Family Business Advisor Program Itinerary
Two Consecutive Wednesdays – June 6 & 13, 2012
For any professional with 5 to 7 years of experience providing products or services to family businesses:
- Develop a deep understanding of the complexities of family enterprises and how a company’s “family-relatedness” can be a competitive advantage.
- Apply a new set of tools for effective management of the interactions between the family and the business.
- Strengthen your relationships with your family business clients and become a trusted advisor for both the senior and successor generations of family business owners.
Before the Conference
Select a case or family business scenario you face, for which you’d like expert (and peer) input, one that will inspire thoughtful discussion to help you solve the problem or challenge this family-held firm presents.
Day 1 – June 6:
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8:00AM |
Breakfast and registration |
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8:30–10:15AM |
Introduction: Defining the Family Business Is your client a family business or a business family? The impact and unique qualities of family enterprises will be discussed within the context of a mini-case about family struggling through a strategic and generational transition. |
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10:15–10:45AM |
Break |
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10:45AM–12:30PM |
Family System Theory and the Six Dimensions of Family Enterprising: A Framework for Analyzing your family business client Family business advisors tend to view family businesses through the lens of their individual skill set. This session provides a universal framework for understanding the unique challenges and constraints facing family businesses as well as the unique opportunities and potential advantages. |
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12:30–1:30PM |
Lunch |
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1:30 – 3:30PM |
Communication and Leadership in the Family Enterprise: An in-depth perspective on the unique leadership, communication, strategy and governance challenges facing family enterprises. We will focus our attention on the unique leadership challenges in family firms and how the ownership succession process differs from the management succession process. Individual teams will develop and present their solutions to this case. |
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3:30 – 4:00PM |
Break |
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4:00 – 5:30PM |
Communication Process skills As the Aluminum Cans case demonstrates, effective communication process is the key enabler to multi-generational success. In this session, we present eight critical skills necessary for effective communication and conflict management. |
Day 2 – June 13 (one week later):
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8:00–10:15AM
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The Case of the Accidental Business Moguls For a building supply company operating on a small Caribbean island, Home Depot is a nightmare competitor. This case presents how one family struggled to compete with when the world’s largest building supply retailer opened a store on their small island. We will observe a family meeting and workshop participants will develop recommendations for addressing the challenges they see in the case |
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10:15–10:30AM |
Break |
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10:30AM–12:30PM |
Strategic Planning in the family enterprise We will explore the concept of how one’s “familiness” can be a source of competitive advantage and how it can be a source of competitive constraint. We will discuss how the tools developed in this seminar can be used to address these constraints. We will also share a framework for strategic planning and how it is different in the family firm. |
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12:30–1:30PM |
Lunch |
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1:00 – 2:45PM |
Governance structures for long-term family business success This session will focus on the strategies and structures that are important for managing the family business system. Issues to be addressed include the roles and responsibilities of a family council and how it interacts with a Board. Other structures that will be discussed include a family involvement policy, a conflict of interest policy, an in-law policy, etc. |
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2:45 – 3:00PM |
Capstone: Cementing your role as trusted advisor Our final session will address the key question of how you drive change as a family business advisor. One of the keys is to thoroughly understand why and how family businesses resist change. Other areas for discussion include building trust and managing confidentiality, understand who your client is, overcoming resistance to change and how you become the trusted advisor in the system. |
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5:00 – 6:00PM |
Reception and debriefing |
After the Conference
You will be scheduled with individual, face-to-face meeting time with one of the conference facilitators regarding your selected case and/or other family business challenges you face as well as phone consultation time. During these post-conference sessions, you will review and discuss tools and procedures to use in order to more effectively serve family-held firms.
*This event constitutes 1.5 CEUs, conferred upon completion by Elizabethtown College