strategy

When I joined my family company a few years ago, fresh out of college, I was determined to work hard and prove my worth, but always had a “Don’t mess this up” post-it stuck at the back of my head.

Elisabetta Fabri, family principal of the private Italian luxury hospitality group Starhotels, is helping women in business achieve their potential by launching a new vocational training initiative.

The programme was among the measures by the multi award-winning second-generation president and chief executive in response to the impacts of Covid-19 on the world’s hotel, travel and tourism industries.

Rajesh Dempo, a third-generation scion of Goa’s prominent Dempo business dynasty, says his diversified Vision Dempo group was expanding at pace just before the Covid-19 outbreak in India, but strategic lessons are now being learned from handling the crisis to enhance operations and opportunities.

Dempo finds himself at the sharp end of the coronavirus pandemic’s impacts on society with his dynamic group of companies trading in real estate, hospitality, healthcare, education and film production and entertainment sectors.

The altruistic next generation of family business leaders is the driving force behind families increasingly integrating philanthropy into their business practices, but they want to effect positive change now, rather than leave charity to the family legacy.

Technology is democratising giving and enabling family philanthropists to respond and measure in real-time. However, the Covid-19 crisis has not—and will not—change the fundamental patterns of giving, only exacerbate existing issues.