Interview with Laura Meyer Ahlström, Family Functions Manager at Ahlström Corporation
Maintaining cohesion and connection in a vast, globally distributed family business while honouring its 170-year-old history is no small feat. Yet for Laura Meyer Ahlström, Family Functions Manager of Finland’s Ahlström Corporation, a multi-generational enterprise with over 420 family members, fostering unity and connection through the art of storytelling is a gratifying challenge.
Laura’s connection to her family’s past deepened during childhood visits to their ancestral home in Norrmark, Finland, where she uncovered historical letters and photographs. These discoveries revealed the powerful resource the family archive represented and how it could inspire and excite both current and future generations. Today, Laura harnesses this rich legacy — blending tradition with innovation — to unify the family’s voice and articulate its values across generations.
In this episode, Laura Meyer Ahlström reflects on her role as Family Functions Manager for Ahlström Corporation, a global leader in fibre-based specialty materials. She shares her experience using the family’s films and biographies to create multilingual narratives that resonate with and unite family members at home and abroad. Laura also discusses her family’s belief in entrepreneurialism and individuality, and how passion is always prioritised over obligation.
Key Takeaways:
- In large, multi-generational businesses, a Family Functions Manager plays a vital role in formalising strategies to sustain unity. Proactive efforts, such as organising international family events, digitalising communication, and encouraging engagement, are essential to bridging geographic and generational gaps. The role of the Family Functions Manager highlights how dedicated resources and leadership are critical to maintaining family cohesion.
- Laura uses storytelling to unite generations and link the past to the present. Using digital platforms, films, and interviews to transform historical archives into compelling narratives, she’s able to create a shared identity, emotionally engaging younger generations while reinforcing core values such as ambition and responsibility.
- The Ahlström family encourages members to pursue diverse paths while staying rooted in their shared heritage and legacy. Through the empowering approach of valuing individual contributions beyond traditional business roles, the family fosters inclusivity and eases succession pressures.
- Adaptability has been key to the Ahlström family’s business continuity. Embracing change — whether digitalising operations pre-COVID-19, refining post-merger communication strategies, or launching mentorship programs — has fueled the family’s resilience and highlighted its willingness to experiment and learn. Openness to feedback and acceptance of change have helped both the family and the business confront and navigate global challenges and shifting generational dynamics.
Transcript:
Ramia: Welcome everyone to another episode of Women in Family Business. I am absolutely delighted to have Laura Mayer here with me, who is from the Ahlstrom family in Finland. Welcome Laura.
Laura: Thank you. Nice to be here.
Ramia: Laura, I’m really excited to dive into your story and to dive into your journey with your family business. The first question I like to ask because I’m genuinely curious about this. You come from a very, very prominent family, a family that’s been in business for a very long time, but for you, for your personal journey, do you remember when in your life and in your childhood you started realizing that you were part of this kind of like a legacy? Do you remember there was a moment where that realization hit or was it like sort of always part of your consciousness?
Laura: I think maybe it was little bit part of my consciousness, but I would say it’s much later on, say early kind of 20s before I started realizing actually what the vast legacy of the family and the business. I think before that my connection was more to the family and family members. My cousins, our heritage home up in Norrmark, Marcos, it was more kind of that connectional feeling rather than that, you know, there’s a business. I think our business was at that time it’s been kind of split and merged and stuff like that. So it was hard to kind of find that real connection to which business I was connected to. It was kind of more that connection to the legacy and the history of our family and family members. And thankfully we have our heritage home set up in Norrmark, about three hours northwest from Helsinki. So there are a lot of, in those homes, they’re very well preserved and there’s a lot of pictures of all different family members. So growing up there is kind of an easy way to kind of connect and kind of that window into that history. And I think being there with my cousin, my parents, you kind of build up your own relationship to the place and kind of your own connection, but also at the same time being able to connect to, wait, that’s my great-great-grandfather, or that was there, and he built this house, or that picture was there. So it’s all these small artifacts to the pictures that kind of helped you connect to how to say, kind of put the puzzle together. And then maybe later on now when I started working actually in the family company, I’ve really first now really seen the huge history that there actually is. So I think there was only just a small, small window what I got to see when I was younger. But I mean, I’m very happy that I get to now dive really deeply into this and actually look at all the different stories that aren’t just, you know, connected straight up for me, but like for the whole family and what all the different generations and family members have been doing for so much.
