Mitzi Perdue’s story is summed up in the title of her website: ‘Insider secrets from wildly successful families’. She’s the daughter of Ernest Henderson, the founder of Sheraton Hotels, and was married to the poultry magnate, Frank Perdue. Between them, the Henderson and Perdue families have 222 years of experience in managing successful businesses, and Mitzi is an impressive entrepreneur in her own right. Though back in the 1940s, when she was a girl, that looked like the last thing she was likely to become. “My father made it pretty clear that I was never going to be in the family firm – I don’t think it even crossed his mind that one of his daughters would have an interest in the business. And it wasn’t just that no-one expected me to do it, it was actively discouraged.” As it turned out, it was the moment of transition between the generations that opened up an opportunity for Mitzi – when her father died in 1968 she still didn’t get the chance to work in the hotels business, but she did inherit enough money to start up a venture of her own. “The Henderson family decided to sell Sheraton company, but it was only the men who got to have a vote – the women had just as strong views, and we were stockholders, but we didn’t get a say. Soon after that I started a business growing rice in California, and I think I must have learned a lot from my father about the importance of picking the right site, because I deliberately chose an area where I thought the land might have future development potential.” The site was indeed eventually sold for an enormous profit, but in the meantime Mitzi spent 15 years growing a really profitable rice business, and had a great deal of fun as one of only eight women out of the five thousand rice growers in the US: “the other seven inherited their firms; I made mine.” Mitzi learned the value of visibility as a woman in a male-dominated sector, and became a leading light in the industry, helping to prevent legislation that would have decimated rice growing in the area, and becoming President of American Agri-Women. Though she admits, “It was easier being a pioneer then than it is for many women today.” She puts her success down to a willingness to do her homework and work hard. Not being afraid of failure is important too, in fact she says she “failed her way to success”. This ability to take a long view is a characteristic family businesses like her late husband’s also share. Perdue Farms is one of the largest producers of organic chicken in the world, with a promise that no antibiotics are ever used. But getting to that position – and making it profitable – was a long eleven-year haul. “My husband worked out that the only way to get a better price for selling chicken was by offering a premium quality. So we had to learn how to deliver that quality and still make money. We learned about the importance of scrupulous hygiene to keep disease levels down, and how to use probiotics and herbs to keep the chickens healthier. It was a huge innovation at the time, and it’s really successful now, but if we hadn’t been a family firm I doubt we could have done it. We wouldn’t have been able to take such a long view.” But family firms have big challenges too: “I have a theory of life that one of the biggest causes of either happiness or misery in life is the family, so if you want to be happy you have to work really hard at your family. That’s even more true if you all work together.” The Henderson family have pioneered a number of really interesting ideas, as a way to keep the family united, and bridge the gap between the generations. One is the ‘service to the family award’, which is judged each year by all the previous winners. “On the Perdue side, we have regular newsletters, one of which is specifically designed for our youngest family members, with stories about the family, and what it did in the past, so they know where they come from, and feel part of something big and special. Because it is: if you’re part of a business that’s been going for four generations, that’s a big deal. And it’s very special.” This feature forms part of the PwC Global Family Business Survey 2016. It has been reproduced with permission of PwC.

Tohtonku Sdn Bhd is a major player in the personal care products sector in Malaysia, and stands out from many other family firms in the region by having made it successfully to its third generation. It was set up in the ‘60s by Lim Joi Him, and in the half century since then has grown its portfolio to over 200 products, some of them market leaders. It’s also a significant regional player, selling all over Southeast Asia including Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, Brunei, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Personal care is a particularly fast-moving segment, driven by changes in consumer taste, new fashion, celebrity endorsement, and new product development. Tohtonku’s work in this area is managed by a member of its third generation – Jasper Lim, its Executive Director. “We use some of the region’s best-known celebrities to promote our brands, and we’re always looking for the next big thing and the next important fashion trend. We think our own staff are one of the best resources we have to capture how our consumers are thinking, and we encourage a working environment where new ideas can come from anywhere, not just an office marked ‘Innovation’. And once we have a new brand it’s all about achieving market share, which means clever marketing, and an efficient production operation.” This inclusive culture reflects the values which are important to the family, and which they apply within the business as well. “For us, values are as important as profits – not more important, but equally important. My father cares as much for the welfare of the staff as he does for the family itself. Some of our staff have been here for decades, and many work long beyond their official retirement age, because they feel part of something. We want to contribute positively to the economy and the social welfare of the nation, and we believe our values of humility, trust, growth, and service are the best way to do that.” The same values have helped the family manage its own affairs, especially in an increasingly fast-moving world which is utterly unlike the business environment Lim Joi Him first knew. “I think the secret to our success is that we understand the importance of harmony. There will always be some disagreements among family members, and differences of opinion about the direction we should take, but we give each other the benefit of the doubt instead of immediately passing judgements. We make an effort to clarify and understand the issue before we come to conclusions. We eat and breathe this company – it completely dominates our lives, and that makes us stronger as a family, stronger as a business, because our customers really respond to the strong values and heritage of family-owned firms.” About the piece - This feature forms part of the PwC Global Family Business Survey 2016. It has been reproduced with the permission of PwC.

