting of Beaverlac Home Bakery firstly in Beverley and then moving to Beverley Manor, Park Avenue Hull in 1980. In the 1990’s there was further diversification into the Yorkshire Farm Bakery where a range of boxed cakes using innovative packaging were produced. This range was added to in the early 2000’s by a comprehensive range of gluten free breads and cakes which supplied the needs of a growing market. With a new generation of Arnetts now running the business, it was time for the next evolution of the business. The brothers were concerned at what they saw at this time in Britain. Food was going through a bit of a crisis. Taste was being forsaken for profit. Chemists were replacing cooks. The joy of eating was being replaced with an obsession with calorie counting. All of which was an anathema to the Arnetts. Here was a family who for generations not only prided themselves on mastering the art of baking, but who derived great personal pleasure from food and the sharing with friends and family that went with it. Enough was enough, they were going to bring back unadulterated joy to the British teatime table. They would go back to what Jennie and Kathrine did – bake great tasting biscuit and cakes and preserves, the kind that put the biggest of smiles onto faces. Looking around to supplement their skill as bakers they bought a small company making jams and preserves with the simple aim to make them better than homemade. So enamoured with these products were the brothers that they decided to keep the name, Cartwright and Butler. Whatever the next chapter holds for the Arnett family of bakers you can be sure of one thing, that passion for making only the finest products, that is at the heart of who they are and have been for generations will continue for years to come. To find out more please visit www.cartwrightandbutler.co.uk

John Falder, managing director of HMG Paints and his son Jonathan Falder discuss how their values are part of who they are. John Falder, managing director of HMG Paints and his son Jonathan Falder, operations manager of HMG Paints are the 4th and 5th generation working for their family business HMG Paints. Established in 1930 with two employees and a single product (capping solution), HMG Paints is now the largest independent paint manufacturer in the UK. “It’s not about writing stuff down, I mean, you write stuff down and it just goes in a cabinet or whatever. It’s actually what you do, it’s how you live it really, it’s what we do,” explains John. Valuing What We Do “Our values are the core of everything” John explains, “they are the first pillar of what we do and why we do it. Our values of decent, worthwhile, secure, underpin what we are all about. None of them are more important, because they work together. Those three words are our benchmark for decision making. I inherited another very useful question from my father, what are we really trying to do? This gets to the core of the purpose of HMG Paints, great, we’ve grown the business by 20%, but what we are really trying to do? Is it a good thing that’s happened, or is it just being big, or is it just growing for the sake of growing? Is the company, the people in the business in a better position at the end of the year than we were at the beginning of the year?” Reflecting on HMG Paints as a business family, it has thirteen third generation families currently in the business, both father and son believe their strong values and purpose play a key role. It also gives HMG Paints an enviable competitive edge, their average length of service is around 15 years. For John, the loyalty of their people is “a good barometer whether we are doing it right, because if you are in a good place to work, you want your family to work here.” Making It Worthwhile Investing in the next generation of Collyhurst talent also makes a lot of sense for HMG Paints. Their Next Generation Coatings programme with local academies and secondary schools brings 14-year-old into the business. “During second world war, there was 14-year-old, 15-year-old, and 16-year-old running HMG because all the young men had gone to fight, all of our staff had gone,” points out Jonathan, “so my father came up with the idea if a 14–year-old, my grandfather, Ronnie Harvey and Albert Moore, aged 15 and 16, could run HMG, so can today’s 14-year-old and 15-year-old.” A programme set up because it felt like the right thing to do benefits HMG Paints. “One of the original next generation coatings is now a trainee accountant and is doing spectacularly well in the business,” and while some of the local kids did not end up joining the business, they found their direction, and for Jonathan, “that’s just as good as someone who joined the business.” “To me as a next gen, it makes an enormous amount of sense, this is where we live. We have been in Collyhurst since 1930, it is our home, why on earth wouldn’t we want to make it better for both ourselves and the local community?” Securing The Future It may sound counter intuitive but being secure keeps HMG Paints agile, as Jonathan tells us, “the security part of it is being in many different market areas, and what we find is, sometimes a market area becomes uncompetitive, sometimes it drops off a cliff. There are many different pillars, if one pillar falls, the rest of the pillars hold up the business. For example, looking through the top 10 products sold today, not one product in the top 10 now, was there five years ago. So, secure is being able to adapt quickly and evolve your business.” From discussing a new concept in nail polish with a client and testing it on the nails of the same client an hour later, to creating the next generation of coatings because if you are not constantly thinking what’s the next thing, then somebody else will think of it and leap ahead of you. Decent, worthwhile, secure has nurtured, over the generations, a collective passion for coatings in the HMG Paints family. Their enthusiasm to ‘move the game on again’ makes them leaders in their market, built loyalty in both their customers and people, and helps bring prosperity to their local community. This feature was first published by PwC as part of their Family Business Survey. It has been reproduced with their permission. Visit their website here to find out more.