Ramia: I think we’re going to dive a little bit more into the role of how you’re such an advocate for storytelling for your family and how that links into the family unity. But it’s interesting. I feel like you’re surrounded by a sense of, guess, almost like nostalgia from a child, right? And you get all these figures that are larger than life from your past and they’re not around anymore to give their version of the story, but you hear they’re almost like legends, What kind of an effect did that have on you and your siblings, do you feel, and your cousins, did it feel like expectations were there? Aas there a sense of wanting to live up to that level of ambition? What was that like for you guys psychologically?
Laura: I mean, I can only speak for my own part, but no, wouldn’t say I didn’t have. I felt like we’ve had, we’re such a big family. And I think so many different, of course, the huge, certain, you know, family figures that have been a part of the family business. So of course they have a huge kind of business legacy, but at the same time, if you look at the different, you know, family members, like on a larger scale, they’ve all done their own kind of thing and niche. And I think that’s always been a very kind of, how would I say, you know, encouraged to also find your own way of doing things in life and find your own passion. It wasn’t ever like that need to, oh, you have to do this or you’re next in line. Cause I think we were so many, we’re so many in the family. So there’s not really that clear, you know, succession, oh, you’re next. It’s more kind of, you know, who has that passion for business and who can contribute and how can you contribute to not just the business but to the family and kind of our like the joint kind of legacy and heritage that you don’t have to have that business mindset you can also be part of this and be really good at you know we have great musicians artists you know people have found their own passion so I think that’s more the legacy that I’ve been kind of wanting to live up to kind of find my own way and find my own role and my own passion in life and I think that’s always been important. That’s always been encouraged, at least in my family and from what I think, lot of my cousins and second cousins feel the same. I hope they feel the same at least.
Ramia: The sheer number of family members is actually also a little bit of the reason why your work came about because today you are the, you know, the family functions manager. And I do love that title. It’s very interesting because that job is like, obviously something that only family businesses can really relate to. So this necessity of having your function, like your job really comes from this, this vast family. And then of course the business also became really big for you guys. So tell us a little bit more about like how your career evolved into this, because I also know that you had to sort of like adapt to the needs of the family along the way and sort of this job description that you have today, it’s something that evolved over time.
Laura: Yeah, absolutely. I joined the, at that time it was a separate company, our kind of holding company. I joined there after finishing university as more like a part-time assistant. So that’s the kind of first step into there where I got to kind of see what, you know, organizing all these events and what it required to actually communicate to the whole family and what it meant for us to kind of own together the company, be shareholders together and stuff like that. So that was my kind of first window. Then a few years later after working elsewhere, came back and at that time, more as kind of administration manager, kind of very back office end, which was also at that time our communication was still in that way, not very digital. So we sent out a lot of mails and just by post had to send out all the invitations, all the business communication, everything like that. So it was very admin back office. But then at that time I got to be a part of them and saying, OK, we need to evolve and kind of what’s our next step to kind of keep this family together and how do we digitalize and stuff like that. That was fun to kind of start seeing that, you know, there is actually need for a strategy to kind of keep this together and communicate. And I think I think a lot of people before me already realized that, you know, we’re so big and if we want to have that connection and engagement actually requires intention like you can’t it just doesn’t happen by itself. It’s something that’s needed. So we were fortunate enough that we had actually looked at a digital platform already before COVID hit. So I went on maternity leave, you know, that’s how we had already set up our digital platform, which was already a huge big next step for us.
