Rising Generation in the Family Enterprise
- Dates: 07–10 JUN 2023
- Format: In-Person Learning takes place on the HBS campus or a designated location.
- Location: HBS Campus
- Fee: $12,000

Bringing Together the Rising Generation: A Q&A with Faculty Cochairs
Summary
As a member of a family with a significant business legacy, you may feel both incredibly lucky and weighed down with responsibility. How can you best deploy your talents, capabilities, and resources? How should you think about the family legacy, the needs of future generations, and your responsibility to society?
This program focuses specifically on the choices facing the rising generation in the context of a successful family enterprise. Some members of the new generation will decide to pursue leadership roles in managing the family business or family wealth while others will find a different path, but all will benefit from a holistic exploration of their connection to the family enterprise. In a program that places all options on the table—and explores many of the topics that families avoid talking about—you will gain a new ability to carry the weight of generations with grace while taking full advantage of the unique opportunities presented to you.
DetailsExpand AllCollapse All
Address the responsibilities that come with a business legacy and significant wealthAddress the responsibilities that come with a business legacy and significant wealth
- Analyze options and choose the right role for you in the family enterprise, while honoring and supporting others' choices
- Engage in difficult conversations with family members, including your elders, as you prepare for the future
- Manage tensions between the assumptions and methods of retiring and rising generations
- Formulate and implement new-generation solutions that are right for today's—and tomorrow's—business, stakeholders, and family
Take an entrepreneurial approach to new opportunitiesTake an entrepreneurial approach to new opportunities
- Balance opportunity and risk while changing the business portfolio or starting new ventures related to your family business
- Nurture an entrepreneurial mindset across generations
- Understand best practices for managing family wealth, from estate planning to ensuring equity across branches of the family
- Balance family control with professionalization and growth
- Incorporate civic and social responsibility into plans for the future
Expand your personal and professional networkExpand your personal and professional network
- Extend your network by living and working with accomplished executives from various backgrounds, industries, and countries around the globe
- Build relationships with a diverse group of peers who can provide wide-ranging insights into your business challenges and career decisions
Address the responsibilities that come with a business legacy and significant wealth
- Analyze options and choose the right role for you in the family enterprise, while honoring and supporting others' choices
- Engage in difficult conversations with family members, including your elders, as you prepare for the future
- Manage tensions between the assumptions and methods of retiring and rising generations
- Formulate and implement new-generation solutions that are right for today's—and tomorrow's—business, stakeholders, and family
Take an entrepreneurial approach to new opportunities
- Balance opportunity and risk while changing the business portfolio or starting new ventures related to your family business
- Nurture an entrepreneurial mindset across generations
- Understand best practices for managing family wealth, from estate planning to ensuring equity across branches of the family
- Balance family control with professionalization and growth
- Incorporate civic and social responsibility into plans for the future
Expand your personal and professional network
- Extend your network by living and working with accomplished executives from various backgrounds, industries, and countries around the globe
- Build relationships with a diverse group of peers who can provide wide-ranging insights into your business challenges and career decisions
Who Should Attend
- Members of the rising generation of a family enterprise—including descendants and in-laws—who may or may not be currently involved in managing the family business, family office, or family foundation
- Particularly appropriate for: Executives raised in business families who are preparing for new leadership roles within their family business, family office for wealth management, or family foundation, or engaging in adjacent entrepreneurial activity
- Not appropriate for: Current, long-serving CEOs or CFOs of family businesses, family offices, or family foundations; consultants or executives in professional service firms

Program for Leadership Development participants earn 3 PLDA Points on completion of this program.
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Who Should Attend
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- Members of the rising generation of a family enterprise—including descendants and in-laws—who may or may not be currently involved in managing the family business, family office, or family foundation
- Particularly appropriate for: Executives raised in business families who are preparing for new leadership roles within their family business, family office for wealth management, or family foundation, or engaging in adjacent entrepreneurial activity
- Not appropriate for: Current, long-serving CEOs or CFOs of family businesses, family offices, or family foundations; consultants or executives in professional service firms
Program for Leadership Development participants earn 3 PLDA Points on completion of this program.
Dive Deeper into the ExperienceSee how exchange with faculty and peers yields new insights into critical business trends.Thrive in a learning environment that welcomes diverse ideas and perspectives.Global perspectives > Leadership growth > Organizational impact.
Learning and Living at HBS
When you participate in an Executive Education program on the HBS campus, you enter an immersive experience where every aspect of the learning model has been carefully designed to facilitate your growth. Your learning will take place on your own, in your living group, and in the larger classroom, driven by the renowned HBS case method.