Are family businesses really more resilient, agile and adaptable than other business types? And, if so, have they been able to tackle the challenges of COVID-19 better than most and, perhaps, emerged even stronger? The shock of an unexpected global pandemic provided an opportunity for the Successful Transgenerational Entrepreneurship Practices (STEP) Project Global Consortium and KPMG Private Enterprise to come together to find the answers to these questions by taking a first hand look at how family businesses have responded to the pandemic in the Global family business survey: COVID-19 edition and report. Global survey data was collected between June and October 2020, followed by input from family business leaders, academics and family business advisers in January 2021. The experiences and insights from family businesses in the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East & Africa have revealed a roadmap, not only for mastering a comeback in their businesses, but for leading a global economic recovery. Mastering A Comeback Learn how family businesses across the world are mastering a comeback in their businesses and triumphing over COVID-19, to help lead a global economic recovery. Resilience, It’s In Their DNA Family business leaders reported that the first impact of the pandemic was seen in their revenues. That was not surprising. The majority reported that they experienced revenue declines, however, as many as 17 percent whose revenues were affected by COVID-19 actually experienced a revenue boost. Predictably, this included companies that benefited directly from an increased demand for their products and services, but many others were also able to adapt quickly and rebuild their businesses to tap into new opportunities. The resilience and agility of family businesses has proven to be to their advantage once again. They have achieved positive outcomes for their businesses, families and communities by transferring their resilience into actions at the organizational, strategic and social level and did so with the characteristic inclusiveness and tenacity that are found in most transgenerational family firms. Leveraging The Unique Characteristics Of The Family Business Model Eighty-seven percent of family firms that responded to the survey are led by family CEOs, which often reflects a high level of family involvement in day-to-day decision-making. This is a unique characteristic of family businesses. During times of dramatic change and upheaval, the family is often a source of unique resources and capabilities. During the initial shock, we identified several financial and non-financial actions that families took to stabilize their businesses while simultaneously laying the foundation for their companies’ longer-term growth prospects. For some, this led to a complete transformation of their business operating models and the launch of new product offerings, often with the intent of making the business fit for purpose in a rapidly accelerating digital age. Statistics For Family Businesses Led By A Family CEO Not only were they involved in addressing the impact of COVID-19 on their businesses, but they also looked out for the welfare of their communities and expanded their horizons to integrate their business and environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategies to support broader environmental and societal goals. The Power Of Family Involvement When many family businesses started to grasp what the pandemic might mean for their companies, they realized that more involvement and input was needed from the family itself. It was important for the family to re-engage, especially when the management of the business had been entrusted to non-family executives. In some cases, senior family members have come back into the business to bring a historical context and to ensure that the family’s purpose and values remain intact for whatever decisions might need to be made. Younger generations are becoming more involved as well. Because of their knowledge and exposure to many new technologies, they are being relied upon to identify digital solutions to transform the family’s business operations and help to develop new technology products and service offerings that will pivot their business, potentially taking them into entirely new markets. Three Strategic Responses The actions taken by family businesses have revealed three core strategic responses: Strategy 1: Social Responsibility The focus is outside the family business and emphasizes the business family’s commitment to the welfare of society as a whole, and the needs of all their stakeholders including employees, customers, suppliers and local communities. It reflects the family’s values and the governance practices that are in place to support their societal and environmental responsibilities and maintain their reputation as responsible owners. Strategy 2: Business Transformation The concept of pivoting and the importance of encouraging a transgenerational entrepreneurship mindset is the focus of this strategy to pass the business successfully from generation to generation. It includes reactive actions such as streamlining operations