We live in a corporate world. Or so it appears reading our newspaper headlines these days. Too often it is a world that looks pretty murky.
But few people realize that, in fact, 75% of all UK businesses are family owned and run. Among them The Castle at Taunton and a host of other hotels and restaurants. With the rest, we operate in an economy that employs over 50% of the entire UK workforce. In a word, we are the backbone of the UK economy.
Some months ago I was introduced to the International Centre for Families in Business, or ICFIB, a dynamic outfit dedicated to the task of assisting these businesses to survive and prosper by providing consultancy, education and various professional services. Go to www.icfib.com
Part of ICFIB’s work includes the forging of links with other professional organizations and the brokering of events to spread the word. So, earlier this week, I presented myself as the guest speaker in The Castle’s Music Room where local chartered accountants Albert Goodman were launching their latest initiative – a Family Business Club – to a 70-strong audience of family business owners.
For me, there was a sweet irony to this occasion. In a week’s time, all the members of my family will be holding a series of meetings with our advisors to discuss the future of The Castle or, more to the point, the passing of the reins from Louise and me to the next generation of Chapmans – our two sons, Dominic, 37, an award-winning Michelin starred head chef; and Nicholas, 35, a successful new media entrepreneur.
Both boys sit on the family board as non-executive directors and both have been very clear in their desire to see the company continue in family hands. Meanwhile, Louise and I are keen to ease up from the hurly-burly of hotel life.
Managing the succession is no easy matter and we are taking our time. There is also the spectre of the past which haunts our thinking. My relationship with my parents collapsed in ruins twenty years ago. The business came very close to bankruptcy and I had to stage what can only be described as a palace revolution, a coup, to save The Castle for the future. It was bloody!
The story of my experiences – revealed in my latest book My Archipelago – persuaded ICFIB to recommend me to Albert Goodman as an ideal candidate for the launch of their Family Business Club!
What I gave the firm’s audience on Wednesday was less a case history and more a cautionary tale. A family business is, potentially, a combustible organism. It is as much about the members of the family as it is about the business. Inevitably, relationships intensify and issues are magnified. Tensions and conflict rise to the surface and easily erupt. It is a dangerous game and can easily destroy family harmony.
Louise and I are not going to stand by to see history repeat itself.
Kit Chapman, proprietor of The Castle at Taunton and author of My Archipelago
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