Getting past the daily grind - how a family business programme helped Atkinsons overcome barriers to growth.

Atkinsons, coffee roasters and tea merchants, are part of Lancaster’s history - a fact not lost on owner and ‘Keeper of the Flame’, Ian Steel. “There’s a feeling of responsibility. It’s the oldest retailer in town, but we can’t get stuck in a ‘heritage rut’. So we try to blend in cutting-edge elements and keep things progressing all the time.”

Ian’s sons are also involved in running the business and the eldest, Maitland, signed up with his father for the pilot of the LUMS Family Business Productivity Programme. Having two delegates from each business can offer fascinating variations of perspective across generations as they get to grips with new approaches for improving productivity and sustainability.

“One thing we did on the programme was to track where you think your business is in its lifecycle and that was interesting,” Maitland says. “Dad saw us as currently setting things in place for it to be in its prime, whereas I had it positioned nearer to its beginning: being younger, I’ve got the rest of my life to see it becoming something more.”

“The programme helps you focus on the hard problems you need to confront to move forward.” Maitland highlights one such issue: limited scope for staff to get involved in roasting. “We’d been putting it on the ‘too hard’ pile, but the peer sessions helped us think through the problem and set a deadline to take action. So we’ve created a space for cross-skilling, opening up opportunities for cafe managers and baristas to grow their knowledge of coffee generally, which increases the quality and consistency of the product. They get more experience, feel more empowered - and the company gains versatility.”

This touches on a common potential sticking point for family businesses: lack of structured career development, which Maitland says can affect people like him and his brother, as well as other personnel. “On the programme, we talked about how you need to make it easier to learn from the people around you and, as you take on more responsibility, how you need to think about who’s going to do the jobs you used to do.”

“It also really helped with leadership styles,” he says. “Rather than the typical family business pacesetting style, adopting a coaching style that enables staff to buy into your values. And it encouraged us to implement structured meetings with heads of department, to get a clear idea of what needs to be done and to set an action plan. What’s definitely been useful from the whole exercise is taking a step back and thinking about what we want to do going forward and how we’re going to do it.”

“The programme has helped us to solve previously unsolvable problems,” Ian confirms, citing the example of having another business on the premises, which had been nurtured through the early incubation stage and had grown into a major supplier. “Whilst it had been apparent for a while that the paths of the two businesses were diverging, having a new toolkit from the Productivity Programme gave us the clarity and boldness of vision and the courage and expertise to develop a strategy to satisfy both parties. We now operate this business ourselves, with much healthier margins and it complements our existing business portfolio.”

Overall, Ian says, attending the programme with his son has offered both of them a fantastic, life-changing opportunity to plan ahead. “I remember one time we came back from a session, and discussed it with the rest of the family, and a half hour debrief ended up taking the whole afternoon because everyone was so interested. Now we have two upcoming business ventures and I’m sure that our outlook since the programme has helped push the doors open. If planning ahead keeps everyone in a good place through the generational shift, that’s what a family business is all about.”

Following a successful pilot, the Family Business Productivity Programme has evolved and expanded into the Family Business Excellence Programme.

Family Business Excellence Programme is part of the Lancashire Forum. The programme is designed for family-run SMEs to enhance business productivity and develop a sustainable strategy to serve future generations. This programme is fully funded and available to European Regional Development Fund eligible businesses. Contact Jane Hunter on 01524 593712, email familybusiness@lancaster.ac.uk or visit lancaster.ac.uk/lums/fb to find out more.

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