and implementing new financial measures, proactive pivots for creating new products, exploring untapped markets and adopting new technology solutions to transform the business. Strategy 3: Exercising Patience With this strategy, some family businesses have not taken immediate action to address the impact of COVID-19. The capital invested in the family business is “patient capital”, and they are prepared to take their time to fully assess the impact on their business and the actions of others in their industry before making decisions that might have far-reaching, longer-term consequences. Making The Strategic Choice: Two Key Factors We observed a pattern in the strategies-of-choice among family businesses that reflect two key factors: the leadership of the business and the ownership composition of the company. “Is the business led by a family member or a non-family CEO?” “Are the company’s shares highly concentrated among a small number of shareholders or are they widely dispersed among multiple family (and potentially non-family) members?” Other characteristics, such as the size and age of the company and the number of family generations who are actively engaged in the business, have also influenced their actions. When we combined the family/non-family CEO and family ownership factors with these additional characteristics, we were able to cluster family businesses into four groups that share a common profile. We found that the families who are represented in each cluster have generally adopted similar strategies and actions in their response to COVID-19 and we have brought them to life in four illustrative family business personas that we have labelled: the “Family Corporation”, “Family Enterprise”, “Family Consortium” and “Family Venture”. Real-life experiences have been used in the personas to show, by example, the unique features of different family business types and how their characteristics may be influencing the decisions and actions they are taking. Lessons In Resilience The actions that family businesses have taken to respond to COVID-19 from a business, family and societal level demonstrate, once again, their extraordinary competitive advantage in being able to act and adapt quickly. They have shown their resilience in making a comeback – even in the face of the most challenging of times. More than that, they are showing family and non-family businesses alike how to leverage all of their assets – financial and non-financial – to lead their companies into the future and not look back. We hope their experiences and some of these considerations can help to position your family business at the forefront of the resurgence in the global economy: How effective have the initial financial and non-financial actions been in mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on your business? Did the company’s governance practices help to support these efforts and reduce potential risks? Are good mechanisms in place to facilitate the family’s decision-making? Should the family begin to play a larger role in the operations of the company? How relevant are the three strategies (social responsibility, business transformation and exercising patience) for the short- and long-term needs of your business? What other actions might you consider now? What is the long-term outlook for your business? Is it time to recalibrate the business model and adopt new technology solutions? Is a remote workforce a viable, long-term option? Is it important to engage younger generations of the family in contributing to the recalibration of the business? Is succession planning becoming more of a priority? Are acquisitions, strategic alliances or other opportunities available to diversify your products and provide a potential entry into new markets? Take a look at the full findings in the report, Mastering A Comeback below:

Between 30%-48% of UK adults suffer from insomnia. Are you one of them? Perhaps you find it hard to get off to sleep, have difficulty staying asleep, or wake frequently in the night and find you can’t get back to sleep. It’s a problem for me too. So, what can we do about insomnia? Dr Deborah Lee from the Dr Fox Online Pharmacy shared her ten top tips to help us all to get a better night’s sleep. 1. Get Some Sun First Thing In The Morning Our bodies are programmed to work in conjunction with our own internal biological clock – known as Circadian rhythms. At night-time, the brain recognises the darkness and produces the sleep hormone, melatonin, which is the signal for sleep. But in the mornings, it needs to recognise the daylight, so this highlights the difference between night and day. If you can go out for a walk preferably within an hour of waking, without sunglasses, this will help prime the natural sleep cycle. 2. Create A Bedtime Routine Never expect to get into bed and drop off straight away when your mind is whirling and tossing after the stress of the day. You need to wind down for sleep. Having a bedtime routine is important, as your brain knows what is coming next. Set a bedtime and stick to it. Start getting ready for bed an hour or two before this. Turn off the TV screens, the computers, and mobile phones. For start, the blue light emitted by these devices inhibits the production of melatonin. But they also just keep stimulating your busy brain. Play some soft music or listen to something interesting on the radio. Take a warm bath or shower. Do some gentle stretching exercises. Read for half an hour in bed. Avoid caffeine and alcohol at least 6 hours before bedtime. 