Month: November 2020

The Catalan Association of Family Businesses (ASCEF) held its Annual Meeting on November 26 under the title “Family businesses: managing with values“. Due to the current pandemic, this year’s event took place in a hybrid format: in-person at Barcelona’s Hotel Clarís, in observance of the measures and recommendations on hygiene and health, as well as online.

Amadeu Jori, the ASCEF President, and Luis Herrero, Banco Santander’s Institutional Territorial Director in Catalonia, welcomed all those attending this Annual Meeting edition, which revolved around the values possessed by all family businesses that distinguish them from other organisations.

Moderated by Dr Juan Corona, Academic Advisor of the Family Business Institute and Professor of Applied Economics at Abat Oliba CEU University, the Annual Meeting featured a round table of businessmen who offered their views on the family business. These were Antonio Gallardo, Honorary Vice-President of Almirall and Honorary President of ASCEF; Pablo Lara, General Manager of the Education Department of Grupo Planeta; and Ramón Agenjo, Board Member and Secretary of S.A. DAMM. They highlighted that what lends a company personality are its values and this therefore makes a family business different from the rest.

As challenges for family businesses in the future, the trio highlighted the internationalisation of companies, possessing and attracting talent, and learning a lot from the others: where they have gone wrong and what they have done well.

The ASCEF Annual Meeting was sponsored by Banco Santander. Its Commercial Director of Companies in Catalonia, Sergi Farro, gave a talk entitled “Our support and Financial Solutions to the Covid Environment“. In this, he examined what has happened during the recent months of economic crisis, the key elements today for companies (internationalisation, digitisation, possessing liquidity, adaptability and speed in decision-making). He concluded by focusing on the unknown that is 2021, the current signs of optimism notwithstanding.

• The study, conducted by the STEP Project Global Consortium, enjoys the collaboration of over 40 universities from different parts of the world and the participation of over 1,800 family businesses from 33 countries from 5 geographical regions
• The Catalan Association of Family Businesses (ASCEF) sponsors 5 University Chairs in Family Business in Catalonia

More than 70% of the present leaders of family businesses admit to having no succession plan. The remainder believe that a formal succession plan increases the possibility of the manager reflecting on their plans for the future. Spanish family businesses are on a par internationally with regard to the existence of succession plans (28% in Spain, as in Europe and Latin America, compared to 30% globally).

Similarly, the study shows that Spanish family businesses address these processes with a strong leaning towards the structuring of family governance. This can lead to guidance and agreement on succession processes and to encourage family participation and involvement in future stages of the business project. However, these businesses are less well-equipped with regard to the structures and mechanisms of corporate governance (boards of directors, the existence of external directors etc.), which are also key to channelling the transition in the management.

These are some of the conclusions from the study on the way in which family businesses relate to succession, with special attention to different generational perspectives. It was conducted by researchers from the Chair in Family Business of the University of Valencia, the Chair in Family Business and Business Creation from the Abat Oliba CEU University and the University of Extremadura, which form part of the STEP Project Global Consortium (Successful Transgenerational Entrepreneurship Practices). These research groups collaborate closely with family business associations in their areas of reference: AVE (Valencian Business Association), ASCEF (Catalan Association of Family Businesses) and AEEF (Extremaduran Association of Family Businesses).

The Catalan Association of Family Business (ASCEF) sponsors 5 Chairs in Family Business in Catalonia at the Universities of Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, Abat Oliba CEU and the International University of Catalonia. These form part of a network of Chairs in Family Business throughout the country.

The Spanish family businesses participating in the study belong mainly to the service sector (69%), 15% of them conduct their activity in the primary sector and 16% in the secondary sector and are slightly larger than the national averages. Similarly, the leaders of the participating family businesses have an average age of 45 and the majority belong business families that are second or more generation.

The results of the study indicate that 28% of Spanish family businesses have a succession plan. Viewed from another angle, over 70% of current family business leaders admit to not having one. These figures are very similar in Europe and Latin America and representative of the study’s entire global sample (figure 13).

