Ownership Insights: The Competitive Advantage of Family- and Employee-Owned Firms

1.5 units

This course is designed to introduce students to the unique governance and financing issues faced by owners of closely held businesses, with particular emphasis on employee- and family-controlled firms. The core issue addressed in this course is that of sustainability: What actions are required of the current owners to increase the likelihood that the business will last beyond them? What best practices can we learn from successful employee-owned and multigenerational family businesses, some of which have been in existence for more than 150 years? There are three target audiences for this course: 1) students who may be or who are considering working for a closely held business, be it employee- or family-owned; 2) entrepreneurs who build successful businesses and want their businesses to be passed on to their employees or family members; and 3) students seeking to work in the private equity, investment banking, legal or wealth-management industries and who will be calling on this segment of the market. The course will be multidisciplinary and more qualitative than quantitative. Each class will have a lecture and case component; there will be guest speakers at each session. Students will be required to complete a case study in advance of each class (not more than two pages). There will be no final exam. Class attendance and active participation are expected.