It’s often said that family firms have the ability to reinvent themselves with each new generation, but it’s harder to find real-life examples where this has actually happened. Greg Rowe Ltd is one of them. After growing a hugely profitable tap making business in the ‘80s and ‘90s, the family started up a new venture focusing on drinking water filtration products, and is now expanding back into the kitchen taps that gave them their initial success. And it’s all down to the power of innovation… Greg Rowe Senior built his first business from his garage, with his partner, Bob Perrin. It eventually grew into the Perrin & Rowe range of luxury kitchen and bathroom taps, showers and accessories. The company’s success was also driven by their invention of Triflow. The world’s first three-way tap, the product dispensed hot, cold and filtered water from a single spout and was patented in 1991. As Greg’s wife Alex says, “At one point, there were Perrin & Rowe taps in every single 5-star hotel in London, as well as other luxury venues all across the world.” Greg adds, “We grew at 30-40% a year for about five or six years.” That international expansion was built on an exclusive distribution arrangement with Franke, the biggest sink manufacturer in the world, and over time, Perrin & Rowe expanding its sales in the USA. At the end of 20 years the business was turning over around £19 million, and had three manufacturing sites. Greg Rowe Junior, Greg’s eldest son and his brothers, Scott and Todd were all working in the firm, alongside other family members. But with retirement looming for both of the founders, the decision was made to sell their shares. However, as Greg Rowe Junior says, “Once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur. When the chance came up to acquire a small filtration business called FreshWater, Dad couldn’t resist. And it wasn’t just that – he also wanted to give me and Todd a chance to build a family business of our own, just as he had.” Both sons were prepared to “roll our sleeves up and do what had to be done”, but that task turned out to be even bigger than they expected, as the timing coincided with the 2008 credit crunch. “We knew FreshWater had problems,” says Greg Junior, “it was already losing money and lost even more when the downturn hit. But we’d bought it because it had a good digital sales platform, and we focused on growing that. It was tough, and we had to pare back to the bare bones, but we hung on in there. We focused on improving quality and streamlining the product range. And then we had a stroke of luck.” That luck was a call from the MD of Franke UK. They were still working with Perrin & Rowe, but had encountered some challenges, so they asked the Rowes’ new business if it was interested in making filter cartridges for a range of taps which Franke were planning to make themselves. “It was our breakthrough,” says Greg. “We started hiring engineers again – some of whom had worked with us at Perrin & Rowe – and set up a whole new call centre and after-sales function to deal with the Franke products.” “That turned out to be key, because it meant we were hearing directly from consumers about what worked with the Franke taps, and what didn’t. That was the spur to start working on a new tap of our own. Because when it comes to innovation, it isn’t just about engineering, it’s about practical issues like how the product is installed and used. Having that insight helps you identify what exactly consumers are buying from you. In our case, it’s not taps, per se, it’s water – water at the quality and temperature they want, in an instant. That helped us see that we’re not just competing with other tap manufacturers, we’re competing with kettles too.” The result was Omni, a new multi-patented four-way tap, dispensing filtered boiling and cold filtered water, as well as normal hot and cold flows. “It’s easy to install, and easy to maintain,” says Greg. “We’re making around 600 a month, and they retail at £1,400. We’ve plans in place to begin exporting to Europe, China and Australia, and we’re adding to the range all the time. And everything we’ve done so far, we’ve funded ourselves.” The key to the family’s success is their dedication to innovation, just as it was the first time around: “Around 15% of our turnover went into R&D last year,” says Greg. “We empower our employees and apprentices to come up with new ideas, and we’re backing up our investment in our physical infrastructure with investment in digital – new websites, new systems, and better e-commerce platforms.” “We’ve never been followers and we never will be. We always want to be first.”

