Australia and New Zealand’s Leading Family Business Advisers
Align the family and the business will follow
As every family business grows and matures, it is critical that it has a clear long term strategy supported by good HR policies and frameworks. What has become clear to us over the years is that many family businesses struggle to get these two essential items in place. However, it is also very clear that those family businesses who have a clear strategy and a great HR framework, inevitably achieve significant benefits and returns.
This is an essential part of growing and professionalizing the business into a sustainable long term entity—which is almost the key definition of what every family business aspires to.
Why strategy and why is HR so important?
Establishing and maintaining an effective and practical HR framework for family businesses is a huge issue. Because family and non family are working together, clear and unambiguous HR strategies are critical to facilitate the successful running of the business and the successful management of staff. When done well it reduces conflict and turn over, engages the people with the business and its strategy and ensures high levels of performance.
HR and Strategy are linked; a successful business needs and depends on a solid strategy and if that strategy is to be enacted and succeed then you need to have the critical HR frameworks in place. This ensures well trained, engaged and motivated staff to implement and achieve the strategy. For most businesses, staff are usually our biggest cost and so effective HR when implemented well, creates significant savings and efficiencies as well as the smooth implementation of the strategy.
The key words there are ‘effective HR and clear strategy’. There are many disasters in both, you have to get it right.
While our team has considerable experience, we are delighted to bring on board Steve Booth who is an expert in the HR space for over 40 years.
Steve brings a breadth of experience gained in both small companies and large international corporates, across the Public Sector as well as publicly listed and private companies in a range of industries. More recently Steve has been working with several large and small family owned businesses assisting them to address the full range of their strategic, operational business and HR needs.
Philip came to work closely with Steve for over 15 years, most of that was while he was HR Director of Yokogawa. He describes Steve as “the best HR Director he has ever worked with” and he’s worked with a lot of HR people…
The key difference between what Steve does and what other HR professionals do is that he is strategic, business focused and practical. He is one of the few HR Directors who can actually prove their work directly influences the bottom line. HR was critical in the successful and extremely profitable projects that Yokogawa was involved in. After Yokogawa, Steve worked with several family businesses including Interflow as a HR advisor.
Steve is a huge asset to Family Business Central and we welcome him on board.
If you’re interested in talking more to us about how Steve can help your business, please contact Hannah Veal at Hannah@familybusinesscentral.com and she will organise introductions.
