Generational issues and succession planning Issues

Attitudes to continued self-employment, education, succession planning and generational aspirations, influence of community and culture

Rationale for inclusion

Emerged as key issue for future of micro c-stores

Potential area for business failure/opportunity for diversification/sector exit Assess changing motivation for self-employment

Findings

Repeat c-store ownership

All respondents were asked their attitude to repeating c-store ownership. The majority (2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, 17, 18, 20) gave positive responses, while Respondents 3, 5, 7, 12, 16 and 21 indicated an unwillingness to repeat the

experience. Respondents 1, 14 and 19 were undecided, and self-employment in alternative sectors would be the preferred choice for Respondents 4, 7, 10 and 11. Despite these claims, the aims for future generation migrants focus on wider economic options and activities, education and the resulting alternatives being a priority for Respondents 1, 6, 8, 9, 11, 13, 15, 19 and 20, and business involvement in sectors other than c-stores the aim for Respondents 2, 4, 7, 10, 17, 18, and 21. Three of those interviewed (5, 12, and 16) would not like to see the next generation involved in business and the topic is not relevant to Respondent 14 at this stage in his life. The business entry decision taken by 2nd generation migrant is not the preferred 1st generation option for either Respondent 3 or 15.

Succession plans

Business owners with a positive attitude to personal repeated c-store ownership indicate varied plans for the future involvement of the next generation in c-store self- employment. Respondents 6, 8, and 15 have no succession plans in place – also a feature of Respondents 1, 7 and 14. As Respondent 1 comments:

The younger generation, they don’t want to come in to the industry … They go work in the officials, er, and they are like professionals … but they have always stayed the main industry in this country … If somewhere they have not the standard and are not the proper commitment they will not be restaurant business. (1: 332-359)

The remaining situations indicate a range of aims for the next generation: grooming family members to take over the existing business (4, 17, 18), continue in both c- stores and other business interests (2, 9, 10 and 11), exit self-employment (13), or follow decision of wider family members (20).

The on-going family involvement in c-store and wider self-employment is a source of pride for Respondent 4, who comments:

Being brought up in business, that's my advantage … I've had the more practical side of it … it's second nature … you pick things up as you go along so you have a bigger picture … to any business, yes the basic principles are there, to make money. (4: 287-298)

There is only so much I can do. If I had brothers and sisters, I mean, I have sisters but they are all career minded. They want to reach their own goals. For myself, I was brought up in the family business and I've taken

that direction and I am going to keep going the way I've started. (4: 850- 855)

Everything I have done so far I've succeeded in … I've got lots of drive. I push a lot and I do get a lot of things done. Again, one person can only do so much so I have other ideas and other plans that I want to take with the direction of the family business somewhere else and that's what my main focus on that. (4: 880-887)

The family business to me is pride now. My father's created something and I want to keep it on and if my sons or my children want to carry on … My wife and myself will do our best to bring them up and maybe one of them will want to carry on. They will have the option … If they don't want to carry on then fine. (4: 900-920)

Succession plans for respondents with a negative attitude to repeated c-store involvement focus on exiting self-employment (5, 12), continued wider business ownership (16) and family decisions (21). The dependence on family decisions is also a factor for Respondents 11, 18, 19 and 20.

Respondent 3 intends to allow his children to make up their own minds, although adds that his decision to enter self-employment after this approach by his parents resulted in disappointment that he chose c-store involvement – echoed by Respondents 5, 10, 12 and 13 who indicate a preference for the next generation to exit self-employment.

Changing priorities, influence of culture and generational aspirations

There is an awareness of changing priorities both within and between generations of business owners and migrants.

Once seen as the preferred option, self-employment is no longer the priority for many 2nd generation migrants. This change is supported by members of the 1st generation migrant community, who perceive changing opportunities and options not available to them due to economic necessity or individual levels of basic social and language skills on arrival in the UK. Instead, 2nd and 3rd generation Edinburgh South Asian community members are increasingly encouraged to pursue formal education and qualifications as far as their ability allows before making career decisions. for some this decision is still to enter self-employment, often in the family c-store

business. However, for others failing to make best advantage of the options available precipitates the business entry decision.

There is also a perception of increased integration with the mainstream community leading to changing attitudes and influence of tradition, religion and culture.

Finally, stated aspirations for future generations suggest these changes will continue to develop, with implications for the nature and structure of the ethnic minority community and the extent of c-store involvement.

Although long, the following extract from the interview transcript is included in full as it illustrates Respondent 19’s developing perceptions and opinions which are, in effect, a summary of the issues discussed to varying degrees by the other 20 respondents.