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Learning and Living at HBS
-
When you participate in an Executive Education program on the HBS campus, you enter an immersive experience where every aspect of the learning model has been carefully designed to facilitate your growth. Your learning will take place on your own, in your living group, and in the larger classroom, driven by the renowned HBS case method.
Admissions Criteria and Process
Answering Your Questions
Application Submission
Application Review
Fee, Payment, and Cancellations
Answering Your Questions
Application Submission
Application Review
Fee, Payment, and Cancellations
What You Will Learn
Through a rich learning experience that includes faculty presentations, dynamic classroom discussions, current cases, small group work, panels, and guest speakers, you will explore the challenges and opportunities you face as part of the rising generation in a family enterprise.
The curriculum will be tailored to the specific roles and experiences of participants. You will have a unique opportunity to explore challenges in a way that encompasses the entire family enterprise—family business and family wealth—while focusing on your own goals and perspectives as a member of the rising generation. Away from your own family, you will be able to explore subjects that are often difficult to discuss in family business settings, such as aspirations, salary, promotion, and succession.
Key TopicsExpand AllCollapse All
Family business fundamentalsFamily business fundamentals
- Exploring the family identity in the context of a family business
- Understanding the dynamics of working in a family business
- Analyzing roles of owner-operators versus owner-investors
Professionalizing the family businessProfessionalizing the family business
- Managing different generations' appetite for risk
- Onboarding and offboarding within a family business
- Evolving ownership and control over time and bringing in non-family talent
- Serving as an ambassador for your family enterprise, whether or not you are directly involved in management
- Applying governance best practices; determining the best structure and role for your board of directors
Creating and evolving the family officeCreating and evolving the family office
- Understanding the role of the family office and the family's relationship to it
- Knowing how and why to set up a family office
- Connecting with the family office
Managing the legacyManaging the legacy
- Preventing future problems in estate planning, succession planning, and managing transitions
- Understanding, creating, and operating foundations
- Evaluating your family enterprise in the context of civic and social responsibility and assessing opportunities for impact
- Assessing pros and cons of selling the business
Choosing your pathChoosing your path
- Deciding whether to join the family business or the family office for wealth management—and in what capacity
- Being an entrepreneur within your family
- Leading change
Family business fundamentals
- Exploring the family identity in the context of a family business
- Understanding the dynamics of working in a family business
- Analyzing roles of owner-operators versus owner-investors
Professionalizing the family business
- Managing different generations' appetite for risk
- Onboarding and offboarding within a family business
- Evolving ownership and control over time and bringing in non-family talent
- Serving as an ambassador for your family enterprise, whether or not you are directly involved in management
- Applying governance best practices; determining the best structure and role for your board of directors
Creating and evolving the family office
- Understanding the role of the family office and the family's relationship to it
- Knowing how and why to set up a family office
- Connecting with the family office
Managing the legacy
- Preventing future problems in estate planning, succession planning, and managing transitions
- Understanding, creating, and operating foundations
- Evaluating your family enterprise in the context of civic and social responsibility and assessing opportunities for impact
- Assessing pros and cons of selling the business
Choosing your path
- Deciding whether to join the family business or the family office for wealth management—and in what capacity
- Being an entrepreneur within your family
- Leading change
The HBS Advantage
Our Executive Education programs are developed and taught by HBS faculty who are widely recognized as skilled educators, groundbreaking researchers, and award-winning authors. Through their board memberships, consulting, and field-based research, they address the complex challenges facing business leaders across the globe.
L.E. Simmons Professor of Business Administration
Senior Lecturer of Business Administration
Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management
Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking
Senior Lecturer of Business Administration
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The HBS Advantage
-
Our Executive Education programs are developed and taught by HBS faculty who are widely recognized as skilled educators, groundbreaking researchers, and award-winning authors. Through their board memberships, consulting, and field-based research, they address the complex challenges facing business leaders across the globe.
Faculty CochairsL.E. Simmons Professor of Business Administration
HBS Units:Entrepreneurial ManagementFinanceSenior Lecturer of Business Administration
HBS Unit:Technology and Operations ManagementFacultyNovartis Professor of Leadership and Management
HBS Unit:Technology and Operations ManagementJacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking
HBS Units:Entrepreneurial ManagementFinanceSenior Lecturer of Business Administration
HBS Units:Entrepreneurial ManagementFinance
