Scholars and practitioners generally focus on assisting families in simply passing a business over to the next generation. In doing so they overlook the greater challenges business families face -- passing on the entrepreneurial mindset and capabilities that enable them to sustain and create new streams of wealth across many generations. The STEP Project addresses this challenge by mobilizing entrepreneurship and family business academics along with leading multigenerational family businesses to explore and identify Successful Transgenerational Entrepreneurship Practices.  The unique Summit model is the first of its kind to bring together academics and families to move discoveries from research to practice and to discuss key benchmarking indicators.

The STEP Project is designed to:

• Conduct leading edge research on the entrepreneurial capabilities and contribution of business families worldwide
• Generate an applied stream of entrepreneurship powerful practices that lead to family business continuity and growth
• Provide a shared learning environment where researchers and professors interact with family business leaders to generate solutions that have immediate impact

Babson College first launched the STEP Project in Europe at the 2005 Academic Summit at Bocconi University.  In August of 2006, it launched the Latin American STEP Project with an Academic Summit at Babson.  June 2007 saw the launch of the STEP Project in Asia Pacific with a launch at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.  Running in 3 regions and hosting Summits in Europe and Latin America this year, STEP continues to grow with a US launch slated for 2008.