Family Business United founder Paul Andrews interviews Stuart Dantzic, the second generation Managing Director of Caribbean Blinds UK Ltd to gain an insight into the family firm through the eyes of the next generation. As well as appreciating the role that Stuart has today and his clear pride and passion for the products they make and their plans for growth going forward, we learn about the steps taken by the next gen as they took their first steps in leading the family business after the baton was passed to them by their parents, the founders of the business.

John Broons interviews another Australian family business and gains some great insights that we can all learn from.

Peter Leach is one of the leading family business experts globally and here he looks at why it is important to have a mix of family and non-family on the board of a family business and at the role of non-executive directors.

A major challenge that family business leaders face today is inefficient and ineffective succession planning. There is every reason to get it right, but too often the process is not given enough consideration. Have you ever thought why this might be the case? Listen to Wayne Rivers from The Family Business Institute as he explains the Top 9 reasons why family businesses struggle with succession planning.

The economy is quietly dominated by family businesses, but they tend to be short-lived: few make it to the third generation. Victoria Mars YC ’78, part of the fourth generation of her family at Mars Inc., told Yale Insights that the company’s culture and mission play a key role in keeping each generation involved and ready to take over.

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.