Last year, after the 2nd annual Global Family Enterprise Case Competition I posted an article on how the business of family business is continuously growing. The article recently published by the Family Firm Institute referencing the growing field of university-based family enterprise education can further demonstrate this. I am more than happy to say that Carleton University has been added to the list of universities that offer an undergraduate class in family business. Since January I have had the privilege to teach a course called Managing the Family Enterprise, which is the first family business course offered at the university level in Ottawa.
I was lucky enough this year to bring the Sprott School of Business team from Carleton University to Vermont as their coach and watch them along with 15 other undergraduate schools from all around the world solve comprehensive family business cases. I could not be prouder to say that Sprott came first this year in the undergraduate division while Jönköping International Business School from Sweden took the cup in the graduate division.
The media surrounding family business is often negative with a focus on sibling rivalry, nepotism, fiscal irresponsibility and incestuous hiring and promotional practices. However, it has been very refreshing to see the growing amount of positive publicity this new case competition has garnered in the last weeks. The competition is growing in leaps and bounds every year with new universities and countries wanting to participate.
Winners of the FECC 2015 at UVM from left to right: Nicholas Charron (assistant coach), Danielle Walsh (coach), Laura O'Reilly, Lena Elchamaa, Richard Coffin
Congratulations again to Jonkoping International Business School and my students from Sprott School of Business. Below are links to various articles about the Global Family Enterprise Case Competition.
Happy reading!
http://ffipractitioner.org/2015/01/21/myths-and-realities-family-enterprise-case-competition/
http://businessfamilies.org/read/2015/01/16/next-generation-leaders-compete/