Having a succession plan in place suggests that family business leaders have become aware of the importance of preparing in advance for the succession process and that this process can be undertaken through reasoned criteria and in a professional manner.

The full report can be downloaded in the Knowledge section of the ASCEF website.

Xavier Marcet, the founder and President of the Lead to Change innovation consultancy, has given a virtual lecture entitled “The great challenges faced by family businesses in the time of Covid-19“. In the session, held jointly by the Catalan Association of Family Businesses (ASCEF) and the Cambra Chair of Family Business of the University of Girona on 11 November, he discussed the great challenges facing family businesses: the perspective of people, customer centrality and the sum of intelligence, talent and leadership.

Mr Marcet began by highlighting the importance of the difference between companies and business enterprises. “A company is a community of people with a purpose, to survive by creating customers but it always revolves around people: it generates employment and has a very important and deep-rooted history and ties to the territory; while a business enterprise can capture a great deal of value but contributes little to society,” he explained. “The problem we have with these business enterprises is that many times they are not linked to the territory, to employment or to the growth of society.”

“What we need to keep our society balanced are companies, communities of people where people are counted on, history is considered and there is a memory,” Mr Marcet said. “And Covid-19 has done nothing but emphasise all this.”

Mr Marcet stressed throughout the session that this people’s perspective “is a key, fundamental element that characterises companies. If people are respected, customers are respected.” He went on to say that companies must not stop thinking about customers “and not stop thinking about what they need and that they do not know how to express. Not today, but tomorrow.”

The coronavirus pandemic “has made it more than evident that not everything can be planned because the situation is changing every week.” In this regard, he said that “the dynamics to which we were accustomed have changed. We need to have a vision, a strategy, but to plan less. We must be able to adapt this strategy and planning in a world that changes faster than our ability to plan.”

“Why are we talking about flexibility? Because the world is moving fast, fluidly, and we need to be able to take decisions with uncertainty“, Mr Marcet added before explaining that, with regard to talent, “its flow, both in and out, is important“. Concerning leadership, he said that a good leader “has the ability to propose the vision and exemplify rather than to give good speeches; He is not someone who adds but who multiplies.”

Finally, regarding the situation in Catalonia and what would be needed, Mr Marcet said that “it is very important to be able to maintain companies that have given us our identity, companies with the will to exist and to grow. Not just thinking about having ideas but also about implementing them.“

Sixteen per cent of Catalan family businesses run the risk of shutting down in 2020 due to restrictions on activity caused by the Covid-19 pandemic according to estimates by the Catalan Association of Family Businesses (ASCEF), its President, Amadeu Jori, told the EFE news agency.

He said that ASCEF is calling on the Government for greater coordination and contact with social agents “who are the ones who really know first-hand what is happening.”

Mr Jori also asked administrations to provide financial injections to companies in difficulty, “not only with loans but with direct subsidies” as has been done in other European countries. “If economic activity is restricted in order to protect health, measures must be taken to prevent economic activity from collapsing,” he said.

The news was echoed in the media, both in general outlets such as La Vanguardia, Diari Ara and El País, and economic ones such as Expansión.

The President of the Catalan Association of Family Businesses (ASCEF), Amadeu Jori, participated at a business event held in Valencia yesterday to assess the status of the development of the Mediterranean Corridor. Catalan family businesses, like other business associations, called on the Government to ensure that the project does not undergo any further delays and is completed in 2025. The event was attended by Spain’s Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, José Luis Ábalos.

ASCEF acknowledged the progress made on the international gauge rail platform and the opportunity to receive investment from Community funds for economic reactivation through alignment with the requirements of the EU plan. However, the Association also requested that the connection with the ports of Barcelona and Tarragona should not be ignored and expressed its hope that the Perpinyà-Montpellier stretch does not become a bottleneck if it fails to be concluded until 2034.

“A modern, fast rail freight line is a strategic infrastructure, one that is essential for the competitive development of exports in Catalonia and for companies to exploit their full potential in Europe,” Mr Jori said. Greater capacity in train traffic together with greater regularity and speed will not only facilitate logistics but will also reduce costs as rail transport is cheaper. In addition, trains cause less pollution.