Families in Business From Generation to Generation

The information below is based on the program offered in 2009, and does not reflect potential changes to faculty and course content for the 2010 course.

Who Is Right for the Program

Families in Business: From Generation to Generation is intended for teams of business family members, such as:

  • A chief executive officer [or top family business leader(s)] and his or her spouse
  • Children of the business leader(s) and their spouses
  • Siblings and their spouses/partners
  • Cousins and their spouses/partners

These family members might be:

  • A manager or an employee
  • A board member
  • A shareholder
  • An interested relative, who may be an in-law

We recommend the participation by family teams of four or more individuals representing both genders and two generations, when possible. Some families also find it useful to include a nonfamily executive or board member on their teams. Participants are drawn from many countries and represent a range of industries and family companies in varied family, business, and ownership stages.

Visit the admissions section for details about our application process.

Past Participants Represented:

Industries
 Family Team Members
2% Chem/Pharm/Bio 17% Family member only
2% Communications (nonemployee, nonowner)
21% Consumer Products 15% Family member and owner
2% Financial (nonemployee)
1% High Technology 16% Family member and
7% Manufacturing employee (nonowner)
1% Nonprofit Services 47% Family member, owner,
40% Other and employee
5% Other Services 4% Nonfamily employee
4% Professional Services (nonowner)
3% Raw Materials/Energy 1% Nonfamily employee and
8% Real Estate/Construction owner
3% Retail Services
1% Utilities/Telecommunications

"This high-impact program was crucial in helping us to ensure that our family business continues successfully into the next generation. Bringing forth family issues through facilitators in a nonemotional, easy-to-follow process allowed us to put many questions on the table that we had never discussed. We also had time to form ideas on how we could apply some cases to our own business."
Joseph Sasson [COO], Arco Group, Canada