A values-driven legacy binds our family business
The last few weeks amid the unbearable grief of losing my father, Mr. Michel Chalhoub, I have repeatedly reflected on his wise words, passion, and resilience to grow Chalhoub Group despite many adversities.
Like a true visionary, my father was incredibly foresighted in predicting trends and identifying new growth frontiers. He was always open to new suggestions and ideas. An exceptional leader who taught us the importance of being ethical, courageous yet humble in our attitude. A loving father who instilled in us the virtues of kindness and empathy.
Unsurprisingly, as I looked back on my father’s life and his strong sense of purpose, I got the strength to pick myself up and continue to build on his legacy. A legacy that has connected generations of family and non-family members in Chalhoub Group, strengthening us along the way.
…
“What legacy do you want to leave behind?”
This is a key question that my father asked my late brother Anthony and I when we joined our family business. Over the decades, this became a pivotal question for every person who joined the Chalhoub Group. Our responses not only reflect our goal to take the family business to the next frontier, which my parents meticulously built and strengthened, but also our intent to create legacy through actions and decisions that go beyond the bottom-line.
As someone who is responsible for steering forward the family business, I am keen to create a legacy steeped in empathy and rooted in my deep desire to genuinely care for our people and be accountable for their growth and wellbeing.
It is quite like the role of a coach in a football team. Beyond winning and losing matches, a good coach is responsible for the team’s wellbeing. A good coach always brings out the best in each player, supports them, strengthens their commitment to achieve a common goal, eventually building a cohesive and resilient team. And such teams go down in history for their laurels.
Isn’t that what we look for in a family business too?
A strong urge to achieve common goals by leveraging the skills and abilities of each team member while respecting differences. Every family business that has ever achieved this goal tends to thrive, irrespective of the obstacles that each generation confronts. This is something that my father taught us quite early in the day. Today even as he is no longer with us, his legacy has been immortalised.
Purpose and values propel us forward
Over six decades ago, at the age of 23 years, when my father changed the course of his career from being a law student to becoming an entrepreneur, he laid down certain unspoken values. Since then, we have lived and breathed these values centred around respect for all, striving for excellence and building an entrepreneurial mindset. Much later in the early 2000s we formally adopted these values as the cornerstone of the family business.
Research — and our collective experience since 1955 — indicates that family businesses with strong values and fundamentals tend to be more resilient, even during a crisis. Such businesses have proved to be adaptable and agile in driving changes with a clear focus on the long-term goals. Our business has also faced several crises starting from the political instability in Syria and Lebanon, crisis in Kuwait to the current Covid-19 pandemic.
As opposed to derailing us, every crisis has strengthened our GROUP and the business as we worked harmoniously as a FAMILY. One such inflection point was when I joined the family business in the mid-70s at the peak of the civil war in Lebanon. At that time, we decided to establish presence in other Gulf countries to future-proof the business. Then came a point when my brother and I decided to decentralise out of Kuwait following the crisis in 1990 and moved to the UAE to ensure business continuity and explore untapped avenues.
More recently as the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the order of doing business almost overnight, we stayed resilient and took swift decisions to further accelerate our digitalisation efforts and strengthen our innovation mindset. Importantly, we focused on supporting our people, sustaining, and growing the business and embracing the new reality.
Amid each turbulence, we have taken quick decisions bearing in mind the associated risks and long-term goals of the business, all the while keeping people at the heart. A strong sense of purpose and commitment to our values have helped us to create a compassionate workplace, an agile organisation and evolve constantly as a family business with eyes set on the future.
Succession planning and governance structure can ensure lasting success
Mapping out a roadmap for the future is crucial for any business, more so for a family business where succession happens to be a defining moment. It requires a clear understanding of the successor’s intent, motivations, and skills and whether those are aligned with business goals. Importantly, the successor must be given the freedom to choose whether to join the family business or not. At the same time, there must be willingness on part of the head of business to prepare and pass the baton on to the next generation.
Succession planning requires preparedness, honest expectation setting and transparent communication to take the right decisions at the right time. It is instrumental in creating and sustaining a strong family business model for the future generations.
While running a family business is a truly gratifying experience, complexities could arise driven by relationship dynamics that can slow down the business. That’s why putting in place a governance structure is crucial to ensure lasting success. In the years between early 90s and 2000s my brother and I created an initial governance structure for the Chalhoub Group. This afforded our parents a preparation period to slowly transition from their active role in operational and strategic affairs of the business. In the early 2000s when my father became the Chairman and my brother and I took over as Co-CEOs, the governance framework helped us to clearly define our roles and responsibilities taking certain decisions jointly and sometimes independently but always maintaining UNITY.
Even as Chalhoub Group remains a fully family-owned business, we have gradually transitioned from a family-constituted board to having non-family and non-executive board members. This has immensely strengthened us as a business as we are able to leverage a wealth of knowledge, skills and abilities.
A values-driven legacy is the common thread
A family business that started with two people — my parents — and now stands at just over 12,000, we are relentless in our pursuit of learning, excelling and therein creating legacy to make our future generations proud, deepening their attachment with the family business.
My parents always said: “Make people ‘want’ to be part of the Chalhoub Group history. Only then they will passionately push the boundaries further.”
And I strongly believe in giving newcomers the independence to take decisions differently, even make mistakes and learn from them instead of restraining their growth by setting boundaries. The days of single point of decision-making are long gone, giving way to meaningful collaboration. Today our workforce — including family and non-family members — comprise of Millennials and Generation Z who seek an environment that nurtures new ideas. They are passionate about uncovering unexplored opportunities. We must create an environment to support them with what’s called the ‘patient capital’, giving them opportunities to transform and future-proof our business.
There is a common thread tying us all at the Chalhoub Group. It is our values-driven legacy to make a real difference in the regional business landscape, lives of our people and the community by being agile, innovative, compassionate, and responsible.
… A legacy left by my late father that we will honour and continue to build on.
