Workshops

These interactive workshops will combine the sharing of insightful content and knowledge with small group discussions guided by experienced leaders in the field of family enterprise.

Please note:  Sessions will NOT be recorded - make sure you attend live!

Day 1 - 1:15 PM EDT
Day 3 - 1:15 PM EDT

Mapping the Complexity of Ownership

Presenters:
Gaia Marchisio
and Thompson Turner

Objectives:
1. To create more clarity and normalcy around some critical issues that entrepreneurial families and individuals find themselves having to unravel

2. To share a framework to identify the ownership decisions to navigate during and after succession, separate and apart from management's

3. To shape alignment among diverse types of owners to appreciate the different impact, significance and frequency of their decisions compared to management's

Description:
Both enterprising family members and their advisors know that ownership-related discussions are extraordinarily complex. This is because ownership is a convoluted mix of complicated technical aspects and feelings. These aspects are often displayed under challenging decisions that evoke issues related to power, money and love, mortality and fairness. At the end of the session, both families and advisors will be better equipped to navigate the ownership complexity.

Day 1 - 1:15 PM EDT
Day 3 - 1:15 PM EDT

Senior Leadership Evaluation in the Context of a Family Enterprise

Presenters:
Rachel O’Connor
and Sharon Rudy, WATSON Inc.

Objectives:
1. To understand the best practices for conducting leadership performance evaluation in a family context

2. To identify practical next steps for your situation

What you will leave with:
1. The case for why this challenging work is so important to do well, from both the enterprise and the family perspectives

2. Insight into practices you can put in place to do this work successfully

3. A practical perspective on how to navigate family and enterprise people dynamics

Description:
Evaluating the performance of top leaders is essential work for any organization. It’s how you get aligned on what is expected and how you close the loop to understand what was achieved. It guides not just what gets done, but also how it gets done in terms of leadership and culture – and it creates a platform for continued growth, learning and performance.

What makes it important also makes it challenging, and never more so than in family enterprises.

When a leader is family, it adds more than one dimension of complexity to the picture. Relationships, subjectivity, conflicts of interest and financial complications all come to the table. It’s important to get this right, for the enterprise and for the family.

Day 1 - 1:15 PM EDT

Family Business Continuity: Supporting Senior Members of the Family

Presenter:
Barbara Benoliel

Objectives:
1. Explore beliefs and values about ageing

2. Develop a checklist of key strategies

3. Understand the role professionals and family members play in ensuring proper planning for the present and the future

Description:
In this workshop, we will focus on how business families and FEAs provide financial and social support as older members of the family move away from a more active work life. We will look at new strategies and planning that are needed to support health, wellbeing and thriving in the later years. Together we will explore beliefs and values about ageing, a checklist of key concerns, and what role professionals and family members play in ensuring proper planning for the present and the future.

Day 1 - 1:15 PM EDT
Day 3 - 1:15 PM EDT

Managing Competing Needs and Wants Inside Family Enterprises

Presenters:
Judi Cunningham and Mike McGrann, Telos Group

Objectives:
1. Develop deeper understandings of how to discuss boundaries and consequences when so much is at stake

2. Explore strategies and processes to change unproductive patterns and create better outcomes

3. Understand the nuances around the power of choice

Description:
We are always balancing our needs and wants with the needs and wants of others; our friends, family, organizations we work for and the communities we belong to. When we say what we want, or what we don’t want, we are also sharing who we are and letting others know what matters to us. This can create a sense of vulnerability and stir up feelings of anxiety. Will we be chastised or accepted? The current pandemic, for example, has brought this to the foreground as business families assess and share their tolerance for risk both personally and in the business, as well as what constitutes appropriate choices and behaviours. Finding the courage and developing the skills to have these conversations that allow for open communication about boundaries, our fears and differing points of view can bring a family closer together, rather than tearing it apart.

Day 2 - 11:30 AM EDT

The Regal Challenge

Presenter:
David Simpson, Business Families Centre, Ivey Business School

The Challenge:
Her Royal Highness, Queen Elizabeth II, needs your help to sort out her family business. Her grandson Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle announced via social media (not at family a council meeting) that they would no longer be fulltime Royals. They have decided to create their own life plans outside the “business circle”. The Queen needs to respond and is quite aware that her actions will set precedents within the family circle, the business circle and the ownership circle, the owners being the Citizens of Great Britain. We need all your experience in or running a family business to identify the key communication challenges, the tactical implications of her response and the short and long term effects these decisions will have on her role as Head of State and head of the family business.

This will be a 90 minute workshop where you will be working in teams to discuss and prepare recommendations. There will be a case provided and a short video describing the roles of Monarchy in Great Britain and the particular style of the Queen’s grandson.

Day 2 - 12:00 PM EDT
Day 3 - 1:15 PM EDT

Dear Therapist, My Spouse Works in a Family Business…

Presenters:
Donald Opatrny
and Keith Michaelson, Lovins Group

Objectives:
1. Identify the six common challenges couples face in family business and how they impact the relationship

2. Experience how the family business can become the third wheel in a relationship

3. Explore a road-tested exercise for family business couples to move from drama to growth and intimacy

Description:
Coming from the perspective that success in marriage and success in family business are not mutually exclusive, we will share six common challenges faced by couples in family business and examples from real couples in family businesses. We will explore how family business can become a source of conflict, a reliable diversion from deeper intimacy challenges or a catalyst for growth. Through an experiential process, participants will identify various ways in which the family business is like an additional partner in their relationship. There will be a brief demonstration of an exercise that all participants can use with their partners or clients to address pressing couple and/or business concerns. The session will end by inviting participants to share specific situations where help might be needed “for a friend.”

Day 2 - 12:00 PM EDT

Beyond Good Intentions: Business Owning Families and Social Impact

Presenter:
Robert Nason
, Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University

Objectives:
1. Increase reflexivity about family social impact

2. Increase knowledge of family social impact strategies

3. Begin or extend a conversation about social impact in business owning families

Description:
This workshop will engage families and advisors in thinking business-owning family social impact. We will discuss three O's of social impact: orientation, organization and operationalization. In doing so, we will explore why families should care about social impact, how they should structure it and principles of action for carrying out social impact. We will take a reflective approach and discuss how to advance conversations within business-owning families around social impact strategy.