As a 2nd generation migrant, born and educated in England, the move to Edinburgh was precipitated by his father’s c-store involvement following redundancy and the economic situation limiting alternative employment options. The business was suggested and entry assisted by relatives in the sector in Edinburgh and Respondent 19 joined his father as an alternative to pursuing education and to maximise family opportunities in self-employment, expanding to own three businesses in the city. On his father’s semi-retirement from day-to-day involvement, the three c-stores were divided among family members – all of whom are included in the study: Respondent 19, his brother (Respondent 20) and brother-in-law (Respondent 21).

During the interview, Respondent 19 discussed the implications of changing attitudes to religion and culture on business practice, his perception that self-employment was preferable to his father’s initial factory employment, the benefits of improved lifestyle related to business ownership, changing opportunities for female members of the ethnic minority community, and the attitude held in both previous and current generations that c-store ownership may not be the best option for younger generation members of either gender.

I mean, you know, again, the religious thing. My parents have been on the holy pilgrimage as well. I’ve not been myself. I mean, if you go on the holy pilgrimage, well, you know what you are, what you’ve done. You repent your sins, or whatever you do there and you, you’re, you’re reborn, you’re supposed to never sin after you’ve been on the pilgrimage.

You’re still a human being, so, you know what I mean, a lot of people are saying to my dad and that “you’re, you, you, you and mum have been to hajja and you still let your sons sell this and sell that”. My dad just tells them to shut up. He says “what are you going to open a business for? What are you going to do?” You can’t do anything, you know. I don’t believe in that at all. Don’t believe in that, one, one liner. I just don’t see how a person can do that…. I really believe that, you know. I mean, I shouldn’t sell this, I shouldn’t sell that. If you are in business you sell everything, en of story. Otherwise, don’t be in business. There is no point. (19: 800-813, 835-839)

[So do you think your dad’s quite happy to see all of you involved in business?] Yes, I think so. I think it’s better than working in a factory. I think that’s how he looks at it. He worked in a factory for twenty years, yes. Working shifts. You know, I think everybody wants to improve. My dad, I mean, my dad being the sort of person that he is, I mean, been here since the nineteen sixties, worked in a factory for I don’t know how many years, twenty odd years, then, then, erm. you know, buying a business and working for yourself was an improvement for him. An improvement in lifestyle for us. Giving us a chance to have an improved lifestyle to what he had. But Asian’s these days in the shops are saying “we don’t want this for our children, go and get an education”. And progressively, I think, more and more people, probably not my age, I’m still a bit young at thirty four, thirty five. But probably someone who’s been in business say ten years previous to me and he’s now in his forties, forty five. They’ve got children about sixteen, seventeen. They say to them “don’t do this line of work. Don’t become a shopkeeper because you don’t get any time off, you don’t get any holidays, you have to put a lot of hours in, you get a lot of grief. You’re always worried about what’s going to happen next with the business and stuff. You don’t ever know how long it’s going to last. You know, how well it’s going to go. And more and more people are now going to university, getting an education. I feel shopkeepers’ sons, shopkeepers’ children are going to schools, going to college, getting an education, getting degrees and they are not taking up the reigns. And, er, these people are improving their lifestyle again. They’re getting an education. Something most shopkeepers have probably not had. If given the chance they could have had. People like me. Like my younger brother. People like a lot of people around our age, around the thirty mark, the thirty five mark, who have just sort of followed in the footsteps of your dad and saying “alright, lets get on with this” sort of thing, you know. It’s a lot from not having a lot of money at all to having a shop full of sweets when you are just sixteen you know. My mum never worked. My dad had been paid off a year and a half or so before that when we were fourteen and a half, fifteen. And at that time when your dad’s not working and there’s not a lot of money in the house, things are, things are tight. It was a great opportunity and I thought, you know, “to be honest with you I can’t see the family going on like this”. That was the main reason I helped my dad. I thought “I’d better help him.

I’m going to help my dad and see how it goes”. And, you know, from having not a lot and only getting a couple of sweeties a week and having a shop full of sweeties, you know, it was sort of heaven on earth. It was an opportunity not to be missed. I think life is made up of these opportunities where, at certain points, there are chances to grab and if you don’t they pass you by. And I feel that was one of those times where we had a chance to do something and, thankfully, we took it and, erm, and it changed everything. Everything. You know, it improved the whole family from top to bottom, you know.

