Konnected Minds Podcast with Derrick Abaitey

What if the biggest difference between families who build businesses that last for generations and those who watch fortunes crumble within a single lifetime isn't how much wealth they accumulate, but understanding that succession planning while you're still active in the business is the only way to avoid heart palpitations later, that giving someone a position without giving them authority creates frustration that destroys everything you've built, and that complex family dynamics with multiple branches and mothers require governance structures at the family level before you even think about transitioning the business to the next generation? In this powerful and deeply insightful episode of Konnected Minds, we sit down with a family business expert who reveals the uncomfortable truth about fathers in their 70s who won't let go because they're terrified the young people will make mistakes that kill the business and leave them with nothing at an age when they can't work anymore, why this isn't just ego but also fear and emotional attachment to a business that has been their baby for 40 years of their active work life, and why each party really needs to understand where the other is coming from and give themselves some grace because it's tough on both sides. She breaks down why starting your succession while you're still in the business is critical because the moment you're looking at putting a succession plan in place when you step out there's no way you won't have heart palpitations and sabotage what you're trying to do, why fathers give their children the position of succeeding MD or CEO but won't give them the authority so every major decision still goes through them, why this makes the younger generation feel like a figurehead working for the father instead of running the show, and why this frustrates next gens so much they eventually say how about you just come back and take your thing since you will not allow me to run this show. But she also reveals the sophisticated approach that solves these problems. Why on the family governance side families practice how to make decisions at the family level by drawing up a family constitution that is the rulebook saying this is who we are this is how we do things this is how we make decisions these are the do's and don'ts this is how we take ownership these are the things we will never invest in this is how we will never be represented these are our values, why that family constitution drives how they run their own meetings through a family council that is the governing body within the family of which the children are a part, and why there's already role play happening at the family level before they get to the point where they work in the business or the father is thinking of handing over. She explains why as you prepare the children while they're still in school or working somewhere you should immediately get them to be part of the board even if they are just there as observers so they understand how decision making is made and they understand daddy in the boardroom not daddy at home, why even from primary or secondary school you should bring them into the office during summer to do internship jobs so they get familiar with the business which naturally builds their interest, and why these hiccups where the father is trying to transition to the son and the son is wondering does he even want me does he respect my ideas happen because you're coming into that thing just like husband and wife getting married where at the honeymoon phase everything feels rosy but when that phase is off there is friction and tussling for authority. But she also confronts the brutal reality of next gens who went to Harvard to study business administration and come back home to work with their father who's at home and they always have to go to him for his consent before they can make a decision and their own salary he's paying them so anything they do he can step on it and say accountant don't pay this guy meanwhile the father's education is not even at their level he built it from vibes. She reveals why it's a combination of many things including culture where the father still feels like no matter what I'm still your father and the child should know when to defer, why there's the man's ego that will always be there so the child needs the wisdom to know when to defer even though they know what to do so at the end of the day the old man may say oh by the way young man go ahead with this thing you know what to do, and why as opposed to the child just feeling fly like yeah I'm now the one in charge so you don't care what the old man thinks. She explains why the older generation should put structure in place that does not create that dynamic, why if the younger generation feels like it's still the man that makes the decision at the end of the day it feels like a trap to them, why if you have built a business where there is a board that is responsible for decision making that...