The Harrison Spinks bed business is now into its fifth generation with three generations still involved in the business and innovation and reinvention have been the key. Harrison Beds spent the majority of the 20th century as a mid-range mattress manufacturer, with a solid reputation and solid returns, though very little real growth. Then the ‘90s recession hit and the business suddenly found itself in trouble. The current MD, Simon Spinks, takes up the story: “We’d expanded into a new building and took out a lot of debt to finance it, but when the downturn came the bank wasn’t exactly supportive. I started by making some operational changes to cut our costs, but there’s only so much of that you can do. We needed to grow our top line as well; the question was how? In the end we got our inspiration from two things: one was looking back at the past, and the other was looking ahead, at innovation.” “I did some research about where the business came from and went through a lot of the old archives. That’s when I found references to the name ‘Spink & Co’. That was the first time I knew my grandfather had ever used that as a trading name. The second thing was to look around at our own industry and see which of our competitors were actually making money. Surprise, surprise, it was the ones that had some sort of unique selling point, a technology that allowed them to sell at a premium.” That insight prompted Simon and his father to look at new ways to make beds, and Simon came up with an idea inspired by a Ford car engine. It was, in essence, a spring within a spring, which led to the creation of a completely new type of mattress, and some extremely valuable Intellectual Property. That mattress was launched onto the market as a premium-priced product under a new Spink & Edgar brand name. “That was a big change for us: we’d never thought of ourselves as a consumer brand or acted as one, probably because we had too much of a ‘small business mentality’.” Since then, the company has continued to innovate, with a pioneering 100% natural mattress which deliberately runs counter to the current fad for memory foam mattresses. They also own a 300 acre farm where they grow their own natural fillings – hemp and flax and also rear sheep. They locally source as much as possible, including fibre crops and wool from other local farmers. As Simon says, “We’ve never been afraid to swim upstream.” These innovations have helped propel Harrison Spinks to annual growth rates of around 20%, but that degree of success eventually becomes a challenge in itself: “The risk is complacency, because success is not a burning platform. So you have to create that. And you have to be prepared to fail: you’re not a truly innovative company if you can’t handle the possibility of failure, because if you don’t fail, you don’t learn, and if you don’t learn, you won’t succeed.” The next challenge is to ensure the recent upgrade of the company’s IT infrastructure is fully integrated and standards of production and customer service are maintained and enhanced as the company gets bigger. And there will be more innovations to come, too. As Simon says, “Our mission is simple: we want to change the way the world sleeps.”

FLO S.p.A. founded near Parma in 1973 by Antonio Simonazzi is now Europe’s largest manufacturer of plastic vending cups and a leading player in the production of disposable tableware. The company’s turnover exceeds €100 million. Antonio’s son, Daniele, joined the family business after completing a degree in mechanical engineering and undertaking Italy’s compulsory military service. It wasn’t assumed that he would join FLO but his father’s passion for his company seeped in to the family’s DNA and, as a result, Daniele, his sister Erika and her husband all joined FLO in executive positions. Following a period developing FLO’s business opportunities, Daniele became CEO of the company on the death of his father three years ago. Daniele’s mother became chairman of the board, holding the majority of shares but without an operational role in the company. On taking over the running of the business, Daniele became aware of the huge weight of stakeholders’ expectation on his shoulders. “People who had worked alongside my father, who had been with the company from the very start – my father’s trusted advisers – were now looking to me to fill his shoes. My father left us suddenly and they were not ready for the changeover. I could sense their concerns about my moving in to this senior role. It was a really steep learning curve at the start.” For example, he had little if no idea about the full implications of being a director when he first took over. “Being a director isn’t just about running the business – there are wider legal and risk issues as well. What are you liable for? I didn’t know.” He needed advice to help him understand and manage effectively the legal consequences of the decisions he was making. Daniele also realised he needed to dramatically change how he dealt with family members. “A key learning for me was to understand the difference between the types of conversations you need to have. If I’m talking about a business issue with a family member who’s a director, I’m speaking to them as a peer; if they’re managers I’m speaking to them as their boss; if I’m speaking to them as a shareholder then that’s another conversation entirely, which possibly shouldn’t take place. Situations can look confused, even misleading. Compromising can often be detrimental to sound business governance and wider family relationships.” Daniele also learned that it can be ‘lonely at the top’. That’s why it’s so important to have someone who isn’t a family member as a mentor – someone who’s utterly discreet and trustworthy and can provide an objective external perspective on both business and family business issues. Under his leadership, FLO has negotiated a period of considerable change and met some significant business challenges, including acquisitions in the UK and, more recently, in Spain. European regulation around the use of plastics in the sector continues to be an issue and could even force changes in both products and technology for the company. Looking to the future, and the role of next generation members, Daniele wants to avoid what he refers to as “the family business obsession”. He says he doesn’t talk about FLO with his three young sons, nor does his sister Erika with her three sons, as they don’t want them to feel under any pressure to join the firm unless they want to. “We’d be delighted if they did, but we’d want them to develop a career outside the company first. And if they do join, they’ll have to have the right skills. Family businesses go wrong when family members are given jobs they’re not suited to. If they join the company they need to have something to offer in whatever position they may take, not necessarily an executive one. It’s tough enough being a family member”. This feature forms part of the PwC Global Family Business Survey 2016. It has been reproduced with permission of PwC.

