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Kurt Jacobs joins Remy Greasley for this morning’s business briefing, discussing family business, imposter syndrome and the ‘car crash’ of Jaguar’s new rebrand.

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00:00Family business, imposter syndrome and a car crash at Jaguar.

00:05That's what's next on today's business briefing.

00:14I'm Remy Greasley of North West Business Insider.

00:17And I'm Kurt Jacobs. I'm Insider's Editor in the Midlands.

00:21So something, Kurt, that I want to talk about first, if you don't mind, is our Family Business 100.

00:27So it's something that I've been working on in the December issue of North West Business Insider.

00:31And I know family business is quite huge for the region.

00:35And what it is, it's our ranking of top family businesses ranked by turnover and profit.

00:41And I think one thing, you sort of look at the list and a hundred companies there,

00:45but what really jumps out is just how successful some of these are.

00:48And it makes you think, you know, these people have the same blood really at the forefront of business,

00:53which is quite impressive.

00:55And sort of some of the top spots, you have quite notable names like Home Bargains, Warbitons,

01:01and then also one slight licensed wholesale company, which if you're in Manchester a bit more,

01:07I'm sure you'd see their vans driving around delivering alcohol and things like that to their venues.

01:12But I know, Kurt, that you've done a recent roundtable on family business.

01:17And it's not always as rosy as I think the Family Business 100 might seem.

01:22Yep, you're absolutely right, Remy.

01:24What we did, I brought together a group of chief executive managing directors

01:30of senior family businesses in the Midlands for a chat.

01:34What came out was fascinating.

01:36And there were two big issues that stood out for me.

01:39Firstly is the issue of inheritance tax in the budget.

01:42That's not gone away.

01:44And what it is doing amongst a lot of family businesses is forcing a discussion about succession policies.

01:51So rather than waiting for the founder to name their successor on their deathbed,

01:58it's brought forward what's been called the mortality conversation.

02:01We need to decide soon on when the next generation is going to take over

02:07and how it's going to take over.

02:08There needs to be a clear succession policy.

02:10As one put it to me, they had a chat with the founder and said to them,

02:15we have a choice.

02:16Either you die tomorrow or you die in seven years if we're going to escape this.

02:21Very tough conversations to be had, I think.

02:23It is.

02:24And it's a very British thing that we try and avoid death,

02:26but increasingly we can't afford to do so.

02:28I get that completely.

02:29And one thing that I think sticks out with family businesses and also owner-managed businesses

02:34is this idea of impostor syndrome.

02:37I've talked to a lot of people.

02:38These are people leading the way in their sectors,

02:42but they have maybe this idea behind their ear that they shouldn't be there.

02:49What do you think about that?

02:50You're absolutely right, mate.

02:51That was the other big issue that came out of this conversation

02:54was that so many of the second, third, fourth, in some cases even seventh generations

03:01feel they've got the job effectively simply because of who their parents and grandparents were.

03:08And the biggest challenge they were telling me,

03:10it's not proving their abilities to the workforce or to the outside world

03:15or to their fellow shareholders.

03:17It's proving it to themselves that I deserve to be here

03:21and I deserve to run this country by the status of who I am rather than who my parents were.

03:26They told me that was the biggest single challenge in transforming a family business.

03:32And only when they'd got that did they feel the confidence to actually transform the business

03:36and make it modern.

03:38I suppose business leaders are people too, aren't they?

03:40They are.

03:41And then, as we mentioned at the start, Jaguar.

03:44We've had this huge rebrand. Talk us through that.

03:48Well, I've been following Jaguar for close on 30 years now.

03:54This is a massive change in the company.

03:56It really is preparing the business as it moves towards purely electric vehicles.

04:03Of course.

04:04And what it's looking for is not just a change in its powertrain and the way it makes things,

04:09but its entire audience.

04:11And to do that, it's gone through a massive rebrand,

04:14which has involved getting rid of what they call the Growler,

04:17which is the Jaguar logo on the front.

04:20Which seems to be its heritage. That's what I remember Jaguar as.

04:24You're quite right, Remy.

04:25What they're doing is effectively downplaying, if not quite ditching,

04:30that 90-year heritage of Britishness and going for a more modern audience.

04:35And to do that, they've also created a new marketing campaign,

04:39which, to be honest, has come in for a lot of flak.

04:43Effectively, it's a strange, Martian landscape,

04:47lots of diverse characters, and no cars.

04:51And it's been absolutely hammered by those in marketing.

04:54Elon Musk, himself no stranger to a poor rebranding exercise,

04:59has slated it.

05:01But this is more than just a conversation amongst lovies and designers, as it were.

05:08It has real-world implications,

05:10because Jaguar Land Rover employs something like more than 40,000 people

05:15in the North West and the Midlands.

05:18In its wider supply chain, that's another 240,000.

05:22So you're talking almost a third of a million people

05:25have their living dependence on Jaguar Land Rover.

05:28If this goes wrong, it has massive implications for manufacturing.

05:33Amazing. They really can't afford to drop the ball, can they?

05:36Indeed, you're absolutely right.

05:38Thank you so much for joining us, Kurt.

05:40I think that'll be everything for today.

05:42If you want to see any of these stories,

05:44you can find them on the Insider website.

05:47Thank you so much, Kurt, and thanks for watching.

05:50Thank you very much, Remy.

Watch: Insider's Business Briefing - 25th November

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