Kassandra Lefakinis of Valef Yachts: 5 Things You Need To Run A Highly Successful Family Business

An Interview With Jason Hartman

Patience, understanding & respect — we all know too well that family often comes with blurred boundaries and candidness. When working with family it is important to remove the habits from old roles played within the family when growing up and adopt a new one within the company with the family. A bratty younger sister for example should shed the habit of requesting assistance from the older sibling or deferring harder work to them. An older sibling might shun a younger sibling assuming they will not bring anything of value or new to the table. Overall, hearing out the ideas of others and entertaining proposed solutions is very important. We hold weekly and monthly meetings to absorb input shared by all, evaluate and act with purpose.

As a part of our series about 5 Things You Need To Run A Highly Successful Family Business, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kassandra Lefakinis of Valef Yachts.

Valef Yachts is Greece’s first yacht charter company founded back in 1969. The well-established mega-yacht charter company and family-owned and run business embarked on a generational change with a new management team led by the women of the family. Kassandra Lefakinis is one of two sisters leading the sector into the future as co-owner and managing partner of Valef Yachts.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

After graduating from the New School in NYC, I made my way back to southern Spain to begin a new life with a permanent base in the Mediterranean, a geographical area that due to my Greek roots and travels always felt most like home. When my romantic relationship dissolved months after moving there, and the business plan I had dreamed up for my life in Spain was progressing sluggishly, my motivation to stay there dwindled and I felt the pull to change locations for a new start. The option of moving back to NYC did not appeal to me; my heart was set on staying in Europe, so I thought to hop over to Athens, Greece where I stayed at a family apartment, just to get back on my feet. It was the summer of 2004 with the Olympics happening; the city was vibrant with international crowds, fresh infrastructure, happenings and a great mood. I was enchanted. I thought to seize the opportunity to learn Greek and discover Athens when I had the chance, before l obliged myself elsewhere. I felt I owed myself this being half Greek since I didn’t know the language or the city. To keep myself afloat I offered to assist my parents who were stationed in the USA at Valef Yachts. I poured fresh ideas into their business using my communications and media know-how and education and was given the greenlight to redesign their marketing catalogue and materials and create a new website. I made quick relationships with the right partners to see through my ideas and became quite active re-inventing the marketing materials and offering my services to yacht owners for the production of individual yacht brochures. I made new supplier relationships, such as in food and beverage, for our charters. It felt good to work for myself within the family business, executing my ideas. I also began greeting clients on the start of their charters, as the Valef representative. After less than 2 years doing this and exploring other creative fields of interest, it made sense to me to go in full time, along with my sister, and run the Greek Valef branch. I felt invested in the future of the company. It felt logical to aid my family and do something that felt almost second nature and that also embraced the aspect of Greece I loved most, the nautical life & holiday aspect where brilliant memories are made. I felt that my experience as both a foreigner and a Greek, being every summer in Greece, could bring value to the clients and that I would stay satisfied working for myself, designing my vocation within Valef. Other passions like film and photography could be expressed within this as well since productions are common in yacht chartering and aid the marketing.

Can you tell us a bit about your family business and your role in it?

Valef Yachts is a luxury yacht chartering company that offers clients the A to Z as far as holiday planning. My father started the business single handedly after returning to Greece from the USA where he had a robust job in sales. He simply had the idea that Greece has thousands of islands and what would be the best holiday is being on a yacht visiting them. With this simple and true thought, he convinced some friends to let him rent their boats to tourists and thus begun his company as Greece’s pioneer crewed charter company, named for himself, the founder, Vassilios Lefakinis — VALEF Yachts. My role in the company leans towards marketing and client relations. As we are a boutique family business, I do a bit of everything needed. I focus on Sales in yacht chartering taking clients from the initial request through to the end of their charter, I do concierge coordination, and also marketing.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this career?

There are so many moments that come to mind! Many of which feel too private to share here as they deal with our clients. Working with Pierre Yves-Cousteau on a documentary film on the creation of a marine protection area and travelling to Santorini working with government officials and fisherman during the shoot was quite interesting.

I think though snatching the opportunity to bring the production of Keeping Up with The Kardashians to Greece was the most memorable and rewarding. Our business is about promoting the wonders of Greek summer life and managing to bring their whole cast and crew here to produce 3 episodes of their show in Greece was a big feat. It provided us a very wide audience with which to share the beauty of Greece. I truly believe that Greece’s ‘social status’ and holiday market share value has increased dramatically since then, in 2015.

Setting up the cast and crew in villas and hotels, arranging activities and dining, and schedule ideas during their stay and shoot was a big task. Knowing that many people around the world would see them cruising on one of our top charter yachts was all the reward needed.

