INSIDE THE DEN
In some respects, Peter Fox is very much like his father and in other ways, different. Significantly different.
Lindsay, of course, is the founder who did the hard yards. One man, one truck, and a fierce determination to build something bigger. From here on, the life and times of Lindsay Fox need no help from me. It has all been said before.
Yet there are those in the corporate sector who say – albeit very quietly – that Peter is perhaps too much like his father. Brutal in business, an uncompromising character. Too tough according to some!
Personally, I don’t see him that way. But then, I’m not trying to sell him anything or competing for a contract – matters that would, I’m sure, change the dynamic dramatically.
Nonetheless, there is something about Peter Fox I find completely engaging. On the record or off, in a random meeting or, as in this instance, an interview many months in the making, his views are vast, varied and invariably framed by ‘the big picture’.
Second of Lindsay and Paula Fox’s six children, he is now way closer to his 60th birthday than his 50th and easily recalls the family’s early years and his father’s immense work ethic. An ethic which appears to have comfortably carried from father to son.
Fortuitously, while Lindsay was working and building, their eldest son was watching and learning from the ground up. There were no shortcuts but, from the outside looking in, ascension to the top of the family business was perhaps inevitable, so long as the resolve, the aptitude and the commercial smarts stacked up.
Obviously they did and by age 30, Peter Fox was installed as executive chairman of Linfox. For Lindsay, succession planning obviously started early.
Succession is also on Peter’s agenda but
