Interview with Dr. Leila Bouamatou, Mauritania The challenges of succession in a family-owned business are as numerous as they are complex. From bridging the generation gap to walking the line between innovating and honouring tradition, succession is never simple even at the best of times. What it is like for women […]
Author: WIFB Team
WoMen at Work in Zamil Group: Interview with Basma Sulaiman Al Zamil
Basma Al Zamil is the second female family member to work in Zamil Group. Part of the third family generation, she is a pioneer to venture into uncharted new territories in a male dominated workplace. Ever since the start of her career in 2011, she has become an inspiration to […]
Women in Family Business is back and it is so exciting!
We are back! After a few months of reflection, redesign and repurposing, WIFB is finally back with a brand new website and fresh content. Let’s take a step back for a minute though and just quickly reiterate what the original intent of our initiative was/is: Women in Family Business was […]
Bending Steel – MPIL
Interview with Priyanka Gupta, Executive Director, MPIL, India Indian steel contractor Ashwani Gupta founder always wanted his children to join him in his business. But whether he knew what exponential growth the business would know once his daughter came on board in 2008 is unknown: Priyanka Gupta joined her father’s […]
Make It Happen HOLDAL 2020: The Unconventional Ways of the Abou Adal Family
Interview with Maissa Abou Adal Ghanem and Nour Abou Adal, HOLDAL Abou Adal Group, Lebanon The Abou Adal family stands apart from their competition due to their ability of doing things differently, a notion, which has held true throughout the family business’ history. In 1947 Georges Abou Adal established Georges […]
Utopia. The Timeless Legacy of Pearls
Interview with Anna Gaia, CEO of Utopia, Italy Founded less than 15 years ago, high-end Italian jewellery brand Utopia is already known internationally for its beautiful pearl-based pieces. A third-generation family business, Utopia was born out of its 70-year old mother company, Gaia Spa – one of Italy’s leading pearl […]
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: An Interview with Patricia Velasquez, Founder, Wayuu Taya
The Cause and Effect of Philanthropic Endeavours On a peninsula straddling the Venezuela-Colombia border, by the coast of the Caribbean Sea, live the Wayuu people. As native Americans, the Wayuu have experienced severe economic and social disadvantages: in 2002, child mortality reached one death per day. The Wayuu have few […]
SOLARIS – Courage and Agility
Interview with Solange Olszewska, Owner and Co-Founder, Solaris, Poland Solaris is amongst the leading manufacturers of innovative buses, trolleybuses and urban rail vehicles in Europe. The Polish brand has experienced stellar growth since its foundation in 1996. Solaris went from being a single factory with 36 employees to a four-facility […]
Energy Source: Family Business
Conversation with Patricia Ghany, CFO of Esau Oilfield Supplies Company Limited, Trinidad The coastal expanse of Trinidad and Tobago brings to mind palm trees, idyllic waterfronts; paradise. Just 11 kilometres north of South America, the islands are rumoured to be an inspiration for the legendary adventures of Robinson Crusoe and […]
The Leading Ladies of Pisa Orologeria
Interview with Maristella and Chiara Pisa Located in the heart of Milan, the Via Pietro Verri and the Via Montenapoleone are reminiscent of an elegant past. The neighbourhood once hosted the great families of Italian high society and today presents the shop windows of nearly every important high-end fashion brand […]
Professionalizing the Family Business
Experience of the Al Majdouie Group It is often said, that one of the key challenges of family businesses is to professionalize their structures in order to ascertain long-term success and competitiveness. Integrating the traditions and values of the family business founders into a system promoting meritocracy, does, however, not […]
The Outstanding Value of Family Businesses
Insights from Hussein Shobokshi, Director of SHOBOKSHi Development and Trading The history of family businesses in the Arab world has been a turbulent one. Bearing incredible success stories as well as human tragedies, Arab family businesses have lived through all kinds of socio-economic changes. Challenges with new government policies, as […]