Martin Wadsworth

DiscreteHeat is a Manchester-based family business. Their product is an ingenious heating system, which hides radiators inside a skirting board.

Martin Wadsworth, DiscreteHeat Managing Director, first appeared on Dragons Den in 2006 with his heating product, which is aimed at people who want to avoid those ugly wall-hung radiators. Since then, Martin has grown his firm’s turnover, recruited more staff and set up new international franchises.

So, how did this small family firm go from being a product developed in a home-garage, to an international supplier of high-tech heating equipment?

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Puro y Simple

Family businesses within the food industry are very common. Mine is a very pure and simple business. ‘Puro y Simple” (”pure and simple’ in English) is a wholemeal bread manufacturer based in Venezuela. Since 1981, Puro y Simple has specialized on offering Venezuelans an alternative to the traditional white bread, natural wholemeal bread of the highest quality.

Since I was young all I could think of was when I grow up…. I’ll be just like my dad! Indeed, I wanted to be a baker.

I wanted to take part of the family bread manufacturing business. My long journey began six years ago nurturing my business knowledge and understanding that a business encapsulates much more than just manufacturing and selling a product.

I decided to study business enterprise as an undergraduate to understand the importance of innovation within an established business.

I then focused on understanding the food industry. An industry so fruitful and full of opportunities that all I could remember was John Maynard Keynes’ article in which he expressed the idea of the food industry being one of the few sectors less affected by the cycle-crisis in Latin America.

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Family business

This Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) considers some of the key challenges and opportunities facing family business.  In particular we will look at…

• Branding
• Marketing
• Leadership
• Place of family business within the wider business environment

What makes family business different to other businesses? The starting point is a definition of a family business and some examples. This information is presented by Business Information Technology students from Salford Business School.

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J Atkinson & Co: Sue and Ian Steel

From Timpson to Warburtons, some of our most enduring brands and favourite products have been created by family firms. Their high profile bust-ups, incredible wealth and social conscience have guaranteed constant interest from academic scholars, policy-makers and the wider public.

We estimate that in the UK, family businesses are responsible for 40% of private sector jobs and 31% of tax revenue. They make up at least half of all firms in each UK region and the North West has the highest number of family businesses after London and the South East.

Despite their importance to our economy, there is limited understanding of how family businesses work. What are the key research areas associated with family businesses at Salford Business School?

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Christian Spence, Head of Business Intelligence at Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce

In the midst of economic hardship, this free massive open online course (MOOC) equips your family business with knowledge of basic economic principles.  These principles underline all economic theory and explain some of the key macroeconomic indicators.

In this MOOC we introduce basic economics for family business:

• Supply and demand
• Inflation
• Inflation and the exchange rate

We also hear from experts in the field of family business including Udeni Salmon, a PhD Researcher in Family Business and Entrepreneurship at Salford Business School; Christian Spence Head of Business Intelligence at Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce and Professor Ghulam Sorwar, Professor of Finance, also at Salford Business School.

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Carl Lender Family business

Family businesses hold a special place in the UK’s history. Statistics and reports on the subject clearly show their importance to the economy as well. The main characteristics of family business as studied by Salford Business School is heritage, but this does not appear to necessarily sit easily with digital technology and communications as taught on Digital MBA courses.

The increasing tendency of consumers is to shop more and more online. If a family business have not already done so, they need to recognise the importance of “web presence for family business”. This development is important if family business is to remain an essential part of the UK’s commercial heritage and its future.

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