Notable & Quotable: Succession and LVMH; everyone wants to work for a family office…

Succession – no time soon at the world’s biggest luxury goods company

Bernard Arnault – chairman and CEO of LVMH since 1989 – isn’t leaving anytime soon, or at least according to his eldest son Antoine Arnault. In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Antoine was asked about taking on more responsibilities at the huge luxury goods group. He told Bloomberg to let’s see what happens and added that his father was in very good health and “will work for 25 – 30 years”. Now 67, the king of luxury Bernard sounds like he’s not passing the business fully over to the next generation anytime soon…but a lot can change in the years ahead.

Family office jobs are among the most popular in finance

Apparently, working for a family office is among the most popular jobs in finance, particularly in London and Singapore. eFinancialCareers, a recruitment website, looked at the application rate for financial jobs during the first quarter of 2016 and found that family office positions were among the most applied for jobs. An investment analyst for a family office in London was the third most popular in terms of applications in the UK financial sector. In Singapore, a financial analyst for a family office was the most popular. Yet another sign of the growing importance and power of family offices worldwide

Middle East family businesses now have a code to follow when it comes to succession

Can a voluntary governance code help with family business succession in the Middle East? Well, the chairman of the Family Business Council for the Gulf region reckons it can. Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair told The National newspaper that succession planning was crucial to family businesses in the region and that without strong family and corporate governance procedures, family businesses were at risk.  Al Ghurair, who is also the chief executive of Mashreq, a bank, said the code includes checklists on what businesses should plan for and was conceived with the help of 10 regional and international governance experts.

“We have taken best practices from across the world and applied our local GCC wisdom to create a governance code for our region,” he told The National. “While each family may have different visions and goals, the GCC Family Business Governance Code, just like the astrolabe, can serve as a common compass to help family businesses navigate through their own process and reach their true north.”