Family Business Governance

Listen to Adele explain how in her family business, the family council as well as the external board members created an expectation for family descendants to join the business. In a family business, it is important to ensure that the new generation is confident about making the decision to work in the family business.

The expectation of our children or any of the descendants working in the business came about through family discussion. We have a family council. We also have a business board and a shareholders board, which is the family council. And really, it was developing a policy around employing family members, and this came about through just, we all had a discussion, among the family but also with our – we have external board members sitting on our board. And really, it was a very strong feeling, from the external directors particularly, that the next generation should be working somewhere else first. You know they need to know they can succeed in the wide world before they come and work for us. And the other thing is too, they also need to know that they really want to come and work in the family business, because I think once you start working in a family business as a family member, it can be quite difficult to leave a family business, so you need to be really sure of your decision in the first place.