Across the globe, family firms serve as an important pillar for most economies and have made substantial contributions in employment and market capitalization. Family businesses in India employ 57 percent of the workforce and have market capitalization above 70 percent, which is a staggering figure. But like other forms of business, family businesses are also complex to manage. Succession planning and growth are just two of the many complex challenges that family businesses encounter. This article summarizes the most relevant lessons of the course “Family Business” that aim to assist entrepreneurs with such challenges.

Section 1: Goals of the Family Business Course

For the family business scope, we seek to provide running family businesses with the means to control their growth, deal with impediments, and ensure business continuity for their family legacy. This course addresses key problems that family businesses typically encounter and provides practical solutions.

Section 2: Overview of the Course Scope

Despite their contribution to economic growth, family-owned businesses face many challenges that must be solved to keep a business moving forward and not stagnating. A few of the most common challenges that family businesses deal with include:

Business Expansion

Integration of New Family Members

Management of Business Revenue

Interpersonal Relationship Disputes in a Family Business

The course is split into four major components: Foundation, Growth, Managing Conflicts, and Succession. These components cover the whole essence of family business management, maintaining and nurturing growth at the firm, conflict management, and future planning deeply and comprehensively.

Also, the course covers the type of business entities under sole proprietorship, general partnership, corporation, and limited liability corporation (LLC), aiding you in deciding what is the most suitable entity for your family business.

Section 3: Important Highlights of the Family Business Course

Key Note #1- Value of Family Business

Family businesses have a considerable impact on the economy and society. Take the case of Kunal and Karan. Kunal decides to open a retail store with his family, while Karan opts to go pro and look for investors. Kunal’s business is growing, but he is under sales pressure every quarter. Karan, on the other hand, does very well for a while, but eventually starts suffering from poor sales and huge losses.

The story points out the underlying advantages of a family business where durable support can help deal with short-term challenges.

Golden Statement: “The value of a clay pot is known only to his maker.”

Key Note #2: The Most Pressing Family Resources Issues

There are four fundamental problems in family businesses:

• Business Expansion
• Succession
• Financial resource management
• Internal Relations

This course is aimed at providing you with answers to these problems with practical guidance on how to deal with them.

Key Note 3: Course Structure

We organized the course into four pivotal parts which will help you manage your family business more efficiently:

Part 1: Foundation

Key issues are familiarization with the world of family business and its reasons for failure and their avoidance.

Part 2: Growth

Understanding how to develop a family business, how to grow it without losing valuable relationships, and how to systematize various organizational activities such as operational functions, responsibilities, HR, and financial management get captured here.

Part 3: Conflicts

It describes how family problems and their influence on the business could be resolved while maintaining harmony within the family that could benefit the business in the long run.

Part 4: Succession Planning

This is normally the most critical decision together with who to succeed the current leader in a family business, but very few family businesses get it right. In this section, you learn how to determine the right time to choose a successor, how to prepare them, and how to involve them in the business to ensure continuity and lead it appropriately.

Key Note #4: Course Content

The course content includes a number of important elements such as:

Unique Features of Family Businesses Reasons for Family Business Failures Creating a Family Business Continuity Plan Operations Management in Family Businesses Brand Management at Little or No Cost Flow of Funds and Expenditure Management with Accounting Getting New Investor Funds Management of Family Wealth and Family Office Family Business Organizational Structure with Subordinate Tasks Encouraging Specialist Workers to Join a Family Business Technology Utilization for Family Business Development Business Management Information System (BMIS) Internal Family Business Disputes Barriers to Effective Succession Planning

This serves as an abbreviated list of the critical topics aiming at understanding family business management and growth while sustaining its inherited value and legacy.

Key Note #5: Meet the Professors

All delegate participants will appreciate the guidance from respected practitioners who have dealt with family companies and their intricate problems. Some of the core teachers are as follows:

Gaurav Kalra

Gaurav began his career at KPMG then moved to his family business in 2017 taking responsibility for numerous fronts such as sales, marketing, and customer relations. His experience in consulting to family businesses gives him remarkable insights into their operation.

Sanjay Kathuria

Sanjay directs finance operations at Bada Business, where he specializes in family businesses corporate strategies and financial consulting. His deep-rooted experience enables effective steering of businesses towards coping with growth and profitability challenges.

Samriti Grover

Having practical exposure towards family businesses, Samriti offers insights into the professionalization and structuring of family owned businesses as an academic at Bada Business.

Key Note #6: Diversity in Business Forms

Identifying the right family business structure is one important factor for the success of the family business. Here are some of the common business structures:

Sole Proprietorship

A self-employed individual (solo or familial) and their business is the simplest form of tree structure.

Partnership

A business partnership which may involve two or more but not exceeding a set number of individuals sharing the responsibility and profits of the business as a whole.

Corporations

Corporations are a self-governing separate legal person formed by shareholders or a board of directors, which can include the owner.

Limited Liability Company (LLC)

An LLC is hybrid business entity which combines the characteristics of a corporation’s limited liability with a partnership’s flexibility. This structure is ideal once the business grows.

Section 4: Major Highlights from the Family Business Course

You will strategically learn how to manage your family business after completing this course. You will understand the dos and don’ts, steps for resolving conflicts, succession planning, and how to bring in new investments for growth and the legacy of the family business.

You will be able to overcome the hurdles of owning and managing a family business whether you are starting out or looking to expand.