Workshops

Interactive workshop 1
The Kitchen Table
Professionalising the business and the family

“Family businesses generally fail for family reasons” was a response from our interviews with over 2,000 family businesses as part of PwC’s 2014 Family Business Survey.

Why is that and what can be done to avoid it?  Professionalising the business is one element, but it is also key to professionalise the family – the ‘heart’ as well as the ‘head’. This means putting a robust framework in place to govern the family’s interactions with the business, covering everything from decision-making, communications, dividend policy, to succession planning and wealth planning.

These are often thorny issues that shouldn’t be ducked.  From working with a wide range of family businesses, PwC Private Business Partner Chris Romans will share his thoughts and offer a roadmap to help the family be the strength behind the business not a risk.

Chris Romans, Partner & Midlands Private Business Leader

Interactive workshop 2
Up to speed?
Digital strategy for the family business

Digital technologies are part of our everyday life. We use them to keep in touch with friends and family, to purchase goods online from retailers, to communicate with organisations who deliver us services and in abundance in our workplaces. Now internet connected devices are talking to each other without any human involvement.

So how does all this impact family businesses?

Steve will talk about how the capabilities of this technology are changing the way organisations are developing strategies for this digital age and highlight some of the specific aspects that are relevant to family businesses.

Steve Bell, Director

Interactive workshop 3
The future of work
Attracting and retaining key talent in a family business

New technologies, data analytics and social networks are having a huge impact on how people communicate, collaborate and work. As generations collide, workforces become more diverse and people work longer; traditional career models may soon be a thing of the past. Many of the roles and job titles of tomorrow will be ones we’ve not even thought of yet.

61% of family businesses listed attracting and retaining skills and talent a key issue for the next five years (PwC Family Business Survey 2014). So this session will give you the opportunity to explore as a group what this may mean for your business and how you can best use your size and structure to be flexible and agile in the competition for talent.

Jude McLaughlin, Director