3. Write A List Before Bedtime In a 2018 research study, those who wrote a list of plans and obligations for the following day before going to sleep fell asleep more quickly than those who wrote about what had happened during the previous day. Participants were asked to write for 5 minutes about what they planned to do the next day. Writing a ‘to do’ list is a simple way you can park your worries until the morning. 4. Keep A Gratitude Journal Other research has shown that keeping a gratitude journal can aid sleep. In a 2011 study, a group of students with anxiety and sleep problems was found to worry less and sleep better after completing a gratitude writing task. When we start to look around and take notice of all the things we are grateful for, and that we often take for granted, this helps us get things into perspective. Developing feelings of gratitude helps lower levels of anxiety and leads to more positive thought processes, which aid relaxation and sleep. 5. The Military Method You may have heard of ‘the Military Method’, a method apparently used by the Army to help them fall asleep quickly when they have the opportunity. 96% of those who do this are said to fall asleep in 2 minutes – Here’s how to do it: Start by taking a few slow deep breaths. Then consciously try to relax your face, neck, jaw, and shoulders. Continue with slow deep breaths. Imagine a warm trickling sensation passing over your whole body, passing from the heart down to the toes. Next, breathe in and out slowly and try to relax your body, arms, hands, legs, and feet. You then try imagining you are in a canoe on a calm lake looking up at the blue sky, or, that you are lying on a black velvet hammock in a room that is pitch black 6. Cool Down You might think you need to get nice and warm to go to sleep, but studies show that body temperature falls by 1-2 degrees when we sleep at night. A fall in temperature signals to the body that it is time for sleep. This is why it’s a good idea to keep your bedroom cool. Sleep with the windows open, or even use a gel pad on your pillow. Exercise heats up your body, which is one of the reasons why it’s not advisable to exercise too close to bedtime. 7. White Noise Or Pink Noise? Some people swear they can only sleep in silence – which is often impossible in today’s world. In fact, certain types of noise can be helpful for sleep. White noise is a specific sound made up of every frequency of sound that can be heard by the human ear. It creates a background noise that dampens out any loud noises like a door banging or the sound of a car exhaust. For hospital patients, a white noise machine produced a 40% improvement in the ability to fall asleep. It has also been shown to be effective in helping babies and small children sleep. Pink noise is made up of a mixture of low-frequency and high-frequency tones. This is background noise like the sound of the wind in the trees or the waves on the ocean. Pink noise has also been found to be helpful in improving the ability to fall asleep, to sleep for longer periods, and have better quality sleep. (I listen to the radio in the night, at a very low volume, so it’s really a murmuring and I have to strain to hear it, but I find it helps.) 8. Only Use Your Bed For Sleeping Experts are quite insistent that a bed should only be used for sleeping (and sex!). Now that many of us are working from home, it’s important not to work from your bed or bedroom. Your brain needs to know that when you go into the bedroom, it’s time for sleep, and not to associate your sleeping quarters with stress and work. Plus, not working in the bedroom helps you to achieve a work-life balance. It’s time to find another workspace if you want a better night’s sleep. 9. Cold Water And The Dive Reflex It may be a surprise to know that the diving reflex can aid sleep. When you submerge your face in cold water, your body thinks you are about to dive and sets off a range of natural reflexes, which aid sleep. Your heart rate slows, and your blood pressure falls, as blood is rerouted from the limbs to the brain and the heart. The process activates the parasympathetic nervous system, inducing feelings of calm and relaxation. You can try holding your face under cold water for a few minutes before bedtime, or even going for a night time swim. Final Thoughts Falling asleep does not happen easily for many of us. But as you can see, there are many easy, inexpensive, tips and tricks you can use to help yourself fall asleep faster. What changes could you make to help yourself get off to sleep more quickly? About the Author – Dr Deborah Lee is from the Dr Fox Pharmacy, a fully regulated UK online doctor and pharmacy service managed by NHS GPs. She is a doctor and freelance writer who writes about all aspects of health.

