Babson College - Family Enterprising blog

The Institute for Family Enterprising Blog brings you the latest in events, research and thoughts from within the nexus of family business and entrepreneurship. We will also use authors and findings from our major research arm - the STEP Project.

Archive:

July 2006
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
July 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
June 2008
August 2008

What is traditional business?

One observation that has been interesting to see emerge in the STEP Project is the influence of families in different industries, depending on the region and country. In each region we stipulate that partner institutions must select participating families which have at least one business that can be considered "traditional" for a family firm in that country. For example, in our European region we said that finance and banking are not traditional family business domains in Italy, while they might well be in Switzerland. It is a learning in itself to see which industries families are involved in throughout different regions of the world. As we expand into Asia, we expect to grow our industry coverage, so to speak, to include industries that are considered traditional in particular Asian/Pacific Rim countries. One sector that we expect to add which has yet to be prominent in our research thus far, is the high-tech sector. It is counterintuitive to think of the high-tech sector as being a "traditional" business in any sense, but this is exactly the case for many Asian family owned firms.

It will very exciting to see what kind of businesses will become engaged in STEP Asia/Pacific Rim. We are very much looking forward to it and are hard at work to make sure that we are ready for the Asian launch in May of 2007!

Posted by Robert Nason on January 22, 2007 15:38 | link

STEP going to Asia

Well, following an exciting European Summit, a successful Latin America launch and training event, we are now preparing to do something we did not expect to be doing until a year later - launch the STEP Project in the Asia/Pacific Rim region. But thanks to the hard work and excitement from Bob Eng, Joyce Tarabanovic and the Asia Institute here at Babson, we are planning to have the launching meeting at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in May of 2007.

Asia and the Pacific Rim represent a very strategic region for the STEP Project. It will certainly be our largest region geographically with schools from Australia and New Zealand to China to Japan. We are excited about the richness of data that this kind of geographic and cultural diversity will provide. Family owned businesses are famously, and sometimes notoriously, even more prevalent (and active) in Asia than in much of the Western World. Some of the largest corporations in Asia are family controlled: Samsung, LG, and Hyundai. We will undoubtedly find companies that are very committed to family involvement as well as to growth. We look forward to learning from these participants and helping them to fully exploit the entrepreneurial potential that their families represent.

Posted by Robert Nason on January 22, 2007 15:34 | link

STEP Update

In an effort to join the blog revolution, the STEP Project has launched this new section of our website. We hope to give you updates, anecdotes and reflection on what is happening globally in the nexus of entrepreneurship and family business. We can start with a brief update on what has happened with our project in recent months...

STEP is going through a very exciting time. The pilot year has been completed in Europe - culminating in a Summit with leading families at HEC in Paris. The Latin American region has been launched and is conducting their pilot study research now. And much sooner than we expected, we are planning a launch for Asia and the Pacific Rim in May of 2007!

It has been fun to watch the STEP Project grow tremendously and to get to know our network of terrific partners, now reaching a global level. The collaboration wheels are definitely in motion as well now as a result. Throughout 2007, Babson will be have 2 visiting scholars from the STEP network - Mattias Nordqvist from Jönköping in Sweden and Thomas Zellweger from St. Gallen in Switzerland. We are very excited to have these two fine young scholars and the expertise that they will bring to the new projects that we are working on.

Please subscribe to our blog and stay tuned - we look forward to bringing you more information on the progress of STEP.

Posted by Robert Nason on January 22, 2007 15:11 | link

Fidelity Boardroom Visit

At the end of last semester, a group of 25 Babson students had the opportunity to visit some "hallowed ground" (as Fidelity VP John Rehm called it) by having a 2 hour meeting with Fidelity Investments Chairman, Ned Johnson in his Boston boardroom. The students were all part of a class on innovation in family firms and had been divided into 5 teams, each researching and interviewing top management teams around innovation in different divisions of Fidelity. Friday was the concluding presentation of their class findings, though it was not given to their professor, but rather directly to the Chairman. This unique classroom experience shows Babson's commitment to "pracademics" - using academics in an practical and directly applicable way.

JohnsonBoardroom

Another interesting point of this class was the fact that it was viewing a company with trillions of dollars under management as a "family business." This goes against common conception of family owned businesses. Nevertheless, it demonstrates the true scope of family firms: from the corner bakeries to the largest mutual funds company in the world.

Posted by Robert Nason on January 22, 2007 14:37 | link