From scrap metal to compostable wiping cloths: 125 years of history at Harrison Wipes In 2016, the Harrison Wipes family business celebrated its 125th anniversary. What started in Great Yarmouth in 1891 as a textile rag and scrap metal business is now one of the world’s leading suppliers of high-performance non-woven wipes. “Even a hundred years ago, we were an international business,” says Stephen Harrison, the current MD and great-grandson of the founder. “You only have to look at my great grandfather’s passport in 1925 to see that we were trading in countries as far away as Japan at that time.” Since then, the business has evolved as technology has improved, and customers’ needs have changed. “For example, we used to weave our own rags, now we are the UK partners for two of the world’s largest nonwoven producers, Chicopee ® and Sontara®, providing advanced wiping solutions to our customers including compostable cloths and pre-impregnated solvent wipes to help tackle the environmental issue of VOC emissions. Our real expertise is in developing specialist wipes for very specific uses which are used by companies such as Bentley and Jaguar. We’ve come a long way from the heavy-duty cloths we used to supply to factories in the first half of the last century.” The structure of the firm has changed as well. By the late 1990’s, the business had 13 family shareholders who were not directly involved in the business; not the ideal share structure for a forward thinking business planning a growth strategy as a non woven converter. By 2002 a deal was eventually put together to enable a full share buyback. “It was important for me to consolidate ownership with working directors so as to be in control of the business’s destiny,” says Stephen. There is now the prospect of a new generation coming through. “I’m getting to a point where I probably need to have a five to ten year plan in place, as the youngest of my 3 boys will graduate from university in 2021. I feel it is really important that all of the boys get the chance to work somewhere else before they decide if Harrison Wipes is the right place for them to have a career . This is in the best interest both for the boys and the business. They should only work here if they feel passionate about it, not because it is expected of them. So, the long-term plan needs to be flexible enough to cope with lots of different scenarios.” It’s not just about a new generation of the family: “We’ve also made the transition to a new era of employees. We used to have a big group of staff who had been here for more than 30 years, with the final employee retiring in 2016 after 47 years of service. Almost everyone who’s here now has joined since 2002. So, it is now about maintaining and passing on the values of the business to the new team to help ensure continuity in the next generations.” Those same principles apply in relation to the Board. “If you’re a long-established family business it’s really valuable to bring in outsiders to keep you challenged. It’s so easy to get consumed by the day-to-day issues, and lose sight of the bigger picture. Especially if, like me, you’re mainly focused on the sales and marketing and spend most of your time on the front line. My non-exec ensures we tick all the boxes on governance, and have a long-term strategic vision as well as a short-term operational plan. He is also great at asking difficult questions – and challenging the status quo from an impassioned perspective which is exactly what we need. Geoff Brady once told me that he was introduced to Harrison Wipes by a colleague as “the most boring business in the world”. If by ‘boring’ he meant stable, resilient and efficient…that’s just fine by me.”

We caught up with Rebecca Jeffery who appeared on The Apprentice but now runs a successful business with her sister. Rebecca Jeffery is full of life, energy and passion for what she does as she shares her insight into her life in business with her sister Fi which they set up over three years ago, aptly named Fi and Becs Design and Marketing. Life for Becs began in the corporate world in the worlds of funerals and telecommunications. As she explains, “I loved what I did and had a real passion for the marketing side of things which was great. I worked long hours and loved what I did and for me it was like a childhood dream fulfilled as I loved writing as a child and dreamt of becoming an author so the world of marketing and copywriting is probably as close as I could get. I do feel very fortunate to have had the roles that I had!” Life changed in 2012 following the birth of her little boy Olly and some time on maternity leave where she did some freelancing for her sister who was working in design and needed some words for a client. From that moment on, although they probably never realised it at the time, their business was born and the sisters began to work together. As Becs adds, “Fi is my older sister by six years and we have always got on well together and what started out as a bit of freelance work became a business in 2013. My maternity leave was coming to an end and I was weighing up all my options and the possibility of going back to the corporate world full time or part time but took a brave decision not to go back to employment and start the business with Fi.” Fi and Becs have complimentary skills and a like-minded approach to business. Fi has a design background that marries well with the copywriting and wordsmithery of Becs which has a multitude of uses – advertising, proposals, point of sale materials, brochures etc and their clients range from the smaller end of the business scale with farm shops to more household names and the larger operations of Matalan. As a business, clients are at the core and as Becs adds, “We both love to be creative and come up with campaigns delivering what it is the customer actually wants to see and we use the stories behind our clients in their brands and collateral to help them deliver and demonstrate a real point of difference.” Much has been written over the years about siblings starting out in business together but Fi and Becs are certainly bucking any negative trends. “It took about six months of working together to set the parameters and framework for the way we work today,” continues Becs, adding “After six months we really respected each other and we are wired the same way too which really helps and in meetings it is like we can read each others minds – we certainly know what the other is going to say even before they have said it.!” Fi and Becs both have young children – Becs has Olly who is now 4 and Fi has two children under the age of 9. “Family is integral to who we both are and has been right from the start,” continues Becs. “Our business is built around us meeting the needs of our clients whilst being Mums too. We make no attempt to