Professional advisers sometimes mutter a damning phrase after first meeting an aspirant chief executive who got a job, along with his DNA, from Dad - "clogs to clogs in three generations".

Typically, Grandpa sets the business up, building it to modest size. Pa turns it into a global force across five time zones, or at least across greater Northampton. Junior runs the company into the ground through incompetence or sheer indifference. The death knell comes in the form of squabbling among a horde of family shareholders. The business passes into institutional ownership and professional management, becoming just a little greyer as a result.