What if the biggest difference between families who build wealth that lasts for generations and those who watch fortunes disappear within a single lifetime isn't how much money they accumulate, but understanding that wealth held in your personal name is far harder to transfer than wealth held in structures, that cultural inheritance practices across Africa have fragmented more wealth than they've preserved, and that even a well written will becomes a public record that can be contested in court for years while your assets waste away unused and your family fights over properties nobody wanted to manage in the first place? In this powerful and deeply insightful episode of Konnected Minds, we sit down with a wealth structuring expert who works across the African continent, and she reveals the uncomfortable truth about how African families have passed down wealth more culturally than through documentation, why in some Yoruba traditions only the son inherits the father's wealth while daughters get nothing unless the mother and son decide to share, why in some Igbo and Hausa communities girls don't inherit at all because they will go to their husband's house and bear their husband's name, and why these cultural practices even though they differ from one culture to the other have over the years shaped how inheritance is passed and explain why wealth is fragmented at the point where it is passed on to the next generation. She breaks down why a will tells you how to distribute your wealth but the people you share it with have no obligation to continue to build it grow it or scale it, why children who moved to the US or UK or Canada for 10 years and became citizens there will not leave their lives abroad to come manage properties in Nigeria so there's a high likelihood they will just sell everything, why you will find a prominent family with a huge real estate portfolio and within two to three years of the man passing everything is sold and there is no transgenerational wealth, and why even for a will that is not contested the process of assets sitting idle while probate drags on means value is lost and disintegrated along the way. But she also confronts the brutal reality of contested wills. Why a will is a public record once the owner dies and it goes through probate and the court decides, why if somebody feels aggrieved by what they see in the will they can contest it and that process can drag things along for years, why during those years of conflict resolution the assets become idle and begin to waste away with nobody getting any value, and why sometimes family members just sell some assets and things get fragmented and value is lost completely. She reveals the more sophisticated structures that solve these problems. Why at a minimum you should write a will and hope it doesn't get contested to the point where it scatters everything, why people are now setting up trusts that allow you to not distribute your wealth but keep it together within a structure where it is stewarded and managed and grown for the benefit of beneficiaries, why the wealth is owned by nobody but owned by all so no one person can make a claim on anything, and why a trustee manages the wealth on behalf of beneficiaries who get dividends quarterly or yearly as stated in the trust deed so the second and third generation can continue to grow it without anyone saying I want to sell the family house or the business. But she also shares the fundamental principle of structuring wealth. Why the first step is to put structure behind your wealth by not owning assets in your personal name, why wealth you hold in your personal name versus wealth you hold in a structure other than you makes a massive difference in how easy it is to transfer when you're no longer there, why you should create a special purpose vehicle like a company to buy land at Airport Hills instead of buying it in your personal name, and why if the business is non operating and not generating revenue there's no corporate tax to pay so that concern is eliminated. She explains why people structure a trust and use special purpose vehicles to hold specific assets and then transfer that to the trust, why the trust is the overarching vehicle that holds everything through these SPVs, why a trust is a private vehicle so nobody gets to know about your business, why you appoint a corporate trustee that manages affairs according to the trust deed that sets out how your wealth should be stewarded what part should be distributed and what part should be reinvested, and why people now set up living trusts while still alive and can even appoint themselves as trustee to continue making decisions. But she also reveals the criteria for working in a family business. Why it's not automatic that you work in the family business just because you bear the family name, why you have inheritance automatically by reason of being a child and should be entitled to the wealth as far as the father wants everybody

What if the biggest difference between families who build wealth that lasts for generations and those who watch fortunes disappear within a single lifetime isn't how much money they accumulate, but understanding that wealth unstructured will naturally get depleted, that giving your children ownership instead of forcing them into operations might be the smartest succession decision you ever make, and that major Nigerian banks that look like corporate giants today started as family businesses whose founders still hold significant stakes because they understood early that institutionalizing a business doesn't mean losing it?

In this powerful and deeply insightful episode of Konnected Minds, we sit down with a wealth structuring expert who works across the African continent, and she reveals the uncomfortable truth about why Africans need to take their minds away from the idea that family must run the business because it's not compulsory, why limiting ourselves by fixating on the fact that my children have to run the business is a trap that destroys generational wealth, why you should focus instead on building a business so structured and so well institutionalized that if you take it to any part of the world it can compete in terms of best practices, and why bringing in best in class experts to run the show while your children stay with ownership is the sophisticated approach that ensures businesses don't come under any threat 100 years from now.

She breaks down why when you build wealth that has gotten to a certain level you will begin to think about sophisticated ways to ensure that thing perpetuates and is sustainable irrespective of who the owners are, why sometimes when you sell businesses there's so much money you can't chop it up before you die, why many major banks in Nigeria are family businesses at the core even though they've now taken those businesses public and have shareholders and investors, and why those founders still have significant stakes because they built something that became a public interest entity so significant to the economy that it should not go down.