hide from our parental roles and embrace being Mums, flexibly working to get things done and our clients all know that we work later but are not around much from 3-7pm and that is OK!” Family dynamics and sibling relationships in business can be a challenge but Fi and Becs embrace this relationship. “We are totally honest with each other,” continues Becs, “and it helps to keep things real and we can deal with moods and normal things in life, probably because we are sisters. There is nobody that I would rather be in business with – Fi is mega and our dynamic enables us to work with clients and take them to the next level, and to do that with your sister is amazing!” “For us there are not really any downsides as we have lots in common with the business and the kids and the way that we work but we are conscious that when there is a wider family get together that we do not let every conversation take the two of us back to the business, which would be really easy to do and it is important to try to have time away from the business and not to let it take over your life, but that is easier said than done when it is something that you do and are passionate about every day!” The business continues to grow and now has over 180 clients on their books. “We are so proud of where we are today but have big plans for the future too and we are both incredibly proud of our achievements, not least in that we have created a successful business and balanced being Mums at the same time. Whilst you never get a lot of downtime, we would not have it any other way and one thing that we have both aware of is the grey area between the personal and business lives that we lead but we never apologise for being Mums either, and our clients understand.” As a growing business Fi and Becs face challenges like other businesses too. “Our challenges are about growth and keeping up with demand – a great position to be in and we are always on the look out for freelancers who we can work with, understand our brand and get the model.” We could not finish without mentioning The Apprentice which as Becs sums it up, “was the most massive piece of free advertising for our little business, the business that I was running with my older sister. I was only on the series for six weeks and never won a task but at the same time I never stabbed anyone in the back either. I was me, honest and open and these qualities have really helped us in business too. Our connections on social media grew as a result of the show and have helped us to grow subsequently.” Fi and Becs continue to make their mark and summing their life in business together Becs is clear. “We are flexible in the way that we work and what we deliver to clients to make it work for them, don’t take ourselves too seriously and like to have fun and it is all about family. We want to see our kids grow up and be involved in their lives and we have created the framework that allows us to do that too.” Flexibility, fun and family wrapped up in one business! Find out more at www.fiandbecs.com

The cycle of growth in India with Apollo Hospitals, one of the leading hospital chains with an international reputation and an outstanding track record in harnessing the power of new technology. Shobana Kamineni, Executive Vice Chairperson at Apollo Hospitals in India shares her thoughts. The business was founded by Dr Prathap C. Reddy in the 1980s, when he returned from working in the US and saw how far Indian healthcare was lagging behind. He galvanised a group of doctors from across India and beyond to invest in a hospital, and it opened in Chennai in 1983. His four daughters were involved from the start, and Shobana Kamineni was employee number three. She is now the Executive Vice Chairperson, and Apollo boasts 64 hospitals, 150 clinics, over 9,000 beds, almost 2,500 pharmacies, and a health insurance business. Shobana sees the evolution of the business in three phases: “In the beginning, we were a straightforward family business with all the advantages and challenges that brings. But while we had great expertise in our own field – healthcare – we needed to hire talented people to help us build a robust business. People with financial expertise, for example.” In the second phase, Apollo was listed on the stock exchange, which allowed the family to grow to three hospitals, but also brought increased demands in terms of reporting, accountability, and governance. The board was also strengthened with more independent directors, who still play a key role. The third phase was Private Equity. “We were one of the first Indian firms to get PE funding in the late ‘90s, when India first opened up to foreign direct investment. But we thought about it carefully before we did it: we sat down as a family to discuss it because we knew things were going to change radically, and we’d have to be even more accountable, and willing to adapt.” “We also knew that PE work to a very different timescale to families: PE houses are looking for a quick return on their money, and I’m glad to say that every PE investor we’ve had has achieved a good exit price. That’s why our share price is so high: we do what we promise.” Having Private Equity investors also focused the business more on short-term performance: “This is one of the biggest differences between PE and family business. Family businesses have uniquely infinite perspective – if you don’t reach your target this quarter, you can always do it next quarter. What PE taught us was quarter-to-quarter performance. That really sharpened us up. I think we’re actually unique in that we grew around 25% for 25 consecutive quarters. PE can be very active investors too: some of our PE investors have been in on a weekly basis, so they could really understand how we operate. You have to not just accept that, but welcome it, or the partnership isn’t going to work.” Looking ahead, Apollo has built a strong competitive advantage on new technology. “We have an innovation division where the employees work with innovation labs in Israel, the US and elsewhere in India. We incubate new ideas, and work hard to keep pace with new developments. We also encourage our doctors to take part in conferences and research forums across the world, and to collaborate actively with one another. We don’t let people or ideas get stuck in silos. This is one reason why we now have three dynamic new companies within the Apollo group: one doing analytics, one working on stem cell therapies and personalised medicine, and one working on digital and telemedicine. The latter has given us huge visibility, and allowed us to reach many more people. I doubt there are many businesses doing this sort of thing better than we are. That’s something we’re very proud of.” This feature was part of the PwC Global Family Business Survey 2016. It has been reproduced with permission of PwC.

