Co-author: Uzay Sezer This article was co-written by Uzay Sezer. Holder of a PhD in Business Administration and Management from Università Bocconi, his research explores family firms, corporate governance and incentive designs. On March 16, IESE’s Madrid campus welcomed renowned scholars, business leaders and investors for the 2026 IESE CCG-ESGI Conference, “Family Firms: Purpose, Economic Performance […]
4 mechanisms to boost stakeholder engagement
There’s no doubt about it: companies that genuinely aspire to leave a positive and long-lasting mark in the world need to engage their stakeholders. But what are the most effective strategies to achieve this aim? To answer this question, I joined forces with Prof. Anabella Dávila from EGADE Business School (TEC de Monterrey) and IESE […]
The COVID-19 crisis: a unique window to reflect on succession planning
The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked an unparalleled healthcare and financial crisis, inspiring many of us to reframe and recalibrate our priorities, as well as rethink our definition of happiness: what to hold onto and what to leave behind. For the owners of family-controlled firms, the coronavirus crisis also offers a window of opportunity to plant […]
Institutional configuration in family firms: the board of directors
Like all companies, family-owned businesses require initiative, power and financial resources in order to excel. For those that aspire to transition from firm to institution, however, additional structures and processes are needed. While no one is immortal, institutions are born to transcend generations. They don’t depend on the will or whims of one specific person […]
Family investment companies in times of COVID19: a story of resilience
The pandemic has triggered times of unprecedented disruption for firms worldwide, highlighting the critical need for organizational resilience and flexibility. How have European family investment companies (FICs) performed in this context of uncertainty? As part of our ongoing research on European FICs, John Learmonth and I tracked a broad sample of companies, both before and […]
The impact of informal institutions in family firms
Family-controlled firms (FCFs) are the world’s most common organizational structure, with distinct strategies and characteristics that set them apart from non-family-controlled firms. Around the world, the prevalence, strategy and financial success of family-owned firms all vary but what are the core drivers of these differences? To date, research has largely focused on the impact of […]
Family council: preventative medicine or surgical intervention?
If we were to apply medical terminology to the realm of family-owned firms, our first observation would be that all families run the risk of contracting “diseases” and sustaining “injuries.” When the family also owns a business, however, these risks are substantially higher. No business family is “immune” to these risks, which when left unchecked, […]
Digitalize your company by digitalizing your board
How is digitalization impacting our customers’ habits and behaviors? How will they interact with our products and services in 10 years’ time? How “digitally mature” is our sector? How are our competitors applying technology? What percentage of our revenues and margin could we lose over the next five years if we do nothing? What investments […]
New times, same purpose
This is my first-ever blog post and it couldn’t be in a more ideal setting: IESE’s Family-Owned Business Blog, which today enters a new phase as Josep Tàpies advanced last week in his post. From now on, this blog will be a group effort, with contributions from every member of IESE’s Chair of Family-Owned Business’ […]