And that’s kind of kept us still together during that time when we could see each other face to face, you know, events. And we already at that time were almost 30% live abroad and we don’t really even have a common language. So if there’s Finnish, Swedish, English, French, you know, German. So, but at that time we also had to start realizing, okay, we cannot be sending out information in three languages and still having to adapt. So it has been a role. I mean, I’m not alone here. I’ve had colleagues who helped me with this. We’re now two people in Family Friendship, but we used to be three working up in and at the holding company. So we kind of had to find our way. And it’s always, think, these jobs, a little bit of a, you know, test and see if it works. If not, then adapt and change, you know, strategy a little bit. So we know where we want to go and we want to kind of keep the family together. We want to have communication and, you know, provide kind of events and communication that suits all throughout all the generations because it’s very hard to kind of find engaging content, for example, for next-gen versus older people who are having a hard time using the platform.
So yeah, it is a lot of kind of test and fail and trial and adapt in this job, but it’s, it’s fun in that way that you know, no day looks the same and you get to try new things. And of course, I think that both positive and negative feedback are really good to have because that means, okay, we’re doing something right. But if even if somebody’s reacting negatively, I mean, so that’s a thing that they’re, they realize that we’re doing something, we’re sending out the wrong information or something that’s still a good reaction. And that means they’re engaging. They, they not only just read the paper, actually want to get feedback and I think that’s great idea.
Kind of adapting and finding new ways, especially now again, now after a merger, we again had to kind of find a new way of how we do now things like how many events can we have? What are like the social events? What are the business events? know, what are the different forms where we can have not only the same generation discuss and meet up, but also like the different generations. How can we have the next gens with the older gens? So I think we’ve been doing a lot of things during the years. I mean, we have a mentorship programs. We have educational programs, have Christmas parties, we have these things. So it’s kind of always trying to find new ways of, not being like that historical thing that’s always been, but kind of adapting to the new needs of the family.
Ramia: And how many family members are we talking about now?
Laura: Well, we say about 420 plus, so give or take. And about 30% live abroad.
Ramia: So, know, so many people, I mean, and I think when you’re in it, everybody understands just the enormous benefits this kind of approach yields, right? Like just for family unity. it’s anyone who’s engaged in communication understands that you can’t communicate enough, really. There’s no such thing. There’s no over communication possible, really, right? Like so, but I think you have to engage in it to see the benefit. And I think like it’s really interesting to see that still so many families don’t seem to understand the necessity of this and I think the level of storytelling you’re bringing to your family today is extensive. And if you can maybe just like find the words a little bit for us, Laura, like, today, why you think that kind of storytelling really helps with conveying things like values, with maybe aligning everyone behind, you know, a unified identity and why do you think that works across generations? Because for me, it’s like the one thing that I feel like no matter when you were born, you know, it’s sort of like it really is that one thing that sort of like brings us all together. So you who has experienced this firsthand, tell us more about your experience in that respect.
