I grew up hearing stories about my grandparents, Sarah and Isaac Taïeb, who co-founded our family firm AGS, which later became the Mobilitas Group. My grandmother would work in the office and then cook out the back for her children. My grandfather would be out driving the truck.

I was still studying when I started working with them, and I saw for myself how hard they worked. I also saw that, however busy they were, they never lost their sense of family within the company – it was always a family business, and we all felt a part of it. This feeling has stayed central to the company to this day.

As our family said a sad goodbye to Sarah this summer, I thought about succession and how we continue her legacy, protecting the values on which she founded the company as future generations come into the business.

Every company should have a succession plan, for its owners and the most senior executives, but also for key roles at every level. This means that we need to have already considered who has the potential to step into roles by the time they become vacant and then ensure we give these people the preparation and experience they need.

In practice, this means giving people real responsibility, providing them with guidance but also the independence to make decisions and their own mistakes. People can’t learn to lead if every decision is made for them from the outset. They need the freedom to act, alongside clear accountability: reporting on what they have done and then getting feedback on the strategic decisions that affect the wider business.

For the leaders who are currently in place, succession also requires them to let go. If someone has the potential to step into your role at some point, you must be prepared to give it to them when that time comes. This is one of the hardest parts of leadership, particularly in a family business, but it is also one of the most important.

Of course, strong leaders are needed even more at a time when the traditional moving market is still contracting and the industry has been challenged to reinvent itself. We need people who can manage our sector’s response to this changing environment, including the diversification of our business and the adoption of new technologies.

This includes artificial intelligence, which can bring efficiencies to so many areas, including optimising the use of trucks to reduce unnecessary journeys, analysing data in volume, and helping to inform our strategies better, to name just three. Used in the right way, technology can give our people better information and free up their time to apply their experience, judgement and soft skills to the business and to focus on the client.

This in turn means we need to invest as seriously in our people as we do in technological advances. As our companies adapt and diversify, we must give our employees opportunities to learn so they can support new areas of the business with new skills. We must make sure we identify potential leaders and help them to develop.

We must also help those with leadership potential acquire management experience, progress through the business and become the leaders of tomorrow. Across our industry, we are missing leaders. It is therefore our responsibility to identify talented people and nurture their development.

When they started the business, my grandparents could not have known what the moving industry would look like today. But they did understand the importance of hard work, building a company that is about people, and accepting and adapting to change. I hope what comes next – in our business and in the wider moving industry – makes them proud.

Cédric Castro, FIDI President