Inflexion - Institute of Directors dinner

Inflexion hosted a dinner focused on the UK private business sector together with the chairman of the Institute of Directors, Lady Barbara Judge CBE.

The evening brought together leading chairmen and CEOs from some of the UK’s larger family owned and owner-managed as well as executives from family businesses across Europe ranging from Turkey, Scandinavia to India.

One element of the discussion was how well family business structures would deal with any deepening of the current global financial market instability. It was noted by many present that public markets were often the hardest to navigate during times of investor sentiment shifts, underlining the benefits of private ownership models, whether family or private equity.

Another area of discussion around the table was the often sensitive issue of leadership succession in family businesses. Experiences of those present highlighted some innovative approaches to multi-generational leadership change with examples given of how several large UK family owned firms were now using management assessment tools to objectify the process of family members being appointed to senior roles.

Others observed that the family business sector was also changing to reflect a new breed of entrepreneur wishing to establish and grow their firms with no family succession in mind and which would therefore be opportunities in the future for both public market or private equity investors.