Survive to succeed
The business news that matters
Hello and welcome to Off to Lunch…
The new episode of our Business Leader podcast went live this morning and it is different to others that we have done. Rather than focus on a well-known business or story, I look into a business that you probably haven’t heard of. That is because the story behind this business is remarkable - it has been around for 250 years and is still controlled by the same family who founded it in 1774.
Rankin Brothers & Sons makes the cork that goes into the end of wine bottles, as well as other caps and closures for beer, wines and spirits. It employs more than 50 people in the UK and generates annual revenues of around £20 million.
The business is older than the United States of America and has got through two world wars, the Covid-19 crisis and much more.
Jim Rankin is the sixth generation of the family to lead Rankin Brothers & Sons and I spoke to him for Business Leader. I wanted to understand what it takes for a business to survive and thrive for this long. I was struck by his answers. It became clear the success and longevity of the business is down to this very focus on survival. In other words - survive to succeed. This is what Jim Rankin said when I asked about how he approaches key strategic decisions:
“It's all about the longer term. It's all about some kind of succession. Succession doesn't necessarily mean only in the family. Succession just means the survival of the business. I've had the benefit of seeing succession play out through previous generations. It tempers your enthusiasm to do anything rational or foolish over the shorter term. It allows you to concentrate your efforts on planning longer term. Some of the strategies that we're developing today will play out over five, ten and 15 years. Some of the things that I'm discussing with colleagues now are investments that will bear fruit only perhaps after I've retired or under the next ownership of the business.”
The issue of succession is even more pronounced for Jim Rankin because there are only two Rankins left in the business and it is not yet clear whether his two sons will join it. Jim Rankin initially didn’t want to join the family business - he was concerned about the rows it caused within the family - but changed his mind after a letter from his grandfather.
You can hear more about this story in full by listening to the episode on Substack here, Spotify here and Apple here
Other stories that matter…
1. Multiverse, the UK tech business which places apprenticeships with big businesses and was founded by Euan Blair, has bought US business Searchlight. Searchlight has developed AI tools that help recruiters pick candidates for jobs. Story by TechCrunch here
2. Elon Musk is not the 21st-century version of Henry Ford, writes Sky News economics editor Ed Conway in a new column. That person will be someone who finally gets cheap electric cars on the road. And they may come from China. You can read more here
3. The BBC’s Dougal Shaw has done an interview with Andy Yen, the chief executive of Proton, in which he says that your email address is now as important to your day-to-day life as a passport. More here
4. Does diversity in a team lead to better results? The Arsenal women’s football team is an interesting case study, according to Stephen Bush in the Financial Times. “Arsenal Women’s un-diverse squad wasn’t destined to come unstuck against teams that defend in numbers and to drop silly points it shouldn’t have done, but that squad picture was a warning sign,” he writes. “Though diversity is, in my view, more often a byproduct rather than a cause of success, we should see its absence as a signal that we aren’t getting our talent recruitment quite right: even if we do occasionally manage to win a cup or two.” You can read the column here
5. The chief investment officer of Abrdn, the fund manager, says that it is the victim of “corporate bullying” and “childish jokes” in the media about its name change from Standard Life Aberdeen to Abrdn. Story here. This is how CityAM responded…
The new Business Leader…
The new Business Leader website and magazine have now launched. We are building a new inspirational, aspirational and agenda-setting business publication for the UK. You can read our analysis, interviews and expert columnists on our website by clicking the image below. Our new magazine is now available in shops and you can subscribe to your own print or digital version by clicking here
And finally…
It’s great to see other newsletters launch as the audience grows and people use the new tools available to them to launch new publications. A collection of former executives at Business Insider have just launched a newsletter focused on personal finance called MoneyIn2. It will offer personal finance news and advice via a newsletter sent three times a week. You can find a Press Gazette article on the newsletter here and sign-up here
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