Are family-run travel businesses more stable? You tell me...
March 2, 2009
This caught my ear on the radio earlier - Barclays has released a report suggesting that family-run businesses are better-placed to ride out the recession.
The beeb interviewed the boss of Bettys & Taylors, the family-run business that makes TW favourite Yorkshire Tea.
While stopping short of saying family ownership is a get-out-of-jail-free card, he argued that family businesses focus on the long term, with 'stewardship' replacing the rather less responsible attitude the public now associate with corporate leaders like Sir Fred Goodwin.
That may or may not be true - one suspects that the prosaic truth is that well-run companies will survive, and badly-run ones won't.
Anyway, I'm canvassing Twitter followers about it. One reply so far, coming from a Travel Counsellor posting as Phewtus:
Yep, I'm a Travel Counsellor and we have the Speakman Dynasty and business is very good...
I'll post more responses if and when they come in.
Nathan Midgley
Comments (1)
Yes I heard that too this morning (Today, BBC R4) and was also taken with the concept of 'stewardship' and long-term planning.
My mind also ran to what I call the travel company 'cycle of life' (http://tinyurl.com/dcqqc9).
The pattern is familiar. There are many small specialist tour operators who start out as independent family businesses, and when they get successful are swallowed up by the big boys who trade on their kudos for two brochures/seasons until the brand credibility, enthusiasm & customer loyalty is sucked dry, at which point the raw inventory is absorbed into the parent brand.
Meanwhile, the 'non-compete' clause has run out and the founders start up a similar, fleet-footed brand.
So who is out-performing who? The big travel corp, or the small family-run business?
(BTW Bettys & Taylors were one of the sponsors of the British Guild of Travel Writers' recent trip to York - another reason to listen to what they say :P)
Posted by Alastair McKenzie | March 2, 2009 7:24 PM
Posted on March 2, 2009 19:24