Sample
Course Overview
Below
you will find a sample overview for one of the courses offered
by the Center for Family Enterprises and the Department
of Managerial Economics and Decision Sciences. The course
can be applied to majors in Entrepreneurship and Management
& Strategy.
Family
Enterprises: Issues and Solutions
Winter Quarter
Professor John
L. Ward
Course
Topic Outline
Most of
the world's economy is comprised of family controlled firms.
Many Kellogg School students come from business-owning families
or families involved in a collective philanthropy or investing.
This course addresses the special issues of family enterprises,
including succession, governance, strategy, family dynamics,
culture, philanthropy, and family offices. The course will
benefit those from business-owning families, as well as their
advisors. The class will involve case discussions, guest speakers,
field or research assignments and presentations on new ideas
in family enterprise.
Session
1: The Performance, Problems, and Paradoxes of Family
Enterprises
- What
is a family business?
- How
family firms perform
- The
role of family firms in the economy
- The
family business paradigm
Session
2: Balancing Family and Business
- "Shirt
sleeves to shirt sleeves in 3 generations"
- 3
circles model
- Resolving
the family versus business paradox
- Evaluating
"family first" versus "business first"
orientation
Session
3: Generational Evolution of Business Families
- The
life cycle of the business, the family, the individual
- Forms
and structures of ownership
- Critical
issues for continuity
Session
4: Family Dynamics
- Understanding
how families work
- Systems
analysis and conflict management
- The
family code
- Genograms
Session
5: Entry, Succession, Continuity
- Dilemmas
for successors
- Negotiating
entry
- "Letting
go" and "taking charge"
- Succession/continuity
task force
Session
6: Family Business Strategy and Competitive Advantage
- How
strategy is different for family firms
- How
family factors shape business strategy
- Competitive
advantage and unconventional strategy
Session
7: Perpetuation, Culture, Values, Change
- Cultural
contradictions to growth
- Financing
continuity
- Family
meetings and family councils
Session
8: Family Continuity Planning
- Family
planning process
- Gaining
family unity and commitment
- Family
constitution/protocol
- "Fair
process" and trust
Session
9: Governance and Ownership
- Independent
directors
- Roles
and responsibilities of ownership
- Family
vision
Session
10: The Enterprising Family
- Family
offices, family foundations and family investment companies
- "Best
practices" of long lasting families-in-business--a
course summary
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