Learning in the Classroom and Beyond

August 21, 2023 - Issue #96

Family Business Professors: 34 Ways to Energize Your Class These free classroom exercises, interviews and other resources will add new energy, fun and inspiration to your students' course work.

Why Don't You Educate Your Owners? Everyone agrees that families should train members to become competent owners and stewards of the family business – but few of them actually walk the talk.

Videos for the Global Family Business Community These videos share best practices that help business owners, professors and students become more resilient.

Learning How Family Business Leaders Make Decisions Through Interviews This exercise allows students to apply core family business concepts to a real-world business context, reinforcing their grasp of the course materials.

Want to Give Your Entrepreneurship Students Real-World Experience? Try Consulting Projects Students gain exposure to the inner-workings of a business, while entrepreneurs receive a fresh perspective, academic insight and assistance.

Future Family Business Owners Can Learn to Manage Conflict This classroom exercise dissects the five approaches to managing disputes, and their likely outcomes.

What All Family Businesses Can Learn From the Merck Family The Germany-based global health care, pharmaceutical and performance materials firm has kept its vast family ownership team aligned for 13 generations.

Team Exercise: How Parenting Styles Affect The Next Generation This experiential exercise is designed to enhance student learning about the four parenting styles and how they affect the dynamics within the family firm.

Developing Competent Owners and Stewards for a Lasting Family Business Educating family members to become such competent, responsible stewards of the family enterprise is a responsibility, and not a choice.

Assessments Can Help Develop Family Business Leaders From simple surveys or interviews to complex, statistically robust reporting, assessments give current and future leaders a source of objective data for better decision-making.

Learn to Defend Your Family Firm This classroom exercise helps future family firm members learn to anticipate outside threats to their business and defend it.

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Student Innovators: Get Ready Now for e-Fest 2024

What Nonfamily Managers Need From Family Firm Leaders

How Families Can Re-Engage Reluctant Successors Without Pressure

Family Offices Are Expanding Their Role

Popular Topics

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Recent

How Families Shape Successor Motivation—and the Firm’s Long-Term Direction

by Alexandra Dawson / Research Insight

Family firms don’t have goals—people do. The rise and fall of Italy's Florio dynasty shows how successor motivation shapes the balance between growth, legacy, and community—and how families can buildl more durable, values-led leadership. Read more...

Will Your Nonfamily Employees Defend Your Business?

by Sarah Burrows, Craig Crossley, Catherine Faherty, and Jim Combs / Research Insight

A stewardship climate, where employees feel trusted and truly valued, mobilizes nonfamily employees to defend the family firm against reputational threats. Read more...

You're Adding a Board of Directors. Is Your Management Team Ready?

by Rostyslav Vovk / Commentary

A Ukraine-based family business installed a board to provide structure as it scaled globally. Here's how the owners overcame top managers' fears and won their support. Read more...

The 11 Digital Warning Signs of Conflict Escalation in Business Families

by Christina Strauss, Arist von Schlippe, Franz Kellermanns, and Torsten Pieper / Research Insight

Digital communication speeds up family business decisions—but it also accelerates conflict. Based on 100+ pages of real emails and texts, here are 11 signs that an all-out brawl is coming. Read more...

by Kerry Hannon

Will Your Family Brand Survive New Leadership?

by Meghan Lynch

Listening to the Family: The Strategic Value of Surveys

by Claudia Binz Astrachan

Why Does EOS/Traction Work So Well for Family Businesses?

by Sara Stern

From 'Passing Down' to 'Building Up': Rethinking Values in Family Firms

by Viktoria Luft, Anne Katarina Heider, Heinrich Liechtenstein, and Tarek el Sehity

Rom-Coms Can Complicate Your Succession Planning

by Sara E. Miller