But she also confronts the brutal reality of succession when children aren't interested. Why there's a family where none of the children is interested and they're all almost like a complete mess so the father is now grooming his nephew to try to see whether he'll be interested, why this problem is at the core of African culture and tradition and it's a huge problem for us, why you should not allow a child that is not interested in your business to necessarily come and operate your business but give them ownership instead, and why if someone says all I want is just give me one million so that I can go and do my own project and then you can do your thing, if that is what it is then it is what it is and let's not kill ourselves over the fact that children must be a part of it.

She reveals why children can know they are owners of the business and be represented on the board in terms of decision making since the board is responsible for steering the direction while management is responsible to the board, why if you have a governance system at the family level like a family council there is opportunity for the family during their meetings to have the businesses present the state of the business so they get to know what is going on, why this is a good structure for perpetrating wealth that does not necessarily put a chain on the children's neck that you must necessarily work in it, and why if you find any of your children that is absolutely interested and willing to go through whatever they need to be schooled and experienced and they have the skill to grow the business then fantastic but if you don't have it then it is what it is but it doesn't mean the end of the business.

But she also shares the fundamental principle about wealth and values. Why people should not think that because they have money today they're going to have money tomorrow because there's nothing sacrosanct in the fact that you have lots of money today, why the fact that you have a lot of money in your bank account is not automatically wealth because there are different types of wealth and what a lot of people focus on is financial wealth, why what really holds that wealth is the values, and why if you don't give your children the values that created that wealth in the first place that wealth is bound to be depleted it's just a matter of time.

She explains why the only reason someone is able to say let me just share my properties to everybody is because we're talking a few properties here and how much do you have at stake really, why when you've built businesses that are institutionalized and have become so successful that you are a public interest entity even if not publicly listed you can't afford to just say you will that kind of business to a child, why wealth that is unstructured will naturally get depleted, and why by structure she means from the legal...

What if the biggest difference between families who build wealth that lasts for generations and those who watch fortunes disappear within a single lifetime isn't how much money they accumulate, but understanding that children who feel forced into family businesses will resent the obligation, that sending your kids abroad for education while shielding them from the discipline and hard work that built your success is the undoing of the next generation, and that at conferences bringing family businesses from around the world some representatives are in their ninth or sixteenth generation while only two Africans sit in a room of over a hundred people because we simply don't put systems behind our businesses to ensure they pass from generation to generation?

In this powerful and deeply insightful episode of Konnected Minds, we sit down with Abiola, a family business advisor who has spent 10 years managing family offices across Africa, and she reveals the uncomfortable truth about the business at Kantamanto making over 200,000 cedis every day whose parents sent all the kids abroad but now none of the children are interested in taking over, why this story is very familiar and more like the stories she hears every day because of the type of work she does, why African wealth creators largely build from business and real estate but when the founder passes or something happens the next generation has not been brought up to speed and everything goes back to square one, and why we don't have businesses that pass from generation to generation because we don't put systems behind those businesses and there is no succession plan that ensures the next generation is already in queue ready to take on the battle.

She breaks down why a family office is set up by ultra high net worth individuals or wealthy families who want their wealth to be institutionalized and want to build a system and an infrastructure around the wealth they've built so that it can perpetuate multiple generations, why the first generation builds the wealth the second generation enjoys it and the third generation destroys it or they don't even find anything and start all over, why at a 2019 conference in the US bringing family businesses from all around the world together they were only two Blacks two Africans out of a room of over a hundred people, and why she interacted with representatives of family businesses some of them in their ninth generation some in their sixteenth generation and it was so interesting to see that family businesses are succeeding generations in other parts of the world but it seems like something we're not even used to in Africa.

But she also confronts the brutal reality about what we're missing. Why she came back from that conference and began to think why is this not possible on the African continent what are we missing what are we not doing very well, why she found that a lot of African business owners or African wealth creators majority did not come from wealth so they go into the hustle and bustle and eventually make it, why there's this regular saying that everything I didn't have growing up I want my children to have it and that is the undoing of the next generation, and why the discipline the hard work the rigor everything that helped you build that successful business are the things that we shield our children from.

She reveals why we send our kids abroad to go get education which is not bad in itself because that exposure is also great but what we don't do is build the roots and the values and create a system that transfers the values that helped us build such successful business, why we must ensure that we engage this next generation from when they are very young so they understand that they're already part of the family business by mere fact that they were born into that family, why even though you may decide not to be an operator of the family business meaning working in the business you are groomed intentionally to be able to steward it govern it make sure it grows, and why the first generation must ensure they give education to the succeeding generation that allows them to govern the business and understand the meaning of responsible ownership and have the skill set and the competencies to be able to grow that business while other people are operating it.

