GUBERNA Podcast - Decospan after the Family Business Award ‘Nothing has really changed since then, except everything.’
Governance Talks is GUBERNA’s monthly podcast, the Institute for Directors. In each episode, we speak with leaders for whom good governance is a true conviction, not just a responsibility. We discuss how they organise it, what guides their thinking, and what works in practice. Because we believe that sharing these experiences is one of the best ways to inspire boards and directors.
In 2023, Decospan received the Family Business Award, an initiative of EY, GUBERNA and FBN Belgium, in partnership with BNP Paribas Fortis and De Tijd/L’Echo. Liesbeth De Ridder, of GUBERNA’s Family Business Governance Expertise Centre, and Pieterjan Desmet, family CEO of Decospan, reflect together on the road Decospan has travelled since.
Third generation
The family business Decospan specialises in the production and processing of high-quality veneer for interior design. Today Decospan operates factories in some half a dozen countries and employs around 1,200 people. Turnover stands at €250 million. The company is currently led by the third generation and is 100% family-owned.
Smart people
A company is constantly exposed to a changing market, a truth not lost on Decospan. With demand down since the Covid period, the company is pursuing structural adjustments. ‘We have split the company into two divisions, each with its own leader. They are not CEOs, but they are business unit directors with their own strategic plan. They carry full P&L responsibility.’ Pieterjan Desmet’s own role shifted from monitoring strategic plans to inorganic growth, because ‘You shouldn’t hire smart people to tell them what to do. It is up to them to tell you what to do.’
It is not only the market that affects family businesses; the handover to the next generation does too. The family shareholders have placed the property arm in a separate company and are now focusing fully on setting up a family office, with the aim of ensuring a smooth future transition to the fourth generation. A revision of the family charter is also on the agenda: the family seeks to anticipate pivotal moments in the evolution of the business and the family by preparing a playbook in advance.
An external chair
The Family Business Award recognises the road already travelled. Small wonder, then, that Decospan has continued in the same vein and keeps investing in family, business and governance best practices.
‘Nothing has really changed since then, except everything.’
The majority of the directors are family members (four family directors to three external directors), but the board strives for consensus. The company made a deliberate choice for an external chair. ‘With a family CEO, an external chair is the right move, we felt, and it also fits the recommended governance principles.’
When the group was split, Decospan set about rejuvenating its management team. ‘It is sustainable to invest in a management level that is young and dynamic enough. I think the wisdom and maturity should come primarily from the Board of Directors. That combined energy is needed to keep changing constantly, certainly in the current context.’
A remuneration committee has been set up, comprising the HR director and the three external directors. The committee also determines the remuneration and career opportunities of family members.
Change takes time
‘The advantage of all those crises is that they follow one another quickly enough for the way they were handled to remain fresh in the memory.’ Given the current geopolitical crisis, the company is keeping its focus on Europe for the time being.
Decospan hopes to become carbon neutral in the future but is currently running up against grid congestion. ‘I never thought energy would become a decisive factor in our growth. We were ahead of the field in electrifying our processes, yet a few months ago, incredible but true, we decided to slow down. Not because we want to, but simply because we have no other choice.’
With the new organisational structure in place, the company feels ready to take on the current challenges from the strongest possible position.
At the same time, the family continues to develop and refine its family governance.
Decospan, with Pieterjan Desmet at the helm, has a clear view of its objectives and of how it intends to achieve them, both at company level and at the level of the family shareholding. ‘Change always takes time, and emotional change all the more.’
The full Governance Talks interview can be listened to in the episode below.