At the Family Business Summit 2026, the Chapel Hill Denham chief executive recalled lessons from his father, FCMB founder Subomi Balogun, on growing a company and preparing the people who will inherit it.
Bolaji Balogun spent more than a decade working with his father, and one lesson he took away was a rule about doing business with relatives.
“One of the key lessons that we always learned was we didn’t trade with ourselves,” he recalled. “You have to rely on other people’s networks of capital, of influence, of relationships.”
His father’s explanation was that trading with yourselves could amount to moving money from the left pocket to the right pocket. To grow, the business needed relationships outside that circle.
Balogun shared that lesson during his keynote at the Family Business Summit 2026, held at Centrepoint, Ikoyi, Lagos, from October 15 to 17. His remarks addressed decisions that founders often face long before handing over their companies.
The summit’s theme was “Beyond the Founder: Scaling Family Businesses Across Generations”. Oghenevwoke Ighure, founder of My Family My Business, convened the event in partnership with PwC Nigeria.
Balogun spoke from experience within his father’s institution and businesses he helped establish. After more than ten years at FCMB, he co-founded Econet Wireless Nigeria, now Airtel Nigeria. He founded Chapel Hill in 2005 and now leads Chapel Hill Denham as chief executive.
Thinking beyond the next generation
When Balogun discussed the early ambitions for Chapel Hill, he recalled setting a time horizon far beyond his own career.
He told his staff: “We will build a firm that delivers results for all of our clients. But we will build a firm that lasts more than a hundred years.”
That ambition, he explained, required decisions to be made with the long term in mind. He urged family businesses to think beyond the immediate question of who would succeed their founder.
“A founder and the next generation must have a very clear, very set vision. And that vision, as I said, must be multigenerational. So it goes beyond your kids. You must think about generation four, five, six and seven,” he said.
For a founder, that raises questions about the company being prepared for inheritance. A business may provide a comfortable income for its owners while remaining heavily dependent on one person’s judgement and relationships.
Balogun wanted founders to consider the wider opportunities their businesses could create. He spoke about the smaller enterprises operating around large companies, including distributors and transporters.
His account of employment within his own organisation illustrated that reach. He said it employed 1,932 people directly and another 5,000 indirectly, although its head office had fewer than 200 employees.
Drawing a line around company money
Balogun returned to the relationship between family and business when discussing cash flow.
“The cash flow of the business belongs to strengthening the business,” he said.
He described a familiar difficulty for founders. They build companies with their own capital, reinvest earnings and sometimes fail to pay themselves properly. Over time, they can begin to treat company cash as personal money.
That becomes harder to manage as more people acquire an interest in the business. Children may become shareholders. Outside investors may provide funding. The company also needs money to meet its obligations and finance expansion.
Balogun described founders as stewards for their families and future generations. Earnings must support reinvestment and eventually provide a return to those who have invested.
His comments place a practical obligation on families to agree how owners receive money from the company. Without that agreement, a founder’s personal spending habits can become an expectation inherited by several households.
According to him, Founders should agree and document rules for salaries, profit sharing and withdrawals before handing over the business. Otherwise, the next generation may inherit unclear financial arrangements that can lead to disputes.
Preparing children through work
Balogun’s advice on succession placed considerable responsibility on the generation already running the business.
“One of the biggest responsibilities we have is to train the next generation really, really well. And training the next generation is not about education. I think education, frankly, and university education are extremely overrated. It’s about training people in a way that they are productive.”
His criticism concerned the assumption that formal qualifications adequately prepare someone to run a company. He pointed to family businesses that train younger members within their operations.
He also recalled how his father introduced him to work.
“The way that is gained is not necessarily by parachuting them into the CEO’s or the chairman’s office. It’s by landing them on the shop floor, as my father did for me.”
Working through operations allows a potential successor to learn from employees and understand the daily demands of the business. It gives the family time to assess readiness before assigning authority.
Balogun said that preparation should include an understanding of wealth and the responsibilities attached to inheriting it.
“They are purely stewards for future generations. So they must add to it, they must sustain it.”
The expectation extends beyond being able to manage personal spending. Successors need to understand what produces the family’s wealth and what the company requires to continue producing it.
Outside capital brings outside scrutiny
Balogun urged family businesses to become familiar with capital markets, including debt funding. He addressed the fear that seeking outside money necessarily means giving up control.
“Many of you in family businesses might be terrified of capital markets and think we’re going to lose control. But capital markets aren’t about selling shares first and foremost. You can raise debt, you can issue bonds.”
Such funding comes with scrutiny. He described credit ratings and disclosure as processes that could make owners uncomfortable while improving their businesses.
Investors also look at conduct. Balogun placed particular emphasis on whether business owners honour their word.
“The most fundamental piece is you must keep every commitment that you make.”
He argued that trust accumulates through those dealings and helps businesses grow. Competence alone would not settle every concern an investor might have about the people receiving their money.