But she also shares the delicate dynamic between generations. Why for family business owners who have created something really successful the last thing you want is for that thing to go down the drain which is why some people may want to force their children but that's not the way to go about it, why if the second generation feels like this is an obligation as opposed to something they have a choice in and can bring their best skills to the way they approach it will be very different, why the conversation between the first and the second generation sometimes should be brokered by a neutral third party especially because the fathers are usually very stubborn,...

What if the biggest difference between artists who build sustainable careers and those who flame out after a few hits isn't talent, opportunity, or even luck, but understanding early that you must read every single line of a contract, that having a mind of your own is a superpower worth protecting at all costs, and that rushing to skip stages in life will always bring you back down like a snake in a game of Ludo?

In this raw and deeply personal episode of Konnected Minds, we sit down with Kiti, an Afrobeats artist who reveals the uncomfortable truth about signing his first record deal as an overexcited young man who trusted his marketing brother instead of a lawyer to review the contract, why he wishes he understood 10 years ago what he knows now about reading the fine prints and spending four hours on the phone with his lawyer going through every single line including legal terms his brain isn't developed enough to understand, and why even though he learned the hard way he's grateful because the path he took is what made him who he is today.

He breaks down why these days it's not even exciting anymore for artists to sign label contracts because a lot of artists are just doing their own thing and the realization is that they make more if they do it themselves, why he thinks maybe that path is what a lot of young people are taking now, why after realizing he must have lost a lot of money simply by being part of a label he's doing things differently by making sure he knows exactly what he's committing to in every contract, and why this is not just about protecting himself now but about a long term plan for understanding what he's agreeing to.

But he also confronts the brutal reality about talent versus business. Why regardless of how talented a person is in any field they only really get to make and sustain money if the talent matches up with business, why otherwise you're just a talented person and that's not enough and not sustainable for the long term, why his worry for a lot of creatives and artists is really about the future of the work because a time is going to come where you might not be able to stand even at the O2 and perform because you don't have the energy to, and why these sort of conversations become important for every artist to hear.

He reveals why even though he had nothing growing up he's always known and seen and wanted the beauty of life, why he's always wanted to live an opulent life even though he didn't know what that meant, why he watched Game of Thrones and The Last Kingdom and Succession and knows what wealth looks like including the problems it comes with but also the ease and access it gives you in the world, and why even though it's not at the forefront like he's chasing wealth chasing wealth chasing wealth he knows at the end of the day he wanted to live a life that was comfortable for his kids his mom his family and everybody around him who works with him works for him works under him.

But he also shares his vision for wealth and responsibility. Why he's always wanted everybody to be comfortable and it still comes from him being responsible for everybody, why he wants everybody who has any plug attached to Kiti to find a benefit for that plug attached to Kiti, why if you read books of wealthy people world leaders and everybody who has attained certain things in life they never have one stream of income, and why he knows that he'll get there but to get there he refuses to rush through the stages.

He confronts the problem he's had with a lot of labels and collaborations in the music industry. Why lots of people are in a hurry to get to the end and in a hurry to do this for us to make money and do that for us to make money, why he's very very very particular because you cannot no matter how smart you think you are no matter how wise you think you are make it if you jump from step one to six, why you need to go through the motions no matter how they look like and you have to go from step one to step two because there's a lesson in step two that if you don't learn and you think you are going to skip steps you will come back like when you are playing Ludo and you land on a snake that brings you back, and why as Drake said on his new album Iceman a lot of people want to get rich quick and get to the end and get to the pinnacle but they don't want to go through the work of it.

But we also dive deep into the power of having a mind of your own. Why there's never been a time in his life where there wasn't too many voices in his ears but he's always always always had a mind of his own, why if everybody says this cup is black and to him he thinks it's blue you will not convince him it is black, why he'll listen to everybody and hear what they say but at the end of the day when he goes back to his bed he makes the final decision based on his reality his circumstance what he wants and where he's trying to go, and why he's always thanked God for the power to have a mind of his own...