Laura: I think my eyes opened to this kind of storytelling or narrative was when one of my cousins said that there’s a huge value in knowing and sharing your own story. And I think that’s really what I’ve realized during the years now. And we’re very fortunate because we have kind of two things. We have a huge historical archive dating back to 1915, if I remember correctly. And we even have the first kind of letters from 1850 from our founding father. So we have a huge archive, both the industrial side and the family archive there. And so there it’s really easy to kind of go and deep dive and see these different letters and understand what actually has been going on. Not only that, you know, very business kind of history, but actually the huge history of both the place up in Norrmarko and everything that’s been going on there. And then secondly, we had a big identity project, actually, a few years back, where we kind of, after I said all the mergers and splits of the company, people had a hard time knowing, you know, what story am I connecting to? What is actually our values and where are we? you know, for somebody, if you said, Alstrom, was, it was the industrial heritage or for somebody, was, you know, our place at the North of Markford, for other people who’s here in Helsinki and Esplanadi. So there was kind of like very divided of what was, you know, what was actually our story? What was our narrative? What did we want? And I think that identity project was a huge value because that actually then kind of we did kind of made an identity booklet even from that, which was kind of, looked at all the stakeholders, different family members, both external and internal people. telling, you know, different aspects of what the company Ahlstrom is and the family Ahlstrom is and what our values are. And I think that was a huge asset for us because that kind of for the first time gave us, okay, now we have that one story and one joint narrative that we want to have. So for at least for the last few years, it’s really been easy to kind of communicate that. So we just repeat that story. We realized actually from that huge project that we actually did have a joint story. It was just never like properly written down in the right words and kind of what exactly we wanted to express. So it was very fortunate for us. wasn’t even though it seems scattered, it was still that one clear value and joint story that we did have. So that’s been a huge asset for us. Although that being said, I find that history is something that’s been documented and written down. There’s also that small nuances that you hear from the older generations, that brings that legacy and that connection alive. But if you only have that timeline clearly saying, okay, this is what happened there there there, there’s very hard to connect to that. Then you’re like, okay, great, I’ll memorize that sometimes, but nobody remembers years and what actually happened. It’s more that, those small touches of, and I think especially now we’ve started interviewing also the older generations, realizing they have these stories that have happened, or like the untold stories, kind of that unwritten book still.
And recording them, and I think they’re at least talking to them. They always think, you know, those small details are irrelevant. That’s why they haven’t mentioned it to anybody. And those are actually those small nuance, that small detail that actually brings that story to life. So for us, of course we have a little bit of mixed communication for our family. We also have that business communication, those very clear, you know, necessities that we have to communicate people, please sign up to the AGMs and kind of nagging them to join us for this and come and hear about that.
But at the same time, we’ve been able to also now go through different films, kind of tell our story, look historically. So we have amazing film producers in our family. So they’ve been helping us with that. We’ve also have a book written about the second generation, which was initiated by one of our foundations, the Paul F. Austin book, which kind of tells that second generational story.
And then we also have, so we kind of have very, let’s see if I can answer your question, that we have a very diverse kind of communication strategy. So we’re doing a little bit of everything on different levels. So, I mean, there’s very, that informal social communication on WhatsApp, but then we have that intra platform, which is business communications, small, to lift up these small stories or deep dives into our historical archive. We also have family members posting their own things, which is more kind of that informal personal touch. So they can ask about, Hey, I need a babysitter. Did you guys know, hey, I met up with my cousins and niece or something like that. And then of course, we have these films, which are more maybe than with intention, kind of thinking about what how to use that story both i for the internal communication, but also externally, what we want people to know about our family and to kind of take charge of our own narrative and storytelling also externally, because that was maybe realized that way back, it was hard to kind of take charge of that narrative. And we realized we could do that. And through that identity project, we were able to actually kind of bring that story to life and also start clearly communicating externally as well, building that brand of what we are and what we want to stand for.
Ramia: That was going to be my next question really, like the relationship with the external communication as well, right? Like, because I think it’s such an underestimated asset to have the family members aligned around this, because essentially you get like a whole first frontier of brand ambassadorship for the business, which can really only be good and then can’t, can’t really hurt, right? Like to have that unified, front. But tell me a little bit more about, Laura, you know we talk a lot about like, know, sort of like, guess, succession and the differences between generations when it comes to attitudes towards work expectations in stewardship and ownership. Tell us a little bit more about like how you perceive the different generations. Do you feel like, know, in your work and what you’re doing, is there truly such a big difference between like sort of like, you know, your Gen Zs, your millennials, your Gen Xers, et cetera, and older, or do you feel that ultimately, you know, there’s a unifier here?
