As MDs think about the New Year or start planning for the next financial year there are a number of forthcoming employment law changes that may affect you and your business. Gender Pay Gap True this applies only to large employers (employing over 250 employees) but it...
Stephen Cowburn
Resolving Directors’ disputes
As business advisers working with MDs we are used to solving business problems and recommending courses of action across the range of business disciplines. Recently we have been involved in a number of cases where we have sought to resolve disputes between Directors...
Case Study: Leadership Succession Coaching in Action
Gordon is MD of a £24m turnover business. He is aware that in the next few years there will be a number of retirements at senior levels and there is an experience gap between Board members and the next tier down. He has identified Richard as possibly having the...
How coaching can support leadership change in a small business
Coaching might be seen as the new buzzword of the age. It has come to cover a multitude of interventions – consulting, training, educating, advising, mentoring, therapy, counselling and so on. For me coaching is about engaging with the whole person to achieve the...
Getting maternity leave right with your key employees
Over the last 12 months l have worked with client MDs on 6 cases of maternity leave and on two of these cases, because they have become contentious, I have reflected on the causes of these disputes. Looking at this dispassionately one might say that this reflects a...
Dealing with an under-performing family member
This is one of those predictable problems which takes on additional angst because it involves a family member. As a predictable problem, its’ resolution can be proceduralised by specifically mentioning this situation in a family constitution so that there are no...
Employing family members in the business
Talking to MDs of family businesses, I am struck by how many started off working in the business during school holidays and then fell into the business after school or university and worked their way up to the top job as the company grew and they became the obvious...
Employing ‘partners’ or ‘spouses’ in the family business
Over the Christmas break l was reading an article about how relationships between married couples are likely to survive longer than relationships between partners, particularly when children are involved. If commitment is at the heart of this then l guess that it is...
What is involved in succession planning in a family business?
This may sound an obvious question yet my experience of family businesses is that many business leaders don’t know how to get started with succession planning or they view it as a single event rather than an on-going process. There are three main processes involved in...