Awkward moment that luckily didn’t go live on the show: Trapped in a conversation on the yacht bridge with Kim Kardashian, Kris Jenner and the yacht captain and a huge film camera blocking the exit, I insisted on my view of what makes the ideal leisure yacht despite the other women’s views that it needed an ice room for vodka tasting or something equally extravagant. ☺

My father used to say, “Greece, the yachting capital of the world”. We are working towards the world understanding this. Working full time for 2 months on this was quite immersive into the workings of local government, the sweet chaos of reality TV production and being hostess-with-the-mostess, making sure our beloved Greece would be well represented publicly.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I think just learning to finesse certain personalities came with funny and tricky moments. Being in my young twenties, greeting clients onboard, I think sometimes off put some people — not understanding what my role was. How could I be so young and do this — did I own all of these yachts? Did I permanently vacation on yachts and just stopped by as a favor to say hello? Did I just do this in Summers as a fun gig? I did a lot of explaining who I was, how I got to Greece, and how I enjoy or manage to live here full time.

I understood quickly that I represent ‘the dream’ they have bought into and how to adopt this role with grace and candor. And to always let the clients feel assured that I am working for them — after I greet them I go right back to the office to work, I don’t sail off to the islands.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

Our history and legacy is our most obvious differentiator — having hosted celebrity clients and been so robust in a unique period in Greece’s history — the 70’s. The lavish lifestyle in quaint Greek islands was so contrasty, glamourous and sought after and Valef was there, amidst it all and serving it up. Now I would say that we are a company that remains traditional in our core values and approach to hospitality while being competitive with advances of bigger charter firms. We retain the personability and client-care that is often shunted in this industry. A happy client is a client for life and we honor that commitment to them and ourselves.

I think one story of how we go beyond for our clients as far as care is that there was an engine break down once on a yacht and the captain said it would take 3 days to fix — we had a replacement yacht of higher caliber ready within hours to pick them up, at no extra charge of course. On the backend, it created great tension with a partner to get it done, but our clients will always be our biggest priority. That reflected the level of service we need to provide, despite what the charter contract says.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

I simply am working towards making our company more in tune with the global effort of sustainability. I have fun ideas that I would like to see implemented very soon. Other ideas will need more time, research and resources. Stay tuned….

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

“Anyone who ever gave you confidence, you owe them a lot”. This quote by Truman Capote rings true. I would say my two mentors, Gabrielle Russomagno, my highschool photography teacher, who always believed in me and my capabilities and promoted my authenticity and my father who’s life and personality formed me and my approach to life. Both gave me confidence in myself; I felt that whatever I did, I would find my way as every step I took I felt supported by them with their positivity and that’s what I needed to make bold steps even in varying directions throughout the years. The direction didn’t matter. I knew that because I was taking those steps, I was supported and therefore on the right track, regardless. All steps lead you to where you are and where you are going.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

I bring positivity to the people I encounter. Many times, our clients meet me and believe I am living the dream, maybe just for living in spectacular Greece but more so I suppose because I have this exciting business I share with the world, making people’s dreams come true. Also, that I was raised in America and moved here to realize all of this. I think it stretches peoples’ minds to think about what we offer as a company and who we are as a company, offering a certain golden life on a platter, even for a bit of time. A life and world that we have immediate and constant access to. Valef becomes at once the sought-after lifestyle in itself. I think inspiration is one of the most valuable gifts anyone can give someone and that in turn can change the world.

Also, we have access to hundreds of yacht owners who have various businesses, access and resources. I know that through these valued connections we will be able to bring some large-scale projects to life that will have great social impact. We have already offered complimentary yacht charters via the support of these yacht owners, in auctions that raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to benefit organizations such as The Hellenic Initiative. These offerings create real change.

Ok thank you for that. Let’s now pivot to the main parts of our interview. How do you define a family business? How is a family business different from a regular business?

A family business is one which intrinsically offers core shared values and trust. The idea is that we extend our family to you in a way that makes you part of ours. Just knowing or speaking to some of the members of our family brings an immediate ease and trust and familiarity. When my mother Kathy makes a charter in the USA and I take care of the concierge and greet the client in Greece, an instant intimacy is born which puts the client in a different state of mind than if they had just dealt with an employee or two of a travel company. Also there is usually a nice story behind a family business, often one of sacrifice and with great history. That is true for us too. That alone makes someone more content in doing business with a family business and you support so much more with your business.

In your opinion or experience, what are the unique advantages that family owned businesses have?

There is no competition within the company that can undermine the company’s mission, goals and efforts. We are a family and have longevity and problem solving always in mind. We check and balance each other on many decisions so that we are in line and have a united front always. We also intimately know each others’ strengths and can delegate accordingly, in a more nuanced way for the best results. When things got tough, we have our history and legacy to help guide us through and give us the strength and motivation to persevere.

What are the unique drawbacks or blindspots that family owned businesses have?

Pettiness or perfectionism can undermine the efforts of a family-owned business. When there is so much history and so much intimate knowledge of the other, there is always a tendency to push buttons or drive the other one too hard or be unforgiving at times. Respect must be a cornerstone.

What are some of the common mistakes you have seen family businesses make? What would you recommend to avoid those errors?

