support

At a family business conference, several years ago, I had the good fortune to hear speak the senior family member and then president of the fourth generation Italian fashion house, Ermenegildo Zegna. In reply to a question on where he spent his time, he identified three areas of personal priority.

Picture yourself as a successor, recently arrived in a foreign market with no clear job description, no clarity on why you are there and a suspicious local management team. Your brief is to 'Find your own way and make a difference' in a company with €1 billion plus sales and a track record of minimum active family involvement.

For an innovative investment to pay off, the pieces of the research and development puzzle need to fall into place perfectly—especially in life sciences and MedTech.

In Flanders, the northern region of Belgium, you’ll find all the required ingredients: companies that adapt quickly and work together, academic institutions and research centres that support the ambitions of entrepreneurs, government agencies that think with and support the world of business in a hands-on way. It’s all available in a compact and dense knowledge network.

The most common stereotype about the next-gen members of a family business is that they are arrogant and overconfident and expect everything to come easily to them. But the reality is that these Gen Y and Z members become overwhelmed with self-doubt over joining the family business.