Laura: I would say ultimately there is a unifier, at least in our family. I think there’s a lot of respect towards the different generations, at least from what I’ve experienced. Of course, there’s nuanced differences. I mean, the way the type of content and what type of information they want and how they want to engage with the family and the company, maybe very little bit between the generations. But I would say that, mean, I think there’s also a huge kind of mentorship in our family and I feel like there’s a very good connection. I can ask older generations and they’ve been amazing at helping and guiding me. Of course, there’s always that succession. There’s always a little bit of what’s happened in the past. And these transitions are never 100% smooth. But I think we’re in a very good position right now where I feel like there’s not. I think we’re very well prepared for arguments or conflicts. But thankfully, you don’t really need to use that. We’ve been quite good at communicating openly and discussing and having those cross-generational events and meeting points and discussions where we kind of engage all the different generations.
So I think, for us also that, you know, kind of connecting to the family and the company starts quite early. I mean, we’ve had our, you know, kids’ Christmas parties, but then we have summer camps already from like the 14 to 17 year olds and then next gen events. So you’re kind of slowly transitioned into the family before you actually have to join those more serious discussions in the AGMs and owner stays and stuff like that. So I feel like it kind of also helps you kind of become comfortable into the discussions. I know it hasn’t always been that. I’ve heard from other people that it maybe wasn’t always that historically, that it was kind of you were jumped into those when you turned 18 you were jumped in and then you just had to join those grown-up discussions.
Exactly. And I don’t feel like I’ve had that. think it’s been a very smooth transition, slowly kind of joining and being more active. then you can, and I really appreciate our next chance. you look at the events, they dare to ask questions, they dare to challenge people. They want to engage, they kind of, they join us and they want to understand and they want to learn. So I think that’s also a really good kind of signal that we’re doing something right. That if they dare to speak up at these events, and of course we also try to give the different options of how you can join so you don’t have to stand up in the middle of the room and put your hand up and ask the question. There’s also online or stuff like that. But I really do see them really well engaging. So I think that’s a really good signal for us that the transition is happening well. And we also have, in our boards, we have observer positions for the younger next-gen. So they already get to see that.
Family members who are in different positions of trust are of all ages and all generations. our, for example, foundation, we’re very young. Most of them are under 35. So it does, think, we’ve gotten better, at least. don’t know. I can’t really speak of how it was, but I feel like we’ve gotten really much better at including the next gents and listening to them. And hopefully we’ll continue to do that. not saying we’re done and this is it, we’re always evolving and want to understand better how we can hear them and not only like just have them join us but actually kind of engage them in the discussion and actively involve them in decision making and discussions.
Ramia: And it’s so much work, like, you know, doing it this way and like, know, and it’s very rewarding, but like, I do understand as well that some families shy away from this level of effort. And then not all, not every family has like, you know, internal champions, I guess, like, know, such as yourself are willing to take up the mantle of this kind of a job because what has to, what we have to fairly discuss here is all, or like in terms of your career, it’s like, it’s almost like you took on this role and it’s like being a pioneer in a pioneering family, right? Like, because you sort of carved this out and I’m sure informally, this function was fulfilled by other people previously. Obviously there’s a family unity that, you know, you already were born into. I’m sure like we can, we can hear that from what you’re telling us about your, your childhood, but for you in terms of your career and your position with regards to the family business, how do you see the importance of being the first one having that title? And how do you see a responsibility in relation to succession towards like, you know, what you’re doing, et cetera, and like, you know, sort of expanding that function, because it’s clearly the more people are in the family, the more key dysfunction becomes, right?
