Learning strategy at the dinner table

A FAMILY business is not only about profits but also about giving back.

Pick n Pay Holdings Ltd non-executive chairman Gareth Ackerman said the company created 5000 new jobs last year, and would probably do it again this year.

Speaking on leadership and family business, Ackerman said family businesses were generally trusted.

"The advantages of family businesses are that they have longer term views in strategies, institutional knowledge and learnings around the dinner table," Ackerman said.

Being in charge of a section of a supermarket at the age of just 16, Ackerman said the lessons learnt informally really stuck and he still remembered when his father opened Pick n Pay in Commercial Road in Port Elizabeth in the 1960s.

"A family business is never one's own asset. You are only looking after it for the next generation," Ackerman said.

However, there were several threats to family businesses like the "irresistible merger, acquisitions, succession rivalries and declining interest from the younger generation".

"Don't hide anything from the family but discuss macro elements of the business," Ackerman said.

He emphasised that being an effective family business meant giving back to the community. "Doing good is good business. We do not make a living by what we get, but make a life by what we give. Leadership is not about me, but about what I can do for others. If I do all of this, business will be better. Remember your humanity and forget the rest," Ackerman said.