It’s time to rethink how family businesses think about and act on sustainability issues. It’s not always about being willing to act – but being capable.
Professor Alfredo De Massis, of Lancaster University Management School; the University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy; and IMD, in Switzerland, has worked on family businesses and entrepreneurship for decades – striving to produce knowledge that these firms can use to their advantage.
He joins us to look at why family business decisions are not always rational, why the generation in control of a firm is key to sustainability, and the differences made by geography, company size, industry, and the involvement of external experts at board level.
We look at why some family firms want to have a positive social impact and are more embedded in the community, the importance of transitions in leadership in affecting change in sustainability attitudes, and the differences between a business-first and a family-first family business.
Plus, Alfredo reveals why he is the black sheep of his family, we consider what AI will mean for the future of sustainability in businesses, Paul gets muddled by Gen-Z, and Jan is mesmerised by an Italian accent.
Read more about Alfredo’s work on environmental practices in family firms here: https://doc.your-brochure-online.co.uk/Lancaster-University_FiftyFourDegrees_Issue_23/50/
For more information about Lancaster University’s Centre for Family Business, see here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/lums/research/areas-of-expertise/centre-for-family-business/
And discover more about Alfredo here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/lums/people/alfredo-de-massis
Transforming Tomorrow
Sustainability is key for any business that wants to build a lasting legacy. From carbon footprints to biodiversity to modern slavery, seabeds to factory floors, everything matters.
On Transforming Tomorrow, we make the complex understandable, the theory practical, as we guide you through the ever-changing and often exciting world of sustainability in business.
Speaking to internationally renowned experts and business leaders, we uncover how to mainstream environmental, social and economic sustainability into purposeful business strategy and performance.
Whether you are leading transition in your business, want to build a corporation with a green heart or change your individual actions, or just want to know more about how space weather might affect your operations, Transforming Tomorrow is the show for you.
Hosts Jan and Paul bring insight, perspective, and not a little amount of disagreement, to all the subjects, helping you find the message among the madness.
Join us every Monday to uncover new insights and become a little more inspired that you can make a difference.
You can find transcripts for most episodes at: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/pentland/resources-for-education-and-practice/transforming-tomorrow-podcast/transcripts/
Send your questions on any of the issues we discuss in Transforming Tomorrow to [email protected] or fill in our feedback form here: https://forms.office.com/e/7Bw4rDiRDt
Find out more about the Pentland Centre and its work here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/pentland/
Meet the Hosts
Professor Jan Bebbington is the Director of the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business at Lancaster University. Jan is an expert on accounting, benchmarking (to her co-host’s annoyance), and how business and sustainability intersect.
Jan loves nature and wants to protect it – and hopes she can change the world (ideally for the better). She is also motivated to address inequality wherever it is found and especially to eliminate forced, bonded or child labour. Transforming Tomorrow is one small step on that quest.
Paul Turner is a former sports journalist who now works promoting the research activities in Lancaster University Management School – a poacher turned gamekeeper as his former colleagues would have it.
Paul has always been interested in nature and the natural environment – it comes from growing up in Cumbria – and has been a vocal proponent of the work of the Pentland Centre since joining Lancaster University. He does not like rankings and benchmarking, and is not afraid to say so.