Milaan Thalwitzer, Non-executive Chairman of The Bosveld Group, Citrus fruit producers in South Africa explains what it means to them to give something back. One of the family firm’s great strengths is its rootedness in its community. Many family firms turn their relationships into a unique competitive advantage, and take pride in the positive role they play in creating local employment, and supporting local communities. The Bosveld Group, of South Africa, is a great example. The company was founded in the 1960s, and is now South Africa’s largest private citrus fruit producer, exporting 5.5 million boxes of fruit to 50 countries across the world. Milaan Thalwitzer, is the current non-executive chairman, and three of his sons-in-law hold management roles, with one as CEO. Milaan was named National Farmer of the year in 2014, in recognition of the company’s commitment to land reform, and making the black empowerment agenda a reality. Bosveld committed to Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (or BBBEE) thirteen years ago, and is now involved in a number of pilot projects in which the company leases land from black communities on long-term contracts, and then pays rent from the proceeds of the fruit growing business. Training for local people is built into the scheme, so that the owners of the land get a chance to work on it too. “If we can get this right, it should be a win-win for everyone. Land reform is a complex and sometimes divisive issue here, but we can find a way forward if the farmers themselves play an active part in finding the answers.” Bosveld is committed to South Africa, because the family has always been committed to South Africa: “When people ask me why we’ve been so successful I say it’s down to three things: keeping pace with change, seizing new opportunities, and our commitment to this country. In the next five years our plan is to make the most of the energy the next generation are bringing to the business, and empower our local communities so we make a positive and sustainable impact. We have no plans to diversify our fruit production internationally. South Africa is a land full of potential and we must first invest in our own future and the future of our people.” And how does Milaan want to be remembered? “AS SOMEONE WHO WAS LUCKY ENOUGH TO COMBINE HIS GREATEST PASSIONS: MY LOVE FOR MY FAMILY, COUNTRY AND COMMUNITY, AND MY LOVE FOR FARMING.”

Hemsby Beach and the adjoining coastline is recognised as one of the most attractive in the UK and a coastline that is awash with family businesses. Second generation family firm Seadell Shops & Holiday Chalets is one of them. Whether building sandcastles, watching the waves roll in or going on a leisurely walk through the dunes, Seadell and their collection of holiday chalets affords a warm welcome to this part of Eastern England with a proud family heritage and a real passion for what they do too. Paul Andrews spoke to the family behind Seadell Shops & Holiday Chalets to find out more about their journey. The story began back in 1976 as Toni Reeve was moving towards the end of a career in the insurance industry. Having spent many years writing lots of agricultural insurance Toni and his wife Ann had lived all their lives in Norfolk. One farmer had previously offered some advice to Toni such that “You will never make money working for anyone else” and this was ringing in his head when Toni decided to buy their first ‘long-leasehold’ holiday property in 1976 as they embarked on the next stage in their journey. In fact, Ann and Toni are in agreement when they say that the purchase of the first chalet was the start of a new business that they felt was the route to retirement – building a business that they could grow, sell and retire on the proceeds in due course. At the outset, there was little thought given to building a business to pass on to the next generation as the kids were pursuing their own interests and not showing any desire to return to the coast. Over time, more ‘long-leasehold’ properties were added to the portfolio and the entrepreneurial couple also took over the running of the shop. Ann is the first to admit that taking on the shop for the first time was daunting. “I had never done anything that involved serving the public before, and when we took the keys to the shop Toni was still working in insurance. We picked up the keys, looked at each other and said let’s give it a go – it might be fun!” At the end of their first season they were informed that the landlord had sold the shop so they handed back the keys, only to be asked to run them again a year later as the sale had fallen through. At the end of 1986 Toni bumped into the landlord as he was coming out of the local Post Office and was asked if he wanted to buy the shop. Negotiations continued for a while, stalling as Toni wanted to ensure that parking rights were secured and was prepared to walk away from the deal had they not been included. As Toni continues, “the seller was not happy about giving up the parking rights but without them there was no deal, and finally, on 6 March 1987, the shops were ours too.” Seadell as a family firm was well and truly up and running but at a time of great economic uncertainty. “They were difficult times,” continues Toni. “Bank interest rates were at 17% and the economic climate was difficult too. Remortgaging the house was the only option, and a reluctant one, but we went through with it, but the mortgage was released a year later as the results continued to improve.” Fast forward to 1995 and son Stuart returned from his time in Australia and New Zealand where he had been working and travelling. Stuart worked hard in Australia to fund his travels as well as play football, but in his own words did what needed to be done. “I loved the variety of jobs that I had, from the chemical plant to the chicken farm, and the office life I had done previously in the UK was well behind me. I had a ‘moment’ where I realised the beauty there was I working in an environment that you love. When I returned to Norfolk, I never intended to join the business but as it is seasonal, I started work when I got back to the UK for one season and have never looked back. I love it and now truly appreciate that the East Coast of Norfolk is a great place to live and work.” Ann adds, “We never put any pressure on Stuart to join us and when we set out it was all about us, Toni and I, and our journey. Stuart joining us has scuppered our plans and we are now having to change the journey and are following an evolving plan.” This is an engaging and entrepreneurial family who have not hidden away from difficult conversations. “You cannot afford to shy away from things” adds Toni, “especially when you have put everything on the line.” As an entrepreneurial family, they continue to improve, striving to improve the service to their customers, creating a brand and a sense of pride underlines all that they do. Stuart has added a fresh perspective to the evolving business and has helped to introduce a consistent look and feel to the chalets that now have a fresher look. As Stuart adds, “Too many people fail to keep up to date and improve and I am fortunate that my parents realise that we have to change with the times, and encourage me to step up and make decisions too. We are on a journey which is exciting for all of us. I relish then opportunities going forward but we are aware of the success challenges but we are working through it, talking and making decisions. We are fortune that there are three voices so we always get a decision and can move on.” The business may be taking a turn from the original retirement plan that Toni and Ann set out to create but they are embracing the future, providing customer service at all times of the day and night and continue to create memories along this stunning stretch on the Norfolk coastline. Visit www.Seadell.co.uk to find out more.

