Next Generation Success: Reflections on a Decade of Dialogue Between Senior and Junior Generations

INTRODUCTION

The Dialogue About Next Generation Development at Harvard

Since 1997, Harvard Business School (HBS) has offered an executive education program to families around the world called Families in Business: From Generation to Generation. FIB, as it is called at the School, brings together family teams of four or more members, from all over the globe, for six intense days of learning about the essentials of family business management. Classroom discussions are enriched with the thoughtful and often passionate perspectives of senior and junior generations, family business leaders, family owners, non-owner family members, spouses, senior and junior generation family managers, and some non-family executives and board members. It’s an exciting journey from the start of the program on Sunday afternoon to its conclusion on Friday afternoon.

The FIB program is offered annually on the ivy-covered campus of Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts, and has been offered internationally in Thailand, India, China and the Netherlands. It is an executive education course meaning one does not have to be a registered Harvard student to take the course. Families leave their companies and day jobs behind and spend concentrated and focused time in classrooms, conference rooms and dining rooms on campus—away from their day-to-day routines—to talk about their hopes, goals, and concerns about their business and family and to plan for the future. Many families tell us that it is the most meaningful week they’ve spent together as a family in a very long time, or perhaps ever.

FIB leads participants through a series of topics, each class and each day building a base of learning for important discussions that inevitably follow during the week. We use the Three-Circle Model (shown) as the main framework for the program and cover topics such as these:

Typical characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses of family business systems

Stages of development and how to solve the issues of each stage

Managing nepotism and building professionalism in the business and family

Effective communication and negotiation in one’s family

Managing family work relationships

Developing business strategies and family strategies

Building a committed ownership group

Business, ownership and family governance

Managing generational transitions

Developing the next generation

Long-term, multi-generational success

Because generational transitions are so important to the success and continuity of these family enterprises, a full day toward the end of the week is devoted to this topic, including next generation preparedness. As part of this day, a Cross Generational Dialogue is organized where senior generation and junior generation members have a facilitated discussion in the classroom about what both generations can do to help the next generation become effective managers, owners, and family