The Family Business Podcast

No business remains the same after a 100-year journey. Every long-lasting family enterprise learns how to navigate developmental and business crises as it crosses generations.   Dennis' paper presents the business journeys of the nearly 100 long-lasting families in our study.   Their resilience stems from continual innovation and transformation. We look at their major transformations—harvesting, p...

There are lots and lots of articles and websites that rightly highlight the huge positives of working with your family, but very often we hear from people who are feeling trapped and isolated within the family business.  Michael is the founder of  MK Insights, LLC  and has 17+ years of experience as a consultant, assessment specialist, business coach, and facilitator.  In his book 'Trapped in the...

Professor John A. Davis , FFI Fellow, is a pioneer in the family enterprise field and a globally recognised authority on family enterprise, family wealth and family office topics. He has created some of the most impactful concepts and frameworks used in the field. In 2018, he joined the MIT Sloan School of Management faculty to build an innovative portfolio of family enterprise programs, after lea...

We often hear that family businesses can feel isolated as they do not have a support network or peers that they can speak to. The Family Business Network is a support network in Cumbria, Lancashire and now Yorkshire providing family businesses with a safe space to share their challenges. We speak to Sue Howorth and Dave Clarkson to hear about what support is available. We discuss the importance of...

Ellie Frey Zagel is 3rd Generation, Vice Chair and Trustee of her family’s foundation the Frey Foundation based in Grand Rapids, MI.   For nearly a decade she has been deeply involved in working with the next generation of family business, family philanthropy, and family wealth, first as Director of the Family Business Alliance and now as President of Successful Generations, a company she recently...

Greg McCann is the founder, principal and leader of an international family enterprise consulting firm that create workshops, consults, publishes, and innovates on issues of importance to family enterprises. In this episode we draw on Greg's expertise and discuss Vertical Leadership and how we define success.  We talk about why 'knowing more' is not enough for leaders in the modern world.  We disc...

Natalie McVeigh is an expert in Leadership Development, she is both a practitioner and a member of the Family Firm Institute Faculty.  In this episode we discuss the use of assessments in helping to develop leaders within the Family Business.  Natalie speaks to us about acumen, about where to start when looking at assessments, the role culture plays in a business and clarifies that these are asses...

Dov Baron has twice been cited as one of Inc. Magazine’s Top 100 Leadership Speakers to hire. He is a master storyteller, who has had the honour of presenting for The World Business Conference in Tehran as well as speaking for the State Department, and The United Nations on Leadership. He is considered by many as the leading authority on Authentic Leadership, and the founder of Full Monty Leadersh...

Ramia is the co-founder of Orbis Terra Media, the Editor-in-Chief of Tharawat Magazine, a fellow podcast host and all round family business champion. We chat to her about the incredible resources that her and her family have created. We discuss the Tharawat Family Business Forum, Women in Family Business as well as digitalisation, trends in family business from around the world.  You can find out...

In  2008 Howard escaped from Grant Thornton UK LLP, where he had been a partner for over 25 years, to establish his own boutique practice. We speak to Howard about his experiences of succession planning, the good the bad and the ugly.  We also discuss how to start the process of choosing a successor and the characteristics that Howard used in his days on the selection team for Partners at Grant Th...

Ovation Finance are a firm of financial planners in Bristol. It was set up by Chris Budd and has very recently been sold to an Employee Ownership Trust.  Chris talks to us about the steps that he took in order to prepare for this transition. This includes the four elements of the eternal pyramid and also the personal challenges that he faced.  When considering succession planning an Employee Owner...

Ian Marsh returns to the show for a second time following his previous discussion on episode 5 about the importance of communication.  We build on that in this episode and discuss the fascinating topics he covers in his new book 'If it is so good to talk, why is it so hard?'  We discuss why people put off important conversations, particularly with their families and what we can do to improve the c...

