Family enterprises are the oldest and most common form of business. Yet in today’s fast-changing, volatile, and global business environment, enterprising families face unique challenges that are often complicated by factors specific to their structure and to families’ traditions, cultures, and interests.

Designed and delivered by the faculty who created Columbia Business School's Family Business Program that enables students to understand all aspects of owning, managing, and working with family enterprises, this three-day executive education program is delivered by faculty with decades of experience advising family-owned firms.

Members of families who own assets together, including operating businesses, family offices, investments, philanthropy, and more, will learn how to view their business situation through time-tested frameworks that provide best practices and lessons learned from academia and practice.

Participants coming from all over the world enter a personalized, confidential, and safe setting in a small-group environment and receive a learning experience that is research-based and objective.

The programs faculty's sole agenda is to help family members succeed with their family business. By learning together, family members will be able to lead all that they do together more effectively, efficiently, and harmoniously.

Please Contact Us

Please contact our Learning Solutions Specialists at +1 212-854-3395 for a personal conversation to learn more.

IMPACT

In just three days, the Enterprising Families: Learning and Leading Together program will help you view your family’s enterprise situation through time-tested frameworks that provide best practices and lessons learned from academia and practice — delivered to you objectively and entirely free of affiliations to financial institutions or other businesses.

Business and investment managers will understand better how to work with and on behalf of others in the family. Family members who do not have formal roles will learn how to stay engaged and have their voices heard. Owners (directly or through trusts and holding structures) will gain perspective on how to understand their goals and expectations from family assets.

After attending the program, you will be able to:

• Better understand the unique opportunities and challenges of your enterprising family through analytical frameworks
• Create an action plan tailored to your specific situation
• Share your experience and learn from similarly situated families
• Identify common goals with your family members, regardless of role, age, or gender
• Understand how to be an active and engaged owner
• Learn how to read and analyze financial statements, speak a common finance language, and gain strategic insights into family investments and operating businesses
• Learn how to implement structure and integrate best practices into your existing family enterprise

Upon completion of this program, you will earn three days towards a Certificate with select alumni and tuition benefits. Learn more.

PROGRAM STRUCTURE

The program draws upon the deep resources of Columbia Business School’s Family Business Program to provide world-class instruction through interactive lectures, case studies, classroom exercises, and guest speakers. Some pre-reading is required but assignments will be completed during class time.

Day One focuses on understanding your current family situation from a new perspective. What do you own, and how does your family approach ownership across all assets? You’ll explore a case study that highlights ownership of a complex family enterprise from the family perspective.

Day Two will delve into business fundamentals for those who may or may not be involved in day-to-day operations and management. Managers and non-managers will learn best practices for family enterprises in a way that goes beyond business and investments and into the heart of the family.

Day Three rounds out the topics with a focus on wealth management, family offices, and other ways to organize your family enterprise. Students will have an opportunity to reflect and create an action plan tailored to their specific needs.

For a complete program schedule, download the agenda.

PARTICIPANT PROFILE & TESTIMONIALS

This course is designed for members of a family that own, operate, and/or govern a complex family enterprise. The family enterprise may include one or more shared assets including an operating business, investments, joint philanthropy, or a family office. This program draws families from around the globe who share common challenges across cultures. Multiple family members are encouraged to attend together.

Alumni and up to four of their colleagues are eligible for a 25 percent tuition benefit for full-price Executive Education in-person programs lasting up to seven days and all full-price online programs. More on the Alumni Tuition Benefit.

Typical Participant Mix

Hear from Past Participant:

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Alicia Kuljis

Shareholder at Inversiones Cruz del Oriente Sociedad Anonima

"The program teaches financial concepts in a very practical, down-to-earth way for people with no business background. It also acknowledges the emotional side of a family business."

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Luis Amodio Giombini

Director at Grupo CAABSA

"The program was extremely comprehensive in terms of the range of disciplines, problems, and matters concerning family enterprises. In my case, I am actually currently living through most of what was covered in the program."

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Anonymous

"I found the program to be very useful and applicable to my business. The staff was great. It was also a great networking opportunity."

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Alicia Kuljis

Shareholder at Inversiones Cruz del Oriente Sociedad Anonima

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Luis Amodio Giombini

"Director at Grupo CAABSA"

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Anonymous

 

FACULTY

Patricia Angus, Faculty Director
Adjunct Professor of Business
Managing Director, Family Business Program

Patricia Angus, JD, MIA, TEP, is the founder and CEO of Angus Advisory Group LLC, an adjunct professor at Columbia University, and the director of the Family Business Program. A recognized thought leader in multi-generational family governance and wealth, she has advised families with businesses, trusts, and charitable foundations for more than two decades.

Angus helps clients navigate some of life's most complex issues, through critical analysis, strategic planning, and compassionate guidance. She practiced law at trusts and estates boutique Hughes and Whitaker (now Day Pitney) and Coudert Brothers international law firm (now Baker & McKenzie). She served as principal and chief wealth advisory officer at Shelterwood Financial Services LLC and as family wealth advisor at GenSpring and JP Morgan Private Bank.

She is member of the Society of Trusts and Estates Practitioners, Family Firm Institute (FFI), and Collaboration for Family Flourishing. She is a CFBA (Certified Family Business Advisor).

Angus serves on advisory boards of Trusts and Estates magazine, the Carter Center, and the NYC Family Enterprise Center. She is on the Editorial Committee of the FFI Practitioner. She has received numerous awards for her thought leadership in the fields of family business, trusts, wealth, philanthropy, and family governance.

Daniel Wolfenzon
Stefan H. Robock Professor of Finance and Economics
Co-Director, Family Business Program

Daniel Wolfenzon received a Masters and a PhD in economics from Harvard University and holds a BS in economics and a BS in mechanical engineering from MIT. Professor Wolfenzon previously taught at the University of Michigan, the University of Chicago, and NYU. He is also a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research interests are in corporate finance and organizational economics. He has studied control sharing in small firms, the effects of investor protection on ownership concentration, and the structure of business groups around the world.

Professor Wolfenzon's most recent research focuses on family firms. He has examined the consequences of family succession on firm performance and also the importance of managerial talent in family controlled firms. His work has been published in top economic and finance journals such as The Quarterly Journal of Economics, The Review of Economic Studies, The Journal of Finance, and the Journal of Financial Economics. He received the Jensen Prize (second place) for best paper on corporate finance and organizations published in the Journal of Financial Economics both in 2002 and 2005.

Joshua Baron
Adjunct Associate Professor,
Management Division

Josh Baron is a co-founder and Partner at BanyanGlobal. For the last decade, he has worked closely with families who own assets together, such as operating companies, family foundations, and family offices. He helps these families to define their purpose as owners and to establish the structures, strategies, and skills they need to accomplish their goals.

During his career, Josh has worked with clients in North America, South America, Africa, Australia, and Asia. Josh publishes and speaks frequently on subjects concerning family enterprises. He has a particular interest in how ownership creates a competitive advantage, how families can escape major conflicts, and how philanthropy can help families achieve their broader goals.

Along with Professors Angus, Wolfenzon, and Baron, additional Columbia Business School faculty contribute to and teach in the program.