[You don’t have family, but if you were to have a family would you] If I were to have family I wouldn’t recommend it . Personally speaking, I wouldn’t recommend it. Neither my wife or myself ever had any education. She’s the oldest out of five. Her father was never in business himself. He used to work in a factory as well. But because she is the oldest, as soon as she left school she started working and, er, her younger sister was again, she’s only a year younger than her. There again, same scenario, same scenario as me and my brother. Just the way it was. She went to work as well. Neither of them really got any education. But, I mean, her brother went to college for a wee while but he wasn’t really that serious. But her youngest sister, she managed, she got a degree in law. Which was really good. She was the first in the family to get a degree. The first in her family, which made her mum and dad really proud. She got, she put an awful lot of work into it when she got the opportunity. Something none of the others had had. Never had the chance to get really. My wife was really pleased for her ‘cos she’d had the opportunity, and she took it. Got a degree in law. Her youngest brother who’s, he’s just turned twenty three now, he’s just got his degree in business and marketing management and he’s just got his degree as well from the same university in the Midlands. In Wolverhampton, like, you know. But these chances weren’t there for the other three. You know, they were realistically not there for the other three previous to that. Ten years before that they were not there because the only choice they had was to go out and earn money for the family, you know.

[So what do you see happening to your business when you no longer want to run it?] God knows. I would probably sell it. I’ll continue it probably. It’ll continue. You never know. I mean, I think there will always be shops around. There are a lot of shops closing.

[So you don’t have any other, sort of, nieces or nephews to hand it on to, or whatever?] I have nieces and nephews but they’re not really interested. My oldest niece is at college now and wants to study media and become a journalist. Erm, and I can’t see any of the others dong it either, to be honest with you. I think kids are still, er, children, I think children at thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, you know, up to about eighteen or so, can see how, maybe they’ve been neglected because their parents have been working so much. They’ve sort of been left to their own devices, sort of thing. Or, erm, the other thing is they maybe haven’t had very

much influence from their fathers because he always been in the shop. Mother’s always been at home. You know, that sort of scenario going on and I think they can see that, you know, the kids, you know, you don’t get a lot of time off and they see the downsides as well. They see it from another, from a totally different angle. Yes, you know. Erm, so these things all make a difference, you know. I think that’s why the young generation are just not interested in running shops any longer . I mean, if you haven’t got a really a lot going for you, if you’re not, you know, academically astute or clever or something like that, er, and are looking for something to do and, er, helping, you know, a family member, or an uncle or a cousin or a brother out, it’s a great opportunity to, sort of, learn a lot about how to run a shop. It gives you the confidence, you know, to get out there yourself and do it, you know. And after working with somebody for so long you pick up an awful lot of ideas. You tend to pick up your own, you start making your own assumptions about how to do things, how to this and that. But for someone who’s not particularly bright, well, I wouldn’t say that, you don’t have to be bright. Somebody who’s, er, not interested in going to university and getting an education and they do want to work, it’s a great life. It’s a great business to be in. Erm, especially if you are working for family, it’s even better, probably, and I think it’s, you can learn a lot and eventually it will lead to better things. I think you can go on from there. (19: 841-968)

In addition, Respondent 19 comments about issues facing more recent migrants to the UK, personal skills and business support – business success being perceived ultimately as linked to the individual business owner and the development and maintenance of good personal relationships with suppliers, finance providers and customers.

[Is there any, anything you think that anyone could do to help you make your business better, you know, any of the banks or business advice centres or] No. I think, in the end I think it comes down to you. Business bank managers are a friend when you are in credit and when you are doing well, and you’re, you know. But basically they don’t give you any ideas. They, some of them do give you ideas about, in some cases they can, sort of, advise you. But, I mean, this type of business, really you’re relying on other people. You are relying on people coming through your door. You know, how to advertise. I mean, they can give you tips on advertising, marketing and how to target customers and what have you. But, I mean, apart from that, it’s really up to the customer if they come through your door. I mean, its, erm, its up to you if you offer good customer service or, you know, if the customer likes you, your attitude and, you know, if you’ve got what they want, you know. Having a lot, to be honest with you, I mean, there’s a lot of Pakistani people and Indian people here in this country who can’t speak two words of English. You come in to the shop and they literally stare at you. And they don’t know,

you don’t know, they don’t know what you’re saying to them. And it’s hilarious. I mean, you think to yourself “how in god’s name are you working here man?” You know, I mean, there’s a big difference between Pakistanis. I think, you know, people look at us and think ‘they’re all Pakistanis or Indians’ but, I mean, there are big differences culturally between a British Pakistani or a person born and brought up in this country, like myself or my brother, and somebody like my brother-in- law, who’s only been in this country nine years after he married my sister. Erm, these people are, er, alien to the culture of Western society. they don’t understand, erm, you know, women’s dress and stuff like that. I mean, there’s a lot of that. I mean, you have to admit there is. People do not understand what is going on. And, er, you know, having pornography in the shops and, er, selling men’s’ magazines, you know, and having half-naked newspapers, and Page 3 girls. You know, all these things.