Letting differences in the vision of the company clash so much that the company suffers or folds is a common mistake I have witnessed. I think a family-owned business needs to have team meetings where family members allow the others to present their pain points, visions and successes. Together is it crucial work to find solutions and see the company from a different perspective. Everyone has value and their unique approaches, troubles and engagements and activities can offer good insight into the company and industry in itself. While having defined roles is important, so is coalescing to talk about what is going on and allow the others to have a say in something happening in your field of expertise.

What advice would you give to other CEOs or founders of family businesses to help their employees to thrive?

Empower them. Give them space and freedom to excel and work with their ideas/approaches. Sink or swim. Press them to achieve and excel and reward them greatly with words or actions. Let them feel a part of everything, as family. Mentorship is important as well, be the example that leads them. I know this from watching my father run a large office full of employees and staff from the nautical magazine which he ran in house. Also with the many crew members of yachts that called him boss.

How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean with a story or example?

Leadership is not didactic in my opinion. It is a position which brings a certain energy. I believe leaders are often naturally so. A leader will forge paths and create and not wait for confirmation from others to do so. I think to be a leader you must not be stunted by opinions of others, you must have an inner knowing that what you are doing is worthy and with purpose and ‘right’. Does being a leader depend on if others follow? Well, most times yes. A leader usually has some kind of following or positive response from others. They take responsibility without question, just by leading. This can be the double-edged sword of a leader — the glory of leading with the weight of responsibility that ensues. How a leader handles that and the expectation will define what kind of leader they are.

Here is our main question. What are the “5 Things You Need To Run A Highly Successful Family Business”? Please share a story or example for each.

1. Patience, understanding & respect — we all know too well that family often comes with blurred boundaries and candidness. When working with family it is important to remove the habits from old roles played within the family when growing up and adopt a new one within the company with the family. A bratty younger sister for example should shed the habit of requesting assistance from the older sibling or deferring harder work to them. An older sibling might shun a younger sibling assuming they will not bring anything of value or new to the table. Overall, hearing out the ideas of others and entertaining proposed solutions is very important. We hold weekly and monthly meetings to absorb input shared by all, evaluate and act with purpose.
2. Own your mistakes — Family differences and quarrels can lead to built-up resentments that when at a breaking point or in a stressful moment can make one turn to blaming. Thus starts the breakdown of “patience, understanding and respect”. Own your mistakes and let go of ones made as water under the bridge. This keeps things tidy and based in the now.
3. A united goal and vision — Working together because your company has history or you are family is one thing, but it’s crucial to be united in your vision for the company. Being related won’t serve you well if you are all moving towards different directions or have differing opinions of who you are at the core of your company values. When the goal and vision are cohesive, a code of conduct falls easier into place. Then a strategic plan for success can be made.
4. Division of responsibilities attuned to each members strengths. When ownership is shared amongst family it is important to divy roles up in relation to the strengths of each member. Kathy oversees all main decisions in the company and advises the direction of the business and works on sales, Alexandra is strong at running company logistics and operations, I excel on public relations and promotional aspects of the business.
5. Have faith in the others — Mutual support is vital to creating well-oiled machine. Allowing the others to do their part in their sector, without hesitation, allows for full support of the team members and thus team. This could be from Alexandra and Kathy finalizing the list of prime target areas for digital marketing to me choosing the right yacht and setting for a promotional photoshoot or selecting the right kava brands and quantities for clients. If mistakes are made, we revisit “own your mistakes” from above and let it go.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

Here are a few :

“AD ASTRA” is a Latin saying meaning ‘To the stars’. I like it very much as a reminder to reach high, think beyond and keep striving.

Also one that has stuck with me, “No solo de pan vive el hombre” which in English is “Man does not live by bread alone.” We need more in our lives to be sustained — something that speaks to the heart or soul. In today’s quickly advancing society, let’s not forget to nurture the creative and spiritual and make room for sentiment. This quote allows room for dreaming in life. it’s OK to need MORE. A good example is a yacht vacation — YES to wanting more for the eyes to feast on and to help set the soul free!

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them :-)

I think speaking to Bradley Cooper would be lovely over breakfast — early bird catches the worm. We are alum of the same highschool, Germantown Academy, and met at its homecoming football game, (the oldest annual prep school rival game in the USA), on campus years after graduating and hung at the local tavern after. He was very down to earth and has done amazing work in his career since then when I knew him as the memorable actor from Alias. I’d love to talk about our home-city Philly, how he took his travel show hosting gig to the next level and getting him to Greece to film something and of course relax on a yacht.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I love this question! It’s thinking BIG!

For everyone to go vegan. Including myself. Mindless consumption is far too widely justified and accepted. I think this would bring about a great deal of balance which has been lost, particularly in the past few decades. Let’s not forget that in the far past there were brilliant minds already understanding this, including my favorite, the visionary Leonardo Da Vinci. Sustainability can be brought about widely through this.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

I am using Instagram mainly and share relevant exciting news mostly through that channel. And plenty of family stuff too which has been a big focus for me now as a new mother with 2 kids under 3 years old!

Follow Kassandra Lefakinis on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/adastra9/

Find out more about Valef Yachts at https://valefyachts.com/

Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.