Laura: I’mnot really worried actually. In operational positions I think every time a family member is in actively involved in the business it’s kind of they have to find their own path it’s never very clear and simple what to do and I mean I don’t feel like I do this job alone. have I have huge support I do have a colleague who helped me out. She’s actually the director so she’s external but she’s not a family member, but still she’s a huge asset to this as well. And at the same time, also have, you know, our supervisor board chair is very actively also hands on involved with this. So I feel like I get a huge support. It’s there. It doesn’t feel lonely doing this job. I think there’s a lot of people who want to see our family kind of continue to own together and see me succeed. Because I mean, my way is everybody’s win, because that means we’re doing something for the family. I get a lot of questions about what I do and how I work and what’s going on. think a lot of things maybe are hard to see. It’s hard to like write down, okay, this is what the job, like this is what I do on a daily basis. Exactly. So, and a lot of it is very ad hoc and kind of like, okay, let’s try that. Let’s do that. But I don’t feel lonely by doing it. I get a huge support from family members. And I think there’s a lot of interest in joining the family and this is a force that another way of engaging. So I’m not directly involved with the business in that way. Yes, I do help out as well where I can since we’re merged together, but my focus has always been more on kind of engaging and communicating with the family. So, and there’s a lot of people who are interested in this and like, wait, how do you do this? And what are this and what are that? And of course, I feel like a lot of the time like a ghost writer because I don’t do it under my own name or profile. It’s kind of like family functions or the Ahlstrom family or we’re doing things. But I do think I’m not worried that I that there’d be a successor. I think it’s if I just, you know, if I say, for example, wake up tomorrow, I feel like I’m done with this job, like I don’t need any more, I think there’d be a lot of family members who would be interested. And I think they would probably do it in their own way. They would have to find it their own way. Over the past two years, it would have been harder to kind of jump in. And I feel like we’ve now slowly but surely built up a system and a platform and a structure that supports this kind of position.
Ramia: It is also essentially a bit of a pattern, isn’t it? That maybe particularly as women, we take these kinds of projects that essentially are at the outset very complicated to tackle. I’m impressed. I’ve seen the websites you’ve created around the family story, I’ve seen the films.
I think it’s just, it’s interesting to acknowledge that this has now become an official capacity, as you said, that has structure, et cetera. And that is actually, that there’s actually a possibility for other people to carry this on. So that you’ve, feel like what you’ve done is impressive in the sense that you’ve not made it reliant on you being in this function. I think that was my point was that I think that is a, that is a really great attitude to have towards such a key function in the family business, because I think too often, as family members, we are tempted to make the position depend on our presence and on us being the ones executing it or like tempted. Maybe it’s not even something intentional. It’s just something that we just do because we just assume that we will always want to do it or we will always be there. And I think it’s a really wrong assumption because as we know, that’s not the case. I think the safeguarding that you’ve done in terms of how you’ve structured it and how how you’ve officialized it, I think is very, very key for your effort to continue and to continue to expand.
Laura: No, yeah, exactly. I actually love kind of how I say this, I think that a lot of family business positions, those kind of soft values aren’t always valued. It’s kind of seen as a weakness. And I think in this position, it’s actually what’s required to have that kind of that little you know, know how family members, a little bit of a softer touch of knowing who you’re talking to when you’re talking to, know, know, older generation, fine, you know, you can come here, let’s, I’ll show you how to do it. So I really kind of in that way, like that there’s a role and a place for family members to join, even without being that very hard business minded, executive person, but more kind of being able to like those who appreciate cousins and want to kind of. And I think also through this role, I’ve been able to get to know a lot of people or lot of family members better and realize actually what a vast network and amazing people we have in our family. And I really hope that somebody else in the family wants to take over at some point because I think it’s a huge learning opportunity.
Ramia: I think it’s so important to have that single narrative for the family and the family unity and everyone can get behind it. But in a world that’s changing very rapidly, how do we make sure that the single narrative doesn’t make us close minded? How do we make sure that we get enough external input as an enterprising family that we are, that we shift and we move, you know, in time with the times… I know your family has remained extremely entrepreneurial considering how many generations in you are. And I was just wondering where, how do you think you’re going to foster that in future? And was sort of like, how does your role come into that as well?