How do family businesses stay intact for the next generation? The statistics are daunting: some 70% of family-owned businesses fail or are sold before the second generation gets a chance to take over. In an increasingly competitive world, family businesses need quality advice to help maximize their chances of success. But we also need to recognise that family businesses are intrinsically bound up with the personal lives and wealth of its members. This is where family offices can step in and add value. As a single command centre, family offices can help to keep families unified in purpose through a range of services, from well-considered succession planning, to formulating family constitutions and assemblies, to helping set up family philanthropy. Providing Structure Family businesses are often the brainchild of one or two founders, sometimes growing organically for another generation or two. But the longer a family business exists, the less it can depend on the sheer force of will of its senior members. Family offices help to bring structure as a business matures. A family constitution establishing the principles of how the business is to be governed can serve as a useful reference point. This can anchor the family’s values, helping to transmit the principles of the founder to the next generation. Family offices can sit down with a founder, or other senior figures in the business, to help them formulate these principles and commit them to paper. Boards, assemblies and councils are also important in ensuring that everyone’s voice is heard. Some of these may be organised in accordance with shareholdings, but in a family business it is important to give more junior or peripheral members a seat at the top table as well. Younger family members might even be given a specially-crafted ‘junior board’ to cultivate their interest in the business. Here, family offices can help provide an organisational framework. Insiders And Outsiders Some family members want to continue in the business. Others do not. However, it doesn’t need to be quite so binary. Individuals would often like to retain some involvement, but in a specific role which interests them. Again, family offices can come to the rescue and work to fit a family member’s own interests into the company in a way that makes corporate sense. It may also not make sense to keep everything in the family. Perhaps a professional CEO is needed to run the show while family members sit on the board. Or maybe it’s a matter of hiring a few more in-house experts, such as lawyers or accountants, to offer much-needed support and counsel. An example of a large family company doing this well is the Brenninkmeijer family, of C&A fame. For a smaller firm, these first forays can be contentious – but is equally something which a family office can help to advise on, leveraging its position as a neutral arbiter. Trusts Trusts are an important weapon in the family office arsenal. This is especially because they can help to mediate disputes, which is a crucial component of family business succession planning. Unfortunately, a lot may have been left unsaid when a founder dies. Family members who put in the hours to grow a business may fear a sibling, who didn’t, gaining a substantial interest in the same company which they feel to be rightly theirs. The task of trustees is to satisfy the wishes of the settler, handling disputes which arise much in the way a referee helps to manage a game of football. Global Families When someone says “family” people think “local.” But this is hardly the case anymore. One of my clients is a family business from Milan, Italy. It used to be that everything they did was in that locality. Now, the family has production everywhere from Finland to Malaysia. This sort of globalisation opens up a new set of challenges and opportunities. Family offices can strive to ensure that diversity of jurisdictions works to everyone’s advantage – most notably in keeping things tax-efficient for all family members, and for the business itself. It also prompts some emotionally charged questions over who is closer to the business, or who gets to participate in the company’s exciting new phase of growth, about which families may welcome advice. Philanthropy For successful family businesses, philanthropy can be the glue which brings people together. Members can get involved in something meaningful together by injecting purpose into their work, offering a line of participation to those who might otherwise not want to be too involved in the business. Family offices can take the lead on this, identifying the right organisational structure. This could mean setting up a charity in and of itself, or a grant-making body which interfaces with established charities. Regardless of what model the family chooses, a family office can cut out the administrative bureaucracy and let family members focus on helping the less fortunate.

Escapism Bar Group was founded in 2004 by husband and wife team Phil and Mel Harrison. Since the opening of their first bar Mean Eyed Cat, they have gone on to open seven other unique bars which all offer something totally different in Leeds. Paul Andrews spoke to the founders to get an understanding of their journey to date and to find out what it means to start and grow their family business. What does the business do? We are a group of independent bars in Leeds. We create memorable moments, inspire our guests and create an atmosphere of happiness and togetherness. Our core business isn’t to sell drinks – it’s about the atmosphere and the experiences our guests have when they visit us. The clue is in the name – it’s all about escapism! Each bar brings something unique. They’re each based on a different cocktail genre or era of partying history – from 1920s prohibition at our speakeasy The Maven, to 1950s post-WW2 indulgence in the South Pacific beach bars at Tiki Hideaway, to Johnny Cash in the rebellious Deep South at The Mean-Eyed Cat. Another bar, Cuckoo, was founded during Brexit. We wanted to create something as far away from politics as possible. We painted the front of the building pink and had zebras running through the walls. Every part of your experience when you visit an Escapism bar is a little bit unique, whether it’s a tower of beer with a giraffe’s head on top which you can spin around and serve to your friends, drinks set alight, or a six-course cocktail tasting menu. Tell me a little about the history of the business? It started with the two of us [husband and wife Phil and Mel], aged 26, thinking ‘how hard could it be to set up a bar?’ We always wanted to have our own business – it’s about being in control of your own destiny. We’d had some rubbish jobs and some horrible bosses, and as we went out every weekend, we became inspired to do our own thing and create something great. We wanted to create somewhere where all the guests were friendly to each other, and the bar team was a close group of friends. You spend a lot of time at work, so we wanted to make it the best possible place it could be. In the beginning, we raised money by moving between houses, doing them up and getting the equity out. We didn’t have any inheritance or help from our parents – it was a lot of graft and a lot of painting! Are there any other family members working in the business? Yes – in 2014, Mel’s sister-in-law, Hayley brought her marketing expertise on board and has been heading that up ever since. Our three children are still at primary school age, so it’ll be a while before they become interested in joining. What has helped drive your success to date? Our initial drive came from putting everything on the line. We couldn’t afford to lose. We’d work hundred-hour weeks to make it happen. When you open up more venues, you’ve got to be able to trust your team to create a good culture. They need to want the business to grow too. We’ve made every mistake we could possibly make, but just when you think you’ve seen it all, something new goes wrong. That’s just the nature of the hospitality industry and of running your own business. What values are important to the family and the business? When we induct new members to the team, we tell them our back story. It’s important to us that they know where we started. Hard-working, enthusiastic, and a great attitude are all qualities we look for. We also want our team to want to continuously improve. We must, otherwise we will stand still. The number one thing we tell our team is to host the bar as if you’re hosting a house party. Look after your guests: make sure the music’s right, the drinks are flowing, everything’s clean, you’ve got loo roll in, you’re introducing guests to each other, bid them goodbye when they go and make them feel special! Do you build the family ownership into the marketing and brand narrative and if so, how? People describe the bars as a brotherly, sisterly environment. It’s safe and friendly. There’s no pretentiousness or trouble going on – instead, just as if you were with family, it’s relaxed, and you can be yourself. Anyone who works for us would tell you that it’s like a big family. We do quarterly away days and make sure everyone at all the bars really knows each other. Our team is really diverse and we hire on personality. We hugely believe in paying everyone doing the same job the same wage, regardless of their age or gender. What do you think makes working in a family business special? Trust is massively important. We’re both working towards the same goal, even if we have different ideas about how to get there and may disagree from time to time. We can build in flexibility for looking after our children, which helps us be understanding and flexible when employees have children too. Work should be as natural as play. Are there any disadvantages associated with working in a family business? It can be hard to split the person from the job role. You always need to keep in the back of your mind the job description of the actual job you’re doing. We split the work between us by keeping an awareness of each other’s strengths and weaknesses. If you can do that for yourselves, you can do that for the other job roles in the company too. If you haven’t got defined roles, there can be crossover. It’s like at home – kids will play you off against each other if there are inconsistencies. So, at work, we make sure we know who deals with each area. Have you taken any particular steps to help protect the business for the future? Covid’s an obvious one when thinking about the future. We’ve been very agile in changing how we operate. 88% of our business used to be between 10pm and 4am. So, when the curfew was introduced last summer, we had to become a daytime brunch place. People used to arrive in taxis at midnight, now they’re ordering drinks at noon! If you could talk to your younger self before you joined the business, what would you say? Just go for it! A lot of people do all the hard work and research and then don’t have the guts to take the final leap. We’ve never really regretted taking that leap. The only other thing would be to read more and learn more. All the knowledge is there, you’ve just got to find it. Personally, I’d probably learn more about the figures. I tend to go on gut instinct and day-to-day figures, rather than long-term financial planning. But sometimes the numbers right in front of your eyes are the most important ones. If you concentrate on each day, the year will work itself out! If you could sum up the family business in three words, what would they be? Togetherness, happiness and escapism!