Blenheim Palace, the home of the 12th Duke of Marlborough is also a business, and the business has been transformed in the last 15 years under the management of its first professional CEO, John Hoy. Blenheim Palace is one of the most spectacular buildings in the UK and a World Heritage site. It was built to celebrate the battle victory of the first Duke of Marlborough, and 300 years later is still the family home of the 12th Duke, which makes it one of the most enduring ‘family concerns’ we’ve ever profiled. But Blenheim Palace is a business too, and over the last fifteen years the family and trustees have overseen the transformation of that aspect of Blenheim’s activities under the management of its first professional CEO, John Hoy. We travelled out to his beautiful workplace to ask about the special challenges of a position at the Palace. Why did the family decide that they needed a professional CEO and when was that decision made? The Palace is actually owned by a family trust, which has family members as trustees, as well as some high-profile external advisers with expertise in areas like the law and land management. About 15 years ago, the 11th Duke decided to bring in two of the younger members of the family, who had City and business experience. That was the catalyst, because they quickly realised that Blenheim needed to modernise if it was going to fulfil its potential, and generate the money needed to keep the palace in proper repair. Part of that modernisation was about changing the business structure, and part of it was bringing in different skills. That’s when they hired me. I had land management qualifications, and experience in running a big estate at Knebworth, and major leisure attractions like Madame Tussaud’s and Warwick Castle, so it was a great fit. And for me – a fabulous opportunity. What was Blenheim like when you arrived – what did you find? It was a tourist attraction, but I wouldn’t really call it a ‘business’. There was no budget process, no proper reporting, no strategy, no long-term plan. There wasn’t even a World Heritage site management plan, and you really do need one of those if you have that status. So there was a really pressing need to professionalise the way we worked. We didn’t do marketing or PR back then either – that was a hangover from the ‘70s and ‘80s, when sites like this used to assume that if you opened the doors people would just come. And yes, it did work that way for many years, but by 2003 that wasn’t enough as there was so much competition. So there were some big challenges, but there were big opportunities too. What did you do? We did a complete review, both of what we were doing, and how we did it. And right from the start, I had huge support both from the Duke and the trustees, and more recently from the 12th Duke, since he inherited. I couldn’t have made as many changes as I have without that degree of engagement. They supported me in instituting the professional business processes you’d expect from an entity of this size, and then I started looking at what we were offering people, because the first priority was the core activity – our visitor experience. We opened up more parts of the Palace, and built a new attraction called ‘The Untold Story’. We also changed the ticket pricing structure to make it more modern and flexible, and we introduced an annual pass, which was pretty ground-breaking at the time but proved to be a great success. A place like this can struggle to get repeat visits because people think they’ve ‘done it’ if they come once. So you have to find ways to tempt them back again; the annual pass was very good at that. We also extended our open season to almost the whole year, which, again, is quite unusual in our sector but allowed us to offer special events in the winter as well. We also completely overhauled the supporting commercial activities – much better catering facilities, and a superb new shop which is probably one of the best of its kind in the country. Having done all that, our next objective was to explore how we could diversify, and bring in new sources of revenue we weren’t tapping into. We’re bang in the centre of the country, with excellent transport links, and we have 2,000 acres of some of the most glorious grounds in the UK, but we simply weren’t making the most of any of that. We hardly ran any events, for example. In the last ten years all that has changed. We have events all year round, from celebrity weddings to huge public events like BBC Countryfile Live, which attracted over 125,000 people. We have sports events, and car rallies, and fashion shows, and contemporary art installations. The Ai Weiwei show in 2014 was phenomenal. Another case of people telling us ‘you can’t do that’, and us replying ‘yes, we can’. So there’s a huge amount going on, but it is working – when I first came we had around 300,000 visits a year. This year, we may well reach the magical million across all of our activities. Have you diversified in other ways? Definitely. The film location side is really booming – we were used for Spectre and Mission Impossible 5, as well as all sorts of smaller productions. And that involves a whole lot of new skills too – you have to balance the need to protect the fabric of the building (literally, in some cases) with what a film unit need to be able to function efficiently. Our head of operations is very good at this, and her team are very experienced, and as a result we’ve got a reputation for being good to work with. That’s essential. We also look at diversification in a wider sense – not just diversifying what we do at the Palace itself, but within the much larger estate, which is another 10,000 acres. For example, we invested in an industrial estate in Witney, to ensure we have a more even balance between industrial, agricultural, and residential property. Ironically enough, that same site used to be owned by the estate until the government compulsorily purchased it before the last war. We also have our own construction firm, Blenheim Estate Contractors Limited, which is building both commercial units and market/social housing. That whole area is very complex, with a lot of tax and planning issues, and we always have to decide if a particular development is the right thing to do with land that’s been part of the estate for generations. On the other hand, it can bring in vital revenue, and we’re looking to channel some of that into a new charitable trust, which will make it easier for us to apply for lottery funding for some of our capital and restoration projects at the Palace. At any one time there’s