The Family Business Voice

According to   Michael Haenlein , Marketing Professor and Scientific Director of the ESCP Europe Research Centre on Big Data, not only do we struggle to define artificial intelligence (AI); we have problems qualifying intelligence in general. Our failure to understand the concept and therefore implement AI effectively – at least when it comes to maintaining a competitive advantage – is concerning...

Paraco Gas is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. The third-generation family firm is the 10th largest propane retailer in the United States, serving 120,000 customers throughout the northeastern U.S. Half a century ago, Pat Armentano, Paraco’s founder, began selling propane out of his garage in Mount Vernon, New York. His granddaughter, Christina, the Executive Vice President of Sales and...

On this episode of The Family Business Voice, Phillip Kalli, Managing Director of Ideal talks to Ramia about Ideal’s early days, authenticity in marketing and strength in family. – The idiosyncracies inherent to family business make Ideal unique and are a competitive advantage. – Consumers need something they understand to identify with. – Ideal has established a successful marketing strategy by b...

On this episode of the Family Business Voice, Joel Clark, CEO of Kodiak Cakes talks to Ramia about entrepreneurial perseverance and giving equity to employees. – Before Kodiak Cakes became what it is today, it took years of hard work, moonlighting and an incredible amount of family support. – Social Media has played an enormous role in the whole foods revolution, the driver behind Kodiak Cakes’ ri...

On this episode of The Family Business Voice, Sara Irvani, CEO of Okabashi talks to Ramia about the importance of clear values and vision in the family business. – Sara argues that businesses and even large corporations must have the same ethical standards as people. – Businesses need to have a soul, values and a purpose. – If people react with surprise that Sara is a young female CEO, it’s a posi...

On this episode of The Family Business Voice, John Barrow from the Barrow Group talks to Ramia about the politics of business in SA and the risk of growing too large too quickly. – John’s siblings and cousins work in flattened structure to ensure equality – Remarkably, there has been almost no conflict in the family business despite five members of the same generation working closely together. – G...

On this episode of The Family Business Voice, Anders Sörman-Nilsson talks to Ramia about digitisation, omnichannel marketing and technology vs. tradition. – Anders Sörman-Nilsson argues we’re living in a data scientific world. We can’t rely solely on culture, intuition or tradition. – Customer service will become predictive, intuitive and integrated seamlessly with technology. – Customers want a s...

The world’s only case competition focused exclusively on family business, the sixth FECC (Family Enterprise Case Competition) returned to its home earlier this month, the University of Vermont’s Grossman School of Business. 98 competitors and coaches organised into 25 teams travelled from 26 countries around the world to compete over four days, from the 9th to the 12th of January 2019. Courtesy of...