Arco scooped two awards at the Family Business of the Year Awards (‘FBOTY’) organised by Family Business United (‘FBU’), including the ultimate accolade, Supreme Family Business of the Year 2021. FBU celebrates family owned businesses across the UK, recognising the contribution they make in terms of employment, income generation and wealth creation. In the live ‘virtual’ awards ceremony, Arco took the Yorkshire Family Business of the Year title which was promptly followed by the ultimate triumph as they were crowned Supreme Champions for 2021. For Arco, the UK’s leading supplier of safety products and services, the evening was a celebration of all that it has achieved over its 5 generations as a family owned business, as well as recognition of their core purpose: to keep people safe at work. As Doug Ryan, Wealth Management Director at Mattioli Woods, sponsors of the Supreme Champion Award explains: “Arco is a multi-generational family firm that has real purpose underpinning everything they do. Family values are firmly embodied in the business and have helped guide them successfully for over 135 years to become a world class business.” “Arco stood out as worthy overall winners this year. As we all know, people are at the heart of any business and they are the lifeblood of Arco. Their family values define their reason for being and are truly embodied within the heart of the organisation, the people in the Arco workforce. These values have been upheld during the pandemic, the business has stepped up to help communities the length and breadth of the country and over the past few years there has been continued investment to help future-proof the business for generations to come. Arco are worthy winners of this award and all the accolades it sends their way,” concludes Doug. Ben Fowler, Managing Director of Western Pension Solutions, sponsors of the Yorkshire award and judge adds: “Arco is a business that is driven by the why and not the how and if. They have made significant investment in the governance of both the family and the business and always strive to do their best with growth coming from their desire to make a positive impact on society, something they have been doing since 1884. This is an incredible family business and a great ambassador for the sector, not just in Yorkshire, but across the whole of the UK and beyond.” As Thomas Martin, Chairman of Arco adds: “At the end of the most remarkable and humbling year that I have ever had in my 35 years in business, this award just caps it off! Our fifth generation family business is driven by a single purpose, to keep people safe at work. During the last 12 months, our crew have done amazing things to help the heroes and heroines on the front line, battling to build back better and help fight against this horrendous pandemic. They have been incredible and this award recognises their efforts.” “We just strive to be the best that we can and to be a force for good wherever possible. These awards are an important reminder to those in government and in business of the importance of the family business sector and the contribution it makes. Family businesses are at the forefront of making the UK the best possible place it can be, to do business, to start a business and to thrive and these awards recognise this across the whole of the country,” adds Thomas. “As for us, I am accepting these awards on behalf of over 1600 members of the Arco crew and, of course, the family. It is a great honour and we are thrilled with the recognition. Thank you very much indeed,” he concludes. As Paul Andrews, founder of FBU and organisers of the awards concludes, “Family businesses are the engine room of the UK economy and these awards celebrate their contribution. There can only be one winner and Arco are a fantastic business, great ambassadors for the sector and deserving winners of the 2021 Supreme Champions Family Business of the Year title.”

Family enterprises form the majority of businesses large and small in every country in the world. At the same time, few are able to sustain themselves with the same level of wealth and success even into their second generation and sustaining shared family wealth after the third generation is nearly improbable. Overcoming these challenges is the subject of the book, Borrowed from Your Grandchildren: The Evolution of 100-Year Family Enterprises (Wiley, Feb. 26, 2020), by Dennis Jaffe, a leading architect of family enterprise consulting. As each generation of a family enterprise becomes larger and more complex, the book describes how the family must evolve through internal and external challenges to remain cohesive. Borrowed from Your Grandchildren presents the findings of a multiyear project in which researchers interviewed more than 100 families around the globe to understand the evolution of family enterprises that have succeeded for 100 years or more. Particularly, Jaffe shares findings in an engaging narrative that point to elements of families’ experiences and learnings that allowed them to survive for the long term. In a time when there is much concern about the concentration of wealth in the hands of ‘the 1%,’ Jaffe’s study is an important addition to the dialogue. It shows how, in many successful family enterprises, business values and culture aren’t focused solely on generation of wealth, but on using resources responsibly. In Borrowed from Your Grandchildren, Jaffe shares qualities and practices of what he calls ‘generative families,’ and addresses: What specific qualities sustain a family enterprise for successive generations How shared values and a long-term perspective inform successful family enterprises How business families develop social responsibility and resilience across generations How family businesses avoid the three-generation “curse” and improve chances for longevity How older generations effectively groom younger generations to assume responsibilities — and how younger generations often branch into new directions How forces of digitalization, globalization and rapid change make today’s environment for families fundamentally different What important differences exist between family and non-family businesses? What family dynasties — from America’s Rockefellers to Sweden’s Wallenbergs to Korea and Japan’s Kongo Gumi — serve as models for today’s families businesses? Following the evolution of multigenerational family businesses, Jaffe uncovers qualities of the first-generation entrepreneur, the second generation that grows and professionalizes the business, and the third or fourth generations when the increasing numbers of family members have to decide the nature of their engagement in the business. The author’s many examples, along with tools and activities, will prove instructive to families forming or maintaining family enterprises, along with lawyers, accountants, bankers, coaches, consultants, board members and other trusted advisors who offer resources to families to keep them on course. “As we enter a new century of global business, characterized by uncertainty, unpredictability, high risk, and dramatic technological innovation, the public company managerial model may no longer be the most adaptive form of business. All over the world, business is discovering advantages of long-term family ownership and control.” —Dennis Jaffe