Laura: I think my role is biggest, I’d say now more than ever, we need kind of value-based leadership and kind of strengthening those values and kind of repeating what our values are to the family because I think that’s what we really need right now, in these turbulent times. I’m not worried about the business per se. think we’ve, as you said, we’ve adapted and changed over the years and this is not our first kind of turbulent time. So that way I think we’ll be able to adapt again and find a new kind of… that business part will be able to pivot. But that being said, I hope our values and our kind of core remains constant. And I think that’s where my job comes in to kind of repeat those values and make sure that those values are incorporated not only in our family members but also within the business. Not only me, but also I think our foundations, our other family members keep repeating this. think knowing what we stand for, what we believe in is right now more important than ever. I think having that is a huge asset for us. And I’m happy we’ve done that whole identity project and kind of realized and come to a conclusion, okay, this is what we want to be. Ambition and responsibility is our values. I think that’s easy to step by right now.
Ramia: Identity is a really interesting word, isn’t it, in relation to what you do, because naturally we like you have over 400 family members. So there’s like a, all these individual narratives within this big narrative, right? Like, then on top of that, you have all these employees in the company as well who are contributing. So it’s like, there’s, there’s all these stories of all these people and we make decisions and we make mistakes as individuals. How do you, how do you deal with, you know, potential issues that individual family members face, like, you know, reputationally or something like that. Are you guys very preventive about this? As a family, are you trying to like sort of like help or safeguard certain things? do you give guidelines? Like, what is that like?
Laura: I think that’s something we haven’t particularly written down yet, which is a good thing, and I think that’s something that needs to be developed. At the same time, I think we also kind of trust in our family members to make the right decisions, and hopefully they’ve already from an early childhood kind of embedded them in them to be like a good human being and do the right thing. But of course, as you said, people are, you know make mistakes and that’s fine. think one thing is, you we don’t really have in that way if you’re like a PR strategy of how to do that. No, not really. Because of course they’re individuals and they’re allowed to be even though you’re part of the family, you don’t have to stand by everything we say. Thankfully we haven’t had these huge issues yet. But again, I think they have to stand for their own mistakes. Of course, if something were to happen now, say more in the board of directors or operationally wise, that’s a different issue. But I mean, if somebody, cousin, distant cousin or something does something, it’s still not completely, you know, interacting with the brand of the company, which is I think the biggest issue.
Ramia: My question comes a little bit from this idea of, know, I think I’ve obviously we’ve interviewed so many family businesses over the last, you know, decade and a half. And I think what’s always this big conversation is do we acknowledge failure, right? Like do we, is part of the storytelling also focused on what didn’t work. Now, whether that’s like, you know, in the family or like what that’s an individual family member who like, you know, acts a certain way. And it feels like, you know, we can, we can go such a long way, I guess, like in making the family business more accessible for anyone and everyone by being very upfront and honest about this. And I think I was just wondering, you know, how your role feeds into still making this, I guess, like a very human endeavor, right? Like in terms of like, you know, do you talk about ‘Well, and then we invested in that company and that company went bust’ or like something or that was a bad decision or something like that. I mean, is that, is that something that you’re starting to do or that you guys are traditionally, are you upfront about this with your family members traditionally or?
Laura: I think more and more. Historically, think failure was criticized quite strongly, as in family businesses. I think you were criticized for making the wrong decision, even though not saying the other way might have not been a better choice either.
I do feel that maybe we’re getting better at it slowly but surely that, know, being upfront, you know, as you said, in the same way people do make mistakes. And I think people that’s, I think the good thing of also being such a big, but still quite tight knit family is that, you know, even if you argue with a cousin, say not being it’s a bigger business company failure, but you know, something small has been gone wrong or something. You still have to meet up with them at that Christmas party and you have to meet up with them at the AGM and you kind of can’t just cut ties and be like, I’m done. So you kind of have to make up and discuss matters. And I think that’s what’s been done also a lot of the times. think a lot of people, I mean, I know there are personal relationships that may be gone wrong, but then I think now whenever people meet up, they still have fun and we have a great, know, AGM or Christmas party or discussions or anything like that. So.
