A family that works together, stays together

“I agree with Nick”

When you create a business, you create a family. I experienced this a year ago when I set up my own firm with my business partner Nick.

It seems to be a combination of civil partnership meeting Coalition government. “I agree with Nick” is a phrase I seem to say a lot and as two men I am also not sure which one of us is Mummy.

The business has its brothers and sisters, the baby of the family and the moody teenager. Dysfunctional yet devoted, bonkers yet brilliant, it all seems to me that it is a particular mix of family that makes the firm special.

Our politicians certainly are wise to the potent symbolism of the family. When they champion “hard working families”, it is as much about an ideal as it is actual people.

But politicians struggle with evoking the authenticity of family. All too often the magic seems to disappear into fabricated and manufactured mantras. It is a concept that somehow seems to diminish when a political stranger tries to apply it to you. 

In the home and certain workplaces it is different. Why? Because it’s authentic and true.

Strength through adversity

My Granny used to say, “I know I shouldn’t say it, but the war was the happiest time of my life.”

She spoke for a generation that lived and bonded together through the Blitz. A time of great austerity and misery was also a time of community and closeness for many. It was a time of a national family.

There can be little doubt that times of adversity do change things, and in the uncertain world of the post-financial crisis, conditions may make some of us closer and some companies more united.

The reality of recession means that within the business world more of us want to work together, stay together and succeed together.

Michael Hayman is founder of the public relations consultancy Seven Hills. You can also follow Michael on Twitter.

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