William Croxson established his wholesale bottle merchant business in London in 1872. Today, nearly 150 years later, both the family name and the family business are as strong as ever. They’re very proud of this heritage, especially over the last 40 years, where there has been a huge evolution of the company. Building on the vision of chairman James Croxson, they are now well-established as an international expert in single-source, multi-choice glass packaging. And with these solid foundations in place, the next 150 years look like being even more successful. We spoke to Tim Croxson, the fifth generation of the family business to find out more. When was the business founded? The business started in 1872, so we will be celebrating 150 years in 2022. What does it do? We design and supply glass containers and closures to food, drink, beauty & cosmetic manufacturers and brand owners. For example, a lot of craft beer and gin finds a home in one of our bottles. Tell me a little about the history of the business? William Croxson, the founder, my great-great grandfather, trained as a wine cooper and went into the wine business as a broker in London. At that time, glass bottles were expensive as they lacked the manufacturing techniques we see today, so every bottle was reused. William saw an opportunity for a cradle to grave type industry, collecting used bottles, cleaning them, then filling them with wine that he purchased. What generation are you and what are your first memories of the family business? I am the fifth generation, and my first memories were of coming into the office at weekends, playing with the Telex machine. Whilst certainly not appreciating the finer details of what the business did, I think the majority of memories were more around the team of people who worked for the business, something that remains just as important to us today. Are there any other family members working in the business? My father is still involved as Chairman of the Group, with more of a focus on our international companies. How important was the business in your life as you grew up? It would be foolish to not recognise the benefit/privilege that growing up around the business gave me. It offered part-time work as a young lad but also gave an aspiration as well as demonstration of what hard-work was and the level of commitment required to run a business. What was your journey into the family business and what do you do now? I have been full-cycle – from desire to work in the business, to wanting nothing to do with it but then wanting to apply my education to the company, to help it be and do better. My first formal role was working in the warehouse, running the forklifts, and whilst still retain oversight of that area, I progressed into marketing and operational roles with secondments at two of our group business. I am now Chief Operating Officer of the Group, but, uniquely, heavily involved with the strategic direction of the business. As a multi-generational business, what has helped your firm stand the test of time? At senior level, whilst sometimes taking a little longer than we would like, we haven’t been afraid to make the tough decisions and address our own challenges and change what we are doing if it isn’t working. It would be fair to say that change is a constant. Our team are singlehandedly the most important asset we have – the sense of team in our daily collaboration and work is really vital, and whilst having naturally changed over time, was one of the things that struck me when I first started working. What values are important to the family and the business? Honesty, hard-work, fun. Do you build the family ownership into the marketing and brand narrative and if so, how? We describe ourselves as the family of packaging. Whilst a double play on our history and the full suite of packaging that we offer, we are proud of our history. We use the family business line to most effect in describing how we work as that has the most significant difference compared to a business which is either corporately owned or lacks the long-term strategy and experience. What do you think makes working in a family business special? The sense of family. We treat all of our team as family. There is a greater patience and grace shown than in other types of businesses. Are there any disadvantages associated with working in a family business? There can be massive highs with a family business, but also some massive lows – when it goes wrong … and impacts on family relationships. At its hardest, when decisions are the greater good versus family, with the fall out being, ultimately a break of relationship, that is when you wear the scars of a family business. The toll it can take on yourself and your own family can be high, emotionally, mentally and physically. Having a strong family unit or peers is vital for support and a sounding board. Have you taken any particular steps in terms of governance to help protect the business for the future? We have been blessed with an amazing board of professional directors, some outside hires, some internal promotions. This ensures a balance, and we are clear that we only want people who show integrity and a willingness to say it how it is, rather than trying to play politics. I s there a next generation in the wings? Potentially, but still of a young age. It is difficult though to not look at my children and start wondering, even evaluating… What advice would you give to anyone in the next generation considering joining their family firm? Either be prepared to start at the bottom, work really hard, study and read whilst you do, or go outside of the business and come back in your own right, with all the experiences and knowledge that comes from working in different types of business and under different leadership. If you could talk to your younger self before you joined the business, what would you say? The massive lows that might come your way will hit you for six, but you will come back stronger. There are times that it will be hard, look after yourself, know how to look after yourself both emotionally and mentally. If you could sum up the family business in a few words, what would they be? Inspirational – both design and charitable work. Fun – banter is so important! Family – value is put on the individual AND their family. Team – we work for each other, when someone is down, the team responds. Innovative – both in what we do and how we do it. Find out more about the business by visiting their website here