Australia and New Zealand’s Leading Family Business Advisers
Align the family and the business will follow
“I know the governance and strategic issues that family businesses need to address in order to grow, thrive and build a legacy.”
Philip Pryor is no stranger to the wonderful world of family business.
During his childhood, Philip’s parents ran a real estate and travel agency in Blenheim, New Zealand.
Following graduation from Otago University with a degree in psychology, Philip went on to forge a career in business governance.
His legacy spans the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand, where he spent his career as an adviser to Government, the corporate sector, universities and not-for-profits.
Following three decades working at developing effective business leaders and managers, Philip turned his attention back to family business.
“The core values I work on are honesty, transparency and fairness. These principles are the foundation of all successful family businesses and are what drives Family Business Central.”
Philip has an acute awareness of the risks that come with running a family business: from loss of business to broken relationships or how to expand and grow your family business.
“I work with family businesses to develop clear, practical solutions that pass the test of time.”
Family Business Central uses a proven process to identify, analyse and provide strategies for family business governance matters. It achieves this by establishing trust with individual family members and hearing the concerns of everyone involved in the family business. Thanks to Philip, Family Business Central has a reputation for being a trusted and reliable resource for resolving extremely difficult family business issues and problems.
Bob’s first career as a bank manager was where he worked out what motivates people …
…and a desire to find out what gets people going (and keeps them going) has become his life’s work.
Bob applies this learning about ‘people motivation’ to both work and play, advising businesses both small and large on ‘how to get the best out of their people’, and coaching sporting teams including consulting as a coach to rowing coaches at the NSW Academy of Sport.
‘My role as a coach, is to help people improve their vision – to see things from a different perspective.’
Bob quickly learned that the words we use have a major impact on the actions we take and the actions we want others to take. As a result he’s written a book about ‘words’ – it’s called ‘Don’t: How using the right words will change your life’. As you may have guessed from the title, it’s aimed at helping people (everyone) become more positive through choosing the right words.
He’s also written a best-selling management book (65,000 copies in four languages) titled ‘What To Do When You become The Boss’, an essential and very practical read for new managers, particularly family business managers.
‘In working with family businesses, my role is to help the family members who work in the business to become better managers (both of themselves and others) by using proven and at all times practical, effective, management techniques.’
Over the last 30 years, Bob has worked with organisations, small and large, family, private and government, to help them improve the way they manage their people. For 12 of those years he was a co-owner in a family business … and this, together with many family business consulting assignments, has given him a first-hand understanding of what makes family businesses successful … as he says, in a word ‘family’.
Steve is the ultimate pragmatic Human Resource professional, with over 40 years experience in executive and strategic HR/business roles. Steve understands the importance of the bottom line and that your people are your most critical resource.
With a breadth of experience across a range of industries, small business and family owned enterprises, with headcount ranging from 5 to 10,000+ employees. Steve believes strongly in the need for operational excellence to achieve strategic success and that HR must add value and support business growth.
The key difference between what Steve does is that he is strategic, business focused and practical. He is one of the few HR Directors who can actually prove their work directly influences the bottom line. HR was critical in the successful and extremely profitable projects that Yokogawa Australia was involved in. As well as being HR Director of Yokogawa, Steve has worked with a range of family businesses from 4 employees through to over 150 and tailored his solutions to match both size and budget.
As with everyone on the FBC team, Phil has worked with Steve for a long period of time and knows just how good he is. He describes Steve as “the best HR Director he has ever worked with” and he’s worked with a lot of HR people…
Steve’s experience, combined with his down to earth approach to people and business, enables him to apply his knowledge and perspective regardless of the size of the business.