We first met Jonathan at the FBU Conference. We had a brief chat following his presentation and during that chat I cheekily asked for a full episode and I am really pleased to say that Jonathan has agreed to a full interview.  In this chat we discuss the importance of culture, the positive impact this can have on the family business and also how every business should do more to improve their local...

We speak with Elle Hansen, Mairi Mickel and Jim Hutcheson about the particular challenges facing family business founders when it comes to succession planning.  Elle and Jim work at Regeneration Partners in Dallas, Texas and Mairi is a Family Business Consultant with her own business based in Scotland. We all got together on a Friday morning in a basement flat in London to chat over a coffee about...

Each year Paul Andrews of Family Business United holds a conference to celebrate family business in the UK. Russ takes his roaming mic to speak to some of the speakers and delegates at this years event. We speak to Paul about Family Business United, the conference and the other initiatives that he is involved in across the UK.  We also speak to some of the fantastic speakers from the event and gue...

Thursday 8th March is International Women's Day and so I chat with Jo MacSween about her role with Women's Enterprise Scotland, Vistage and her own experiences in her families business, MacSween Haggis   The hashtag for International Women's Day is #pressforprogress and we speak about what we can all be doing to help support this.  There are loads of tips in here for budding female entrepreneurs  ...

Russ, is a Chartered Financial Planner and advises family business owners on how to achieve & maintain financial independence.  Succession planning comes with many barriers and challenges and financial independence is one of them. In this episode we discuss why it is important and how to start your own journey towards financial independence.  You can find out more about Russ on Linked In:  https:/...

Ever wondered why your Mum or Dad won't discuss succession?  Are you a business owner but scared of what life outside the business may look like?  This episode is for you!  We speak with Dr Allie Taylor of OrangeKiwi, a consultancy business based in California.   Allie has recently completed her PhD and used her dissertation as the basis for a white paper that looks at the character traits and beh...

In this interview with Martin Stepek we explore many of the challenges that families in business together face.  The story of how Martin's father came to Scotland is one full of difficulty and tragedy and the challenges of his father's childhood stayed with him his entire life.   Martin discusses the heartbreaking realities of having to wind up the business and the effect that had on the family, b...

Mark Bergman is a serial entrepreneur and invented HANDypaint Products whilst painting his basement. The initial inspiration was a coffee can and some duct tape!  The business is now a $15m business based in Minnesota and Mark has appointed Jeff as the firms President as part of his succession plan. Mark's children work within the business and now effectively report into Jeff.  We discuss how this...

Josh Daspit is an Assistant Professor at Mississippi State University and has a passion for understanding the factors affecting family businesses ability to innovate.  Josh explains how the research that is undertaken by academics such as him can be applied to family businesses and help them to thrive.  We explore which differences family businesses display between those that can successfully inno...

Ernst and Young conducted some research into the role of women in family businesses to see if they were leading the way or lagging behind non family owned enterprises.  In this episode we speak to Kim Harland of www.insights.org.au  a not for profit, educational resource for family businesses based in Australia. She has produced an e-book based on the research and interviewed female leaders of fam...

Family business is in my blood. I grew up with the family businesses owned by my father and grandfather. And like you, I am a family business owner, as well as being a family business consultant for those wanting to resolve conflict.  Leading my consulting business and being the manager of our family and coach for our family’s company, I have gained a lot of personal insights in every part of fami...

It all started back in 1989 when a much less dishevelled Grant and John gave up fencing and landscaping for the Shedlife. Locals would come to John looking for something better than your average shed, something worth more than a neglected garden utility. Gillies and Mackay is now managed by Cara. Her goal is simple – to make her Dad (John) and Grant proud by building on the reputation they’ve work...

Leon Fear started his first small business whilst at school, buying and selling mountain bikes and bicycle components and selling them mail order and direct to the trade. Joining the family business at 19, Leon started in construction, working on-site tiling, fitting kitchens, painting and decorating and laying flooring before moving in to a short period in estate agency, property management and l...