Abstract
In April 1991, Gerald Ratner was the chief executive of his second-generation family jewelry business, the Ratner Group, which he had built up throughout the 1980s into an empire of 1500 stores in the UK and another 1000 in the USA [1]. The group covered the entire jewelry market, from luxury watches (with retail brands like Watches of Switzerland) to the kind of lower-end jewelry which, in Gerald’s own words, “you wouldn’t mind if you lost in a nightclub.” [2] The group had more than £1 billion of sales, generated annual profits of £120 million (approximately £230 million today) and employed more than 25,000 employees [3].
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Notes
- 1.
Bank of England Inflation Rate Calculator.
- 2.
Gerald Ratner speaking at the 1991 Institute of Directors Annual Convention—YouTube (Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj9BZz71yQE).
- 3.
University of St Gallen in co-operation with EY’s Global Family Business Centre of Excellence (2015), ‘Global Family Business Index’, <http://familybusinessindex.com/>, data accessed on 21 August 2015.
- 4.
See Ref. [10].
- 5.
See Ref. [11].
- 6.
See Ref. [12].
- 7.
See Ref. [17].
- 8.
Share Price and Index Performance 08/08/12–07/08/15, Bloomberg Live Data, data accessed on 21 August 2015.
- 9.
Wallenberg website, <https://www.wallenberg.com/>, data accessed on 21 August 2015.
- 10.
Fundação Roberto Marinho, <http://www.frm.org.br/>, data accessed on 21 August 2015.
- 11.
See Ref. [24].
- 12.
Thomson Reuters Foundation, <http://www.trust.org/#>, data access on 21 August 2015.
- 13.
Forbes World Billionaires, <http://www.forbes.com/billionaires/>, data accessed on 21 August 2015.
- 14.
Bloomberg Billionaires, <http://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/2015-08-21/cya>, data accessed on 21 August 2015.
- 15.
For more on Brunswick Group’s point of view on crisis, see the Brunswick Review: ‘The Crisis Issue’, <https://www.brunswickgroup.com/media/296378/BR08_LoRes.pdf>.
- 16.
- 17.
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Schwass, J., Glemser, AC. (2016). The Expert View: Proactive Communications—Building, Projecting and Preserving Reputation for Business Families and Family Businesses. In: Wise Family Business. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58600-1_6
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