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www.fegime.com

NEWSLETTER 02.2019

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…all the family assets (such as values, heritage

& connections) but also the family roadblocks.

That succession is such an essential topic is proven

by these statistics fromUK (other countries are just

the same): 70% of all family businesses have a

life expectancy of 24 years, only 30% will make

it into the second generation, only 13% into the

3rd generation - but a staggering 60-70% have

no succession plan at all.

This fitted in well with the next session: Thriving

in Eco-Systems by Dr Shaz Ansari from Judge

Business School, Cambridge. In these times

of disruptive innovation his aim was to give

participants tips on how to survive. In groups

they were invited to look first at a gym and then at

a hotel in order to “reinvent” the business model.

Using the “Four-Action Framework” tool, the final

task was to examine which factors of the business

could be “eliminated, reduced, created or raised”.

Shaz’s tip: balance past, present and future.

With the ever-increasing speed of change, you

just can’t expect to be able to keep on doing what

you have always done, said Patrick Reinmoeller.

You need a breakout strategy to examine where

you can take your business in the coming years.

Patrick’s advice: “Break out from your core

business to adjacent or transformational sectors

despite the risk of uncertain returns. Otherwise,

you are betting the future of your company on

the world never changing.”

There were not many takers for that bet, so the

next topic was Change Management presented

by Sandra Krisberga-Sinigoi, from Cranfield

University. We are all living in a volatile, uncertain,

complex and ambiguous world so we need to

adapt as soon as possible. But change is difficult

because we are creatures of habit who like

everything to remain just as it always was.

So far so good, but what does this have to do

with Lego? Sandra introduced FEGIME Future

to the Lego Serious Play method which has been

used for academic research already for 20 years.

Teams were given Lego bricks and then asked to

build something representing various ideas and

concepts such as “How does my team feel about

changes?”. This is an excellent way of enabling

exploration without consequences, of unlocking

creativity & internal resources and thus enhancing

teamwork.

A working group proud of their results and the whole team in Barcelona together with Prof. Patrick Reinmoeller (right).

FEGIME President, Ricardo Gomez, came

to the Graduation Ceremony and presented

the certificates. “I am sure you have heard

it said of family companies that we do not

inherit the business from our parents, but we

borrow it from our children,” said Ricardo.

“I am convinced that at FEGIME we are on

the right track - into the next generation.”

But that is only half the battle. To quote Steve Jobs:

“Ideas are nothing. Execution is worth millions.”

And Prof. Luis Vives, from ESADE Business School,

Barcelona, confirmed that. His topic: Business

Model Innovation (his definition: the discovery

of a fundamentally different business model in

an existing business, a way to grow profit &

avert threats from competitors). The exercise

he set FEGIME Future was an eye-opener.

Groups of different sizes were given the task of

“manufacturing” letters on small pieces of paper

with the aim of creating as many English words

as possible with as little wastage as possible.

When the results came in, it became clear that

the largest group had had the hardest time

as more coordination & communication were

needed. But all the groups made the mistake

of not doing sufficient market research and not

taking the requirements of the customer into

consideration. Luis’s warning: “The biggest threat

to businesses today is not digital technologies

but loss of relevance & the inability to adapt to

change. You must not forget that the customer

comes first. Adapt to their requirements.”

So, that point went right to the top of participants’

“To Do” lists for the first day back in the office.

Actually, whywait?Nowadays everyone is always

connected to their work, always available. But

sometimes it gets too much. How is it best to cope

with this and achieve sustainable performance?

That was the question posed by Dr Jutta Tobias

Mortlock, from Cass Business School, London.

Her topic was “Slowing Down to Speed Up”. Jutta

had a lot of tips for achievingMindfulness (being

fully present AND responding appropriately). For

example: you must switch off regularly.

There was little time for switching off in Barcelona.

As ever the group worked on the Tool to Take

Home that can be implemented immediately. The

topic was Relationships in the Digital Age (REiDA).

Patrick’s instructions: analyse howyou reach out to

your customers and map out the current situation,

show the desired profile (where you want to be

in 5 years) and define three steps to reach it. The

results inspired Patrick to the following summary:

“If FEGIME Future continues to coordinate goals

and shares best practices, members will benefit

frombetter management of customer relationships

and even greater collaboration within FEGIME.”