I hope, I think that’s also something I have to add to my to-do list is to kind of hope that, you know, for the future generations, you know, it’s hard to kind of also dare to join the company if you feel like you’re going to be criticized for making a huge mistake or not being allowed to try things. And of course I know myself through, you know, we’ve trial and error. A lot of things we’ve done has also come back as critique. But as said, I think that, you know, negative critique is a good critique as well, because that means that’s feedback. That means you’re engaged and the family wants to stay connected. And I think that’s already nice to get that. Of course, it’s nice to get that positive feedback that you’re happy with it. But still, that means, hey, you care about the family and you care about being here. And you actually want to join the discussions, not only like join the event or join, be there, but you’re actively involved and actively joining the conversation.
Ramia:Wwhy don’t you tell us a little bit more about like what lies ahead now for you? I know that you guys have just like done, as you said, like you’ve done a few films, you’ve done, you’ve created websites with the stories, you have an intranet. Like what big sort of like strategies are on the horizon for you? Like what are you looking forward to in the next sort of like five years in terms of what you’re going to do for the family? What’s the next level you want to take this to?
Laura: Well, I hope at least because I said we have our family archive there and I think there’s still a lot of untold stories that I kind of and not only because I think the story of the archive has kind of been like that museum where you can where everything is kind of gathering dust and kind of bringing those stories to life in a new way. So I really hope to see more kind of digital content creation. So really, the movies that we’ve been doing are great. think they’re a really good way of telling the story kind of in a concise way and kind of handling them into different occasions. We have that book from the second generation and now there’s a book coming about the third generation, about the cousins of the third generation. So that’s going to be launched hopefully soon. I think just finding again, I think for the future, it’s not only that digital content creation, but also kind of finding new ways of bringing light to these old stories and kind of find those small stories also not that big, know, historical timeline, you know, that small niche story, but that can be fun and kind of not only tell the story, kind of connected to today and what’s going on now. Because I think that’s what the next generations are really good at doing. kind of, know, if you’re looking at the older generation, as I said earlier, they’re great at telling those untold stories and having their own small anecdotes. think that the next generations are great at kind of connecting that historical story to today and kind of bringing out that, you know, essence of what that story meant and what it means today and how you can connect it to your own children or to yourself and what’s going on today. I think I love that how they always manage to do that. So I think kind of interacting more with the next gens also and seeing if they can, how they see these stories and kind of how can you connect this further to the business or family members or stuff like that. Otherwise, I think we’re going to continue doing a little bit what we’ve been doing already, kind of having our certain events, our interchannel, hopefully also kind of expanding on that. But let’s see, I think that’s what I love about my work. There is no clear strategy of what’s next to come. It’s kind of, have to adapt, adapting to the needs and adapting to the times.
Ramia: Which is a full-time job in itself. And I’m pretty sure that a lot of my listeners now will start calling themselves family functions managers after this conversation because they’re like, well, that’s actually what I do, see? But I didn’t actually have a title for it. And so that’s what I love about this conversation, Laura. I think you might’ve just solved the problem for a lot of people there.
Laura: It’s but it’s true actually because a lot of people have different family business events that I’ve met I’m like, well, you’re actually doing even they might be the know, chair the chair or you know, even the CEO and companies and they also do this full-time job on the side and I’m like, wait, what? For me, it’s a full time job and I have a colleague, we’re two people focused on this and you’re kind of doing that on your side and I understand why there’s this Yeah, so I mean, hats off. I know a lot of people actually have this on them or you know other you know, mothers or, you know, brothers or somebody who would kind of also just doing it on, you know, organizing and cousins gatherings and stuff like that. That’s also partly, you know, they’re also doing my job, but in their families.
Ramia: So to everyone listening, please claim your titles and go get paid for it as well. Like, let’s be honest, like, because it’s a lot of work. So think fair enough, make this into, and it’s a career and I think a very important and valuable one in the family business. And Laura, thank you so much for sharing your story with us and for giving us all these great ideas and for highlighting the importance of storytelling towards family unity and particularly the Ahlstrom case study. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Laura: Thank you so much. It was great being here.