Season 2, Episode 3 of the Family IN Business Podcast
Enrico Leta expected to continue to lead and work in his family enterprise, a highly successful regional chain of high end supermarkets started by his Italian immigrant grandfather. But he did not expect that the second generation—Enrico’s father, aunts, and uncles—would decide the best future for their family business rested on leaving the third generation to find their own ventures. Dazed and untethered, Enrico set off to find a new career path and purpose. His story inadvertently illustrates for us what guest expert Dave Evans refers to as “designing your life” with curiosity, community, experimentation, and storytelling.
Join us to learn how Enrico navigated a season of uncertainty and how he found success with his “best doable option.” In addition to Dave Evans, we are also joined by guest expert Jennifer Pendergast, who discusses trans-generational entrepreneurship and the “entrepreneur gene.”
Show Notes:
Theme: Finding Purpose Through Entrepreneurship
Your host:
Esther Choy, President and Chief Story Facilitator of Leadership Story Lab, author of Let the Story Do the Work (AMACOM)
Special thanks to:
Enrico Leta, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Vitallatte and Yorgus Laticinios
Dave Evans, Co-founder of the Stanford Life Design Lab and New York Times bestselling author of Designing Your Life and Designing Your Work Life; Designing Your New Work Life coming October 2021
Jennifer Pendergast, Executive Director of John L. Ward Center for Family Enterprises, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University
Contact us: familyenterprises@kellogg.northwestern.edu
Key Moments:
3:12 – Enrico’s businesses, Vitalatte and Yorgus
3:59 – How Enrico’s grandfather and father grew the family enterprise, Zona Sul
6:41 – Food and family heritage, with Jennifer Pendergast
8:51 – The decision the family’s 2nd generation made for the 3rd, and how Enrico was affected
14:24 – How to apply design thinking to your work and life, with Dave Evans
17:09 – How Enrico improvised his way to the “best doable option”
23:49 – An evolving definition of purpose
26:05 – Our flawed views of passion and purpose, with Dave Evans
29:10 – Kicking off Yorgus—and how Zona Sul played in
31:47 – Trans-generational entrepreneurship, with Jennifer Pedergast
38:13 – The influential example of Enrico’s grandfather and father
39:29 – Why you need community to find your purpose, with Dave Evans
Download “Improvising Your Way to Purpose: Enrico Leta of Vitalatte and Yorgus Laticínios” Transcript-Enrico-Leta-Final.pdf – Downloaded 1151 times – 146.19 KB
Next Episode: 4. Walking the Walk of Your Purpose: Kent Johnson of Highlights for Children
Better Every Story
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People forget facts, but they never forget a good story. In her book, Esther Choy shares business storytelling methods, examples and practical tools and templates. It’s your essential leadership storytelling toolkit.
People forget facts, but they never forget a good story. In her book, Esther Choy shares business storytelling methods, examples and practical tools and templates. It’s your essential leadership storytelling toolkit.
