A15004 Family Business Management & Organization

At the end of the course the student will be able:

1. to assess the main management and organization choices made by family businesses;
2. to design appropriate management and organization choices for family businesses. 

In this way, the course contributes to prepare them to take future responsibilities within family firms or to work for family firms within consulting companies. 

Students will know what distinguishes a family business from a nonfamily business, what tools to use to analyze family firms, what the strategies of family firms are, including succession, and how they affect performance. The family side of the family business will be also known, as it strongly affects choices and results at business level. In this way, they will develop a critical approach to family businesses: the analysis of strategies and performance will allow them to formulate new choices for better results, both at business and family level. 

The course covers the most important management and organization challenges facing family businesses (FB), i.e. the following topics addressed from two complementary perspectives. 

THE BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE

• Myths and unique characteristics of family firms
• Tools and contents for analyzing family firms
• Successful family firms
• Competitive strategies in family business 
• Succession in family business 

THE FAMILY PERSPECTIVE

• The family as a dynamic and interactive group and the psychological pacts
• The role of differences amidst the family members  
• The systemic behaviors consequent to people differences and personalities
• Conflict management and the hidden conflicts
• Overcoming the critical family situations

The course sessions are of two types.

1. The first type of sessions has a lecture format. Lectures are based on readings and will be enriched by some company visits, live testimonials from family firms, interactive sessions and cases analysis.

2. In the second type of sessions, under the supervision of an instructor, students are asked to prepare an analysis of a family business. Students are responsible to self-organize in groups, choose a family business, look for relevant information, analyze the case study and present it to the rest of the class. The knowledge created in this way will be shared at the end of the course and will be part of the collective learning process. 

Students are responsible for consulting on a regular basis the website of the course on “my.liuc.it” where updates and additional materials are posted. 

For students ATTENDING classes, the grade is based on the groupwork preparation and presentation on the “business perspective” (67%) and a short individual essay on the “family perspective” (33%).  

For students NON ATTENDING classes, the grade is based on an individual oral exam on the “business perspective” (67%) and a short individual essay on the “family perspective” (33%).