about £40 million of work that needs to be done, and at the moment we manage about £2 million a year which implies a 20 year cycle. But it’s like the Forth Bridge: by the time you finish you have to start all over again. Another diverse venture is Blenheim Palace bottled water. That’s fabulous because it gets our name out there in the sort of restaurants and hotels that our potential visitors are likely to use. We’re now exporting the water too, with an emphasis on China and Hong Kong. North America and China are the two most important overseas markets for us, in terms of our visitor numbers. How important is digital in reaching your visitor audience? Absolutely vital. We use everything – Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest. Everything. What role do you see the Palace playing in the wider community? There are lots of answers to that. On a commercial level, I see Blenheim as a lynchpin for tourism in the Oxfordshire region. It’s imperative that we all work together to maximise the value of the visitors who come here – we’ll all do better if we don’t stand alone. That’s why I sit on the Visit England Advisory Board, and why I was part of setting up Experience Oxfordshire, as well. Looking more locally, we take our responsibilities to the neighbouring area very seriously. The social housing venture is an important part of that, and the events we run can have a big economic benefit beyond the estate walls – we did a study of the last Game Fair at Blenheim and the wider impact was around £50m for the area as a whole and new events such as Countryfile Live will also contribute strongly to the local economy. There’s also our education work, and all the efforts we’ve made to improve our environmental performance. Things like reducing our waste, and cutting our energy and water consumption – all things that you probably wouldn’t think a stately home would be doing. All of this is part of the same overall purpose – the same sense of responsibility. This estate has been here for 300 years. We don’t just own the land, we’re part of the landscape. That’s why everything we do is driven by the need to be conscientious land-owners, and careful custodians of the family’s heritage, both now and for future generations. This feature forms part of the PwC Global Family Business Survey 2016. It has been reproduced with permission of PwC.

The challenge is to do all that’s required to pass the company on to generation two… A most challenging aspect of entrepreneurship has nothing to do with who started or maintains the family business, yet has everything to do with perpetuating it. That challenge is to do all that’s required to pass the company on to generation two. Over the past 30 years I have had many clients who did the technical things: created an ownership plan, formalised an estate plan and engaged with their family to perpetuate their business legacy. Unfortunately, in some cases, by that time the entrepreneur was ‘burned out.’ He or she had exhausted the energy and desire, and lacked the skills to devote to training and developing the business family’s next generation of leaders. A decision had been made to keep the company in the family, but the retiring generation was totally at sea about how to makes that happen with the ‘kids.’ While the situation can be frustrating, good results are vital if you are to successfully pass the business baton to generation two. A common interim solution is to hire a non-family person as president to run the company and train new family leaders. Many business executives are looking for just such an assignment. The trick is to find one suited for your family and company. Here are some tips to help you bridge the gap: Look for a person with a proven track record of business growth and success; ask for a bio or other proof of competence. Determine that he or she has the skills and temperament to train and mentor; if possible talk to individuals who have had them as a ‘coach.’ Determine how well the prospective candidate fits into your business family culture. For example, someone from large, public corporations may not comfortably fit in a lean, social, family work culture. Discuss mutual expectations with the candidate to clarify what success looks like. Include in these discussions your expectations for the next generation leaders. Thoroughly explain the family’s values, what you expect to see perpetuated in the company, and how the new non-family president can provide leadership. Set clear, formal boundaries for the working relationship that will exist between the entrepreneur and the non-family president. Write those rules down and also write down rules for company performance. Here, I suggest that the entrepreneur has regular meetings with the non-family president to stay informed about progress. Beyond an interim non-family president, an active board of directors can enormously benefit the entrepreneur in managing the leadership transition and training generation two. A strong, competent board can make it easier for both the entrepreneur and a non-family president who reports to the board. An engaged board of directors can broaden the entrepreneur’s perspective, reflect company/family history, amplify objectivity and enhance discussions about any potential shortcomings discovered in generation two. Prepare an employment agreement to memorialise the employment expectations for the non-family president. The agreement protects everyone involved and supports the president’s ability to monitor new family leaders and hold them accountable. Consult with your own adviser to help develop such a document that formalises expectations necessary for the continued successful operation of your family business. Business families are complex entities because they combine so many unusual characteristics—expressed and unexpressed. This does not mean that an ‘outsider’ is difficult to find or may be challenged to coach the incoming generation. In fact, the right candidate can simultaneously relieve the entrepreneur’s stress and launch the family business legacy into a strong future. About the Author - Tom continues his long-standing dedication to helping families of wealth and family-owned businesses succeed. He helps families develop a shared vision for the family and for the business; identify individual talents; tackle any unspoken issues; and create individual and organisational strategies to ensure a personally and financially rewarding business with a wealth preparation plan that ensures family values continue to emphasise a family culture of gratitude, philanthropy and purposeful living.