Carlos March Delgado has stepped down as the chairman of the board of Banca March at the age of 78 after serving as the longest-serving chairman of a Spanish bank (1974-2015). Learn more about his long and brilliant professional career (article in Spanish): Carlos March Delgado announces his resignation as chairman of the board of […]
Pedro Durán, the royal silversmith
Juan Miguel Albarracín Durán is the president and CEO of Grupo Durán, a jewelry company founded by his great-grandfather over 135 years ago. Our company was founded in 1886 by my great-grandfather Pedro Durán Morales, a silversmith by profession. In 1899, he was named an official supplier to Spain’s royal family, a significant milestone at […]
Family CEOs: aging and conservatism
According to popular wisdom, people tend to get more conservative as they age. But is this actually true? And if so, how does it impact CEOs and the organizations they lead? If we look to previous research, business leaders indeed show a tendency toward risk aversion as their corporate careers wind down, favoring quick wins […]
Succession, the monumental question
The topic of succession has a long history and has never been limited to the exclusive domain of family business. Putting it into perspective can give us a deeper understanding of its importance in all organizations, both family- and non-family-owned. After writing this post, I thought it was perhaps more suited to an academic readership, […]
Purpose is strategy
According to Grant F. Reid, CEO and president of Mars, “Performance without purpose is meaningless, and purpose without performance is not possible. It’s the magic combination.” For Mars CFO Claus Aagaard, “Private ownership provides a great platform to live our purpose as we can do the right things and faster without the worry of the […]
3 distinct approaches to collaborative philanthropy
As the literature on collaboration clearly notes, the less structured and defined a collaborative mission, the greater the importance of superordinate social concepts like shared values, shared purpose and shared perspectives to ground these partnerships. Since these superordinate dimensions are based on relatively stable psychological beliefs and individual constructs, it is even more important to […]
ElPozo: from a local shop to a worldwide reference
An entrepreneur by vocation, Tomás Fuertes has been working for the business holding company he presides for over 60 years. Today, Grupo Fuertes is a global reference in the agri-food sector with operations in 118 countries with 100% Spanish capital. When I talk about Grupo Fuertes, I always say we’re a hybrid project: the combined […]
Family business and globalization
My colleague Prof. Marta Elvira asked me if I could write about family business and globalization. I do so with pleasure but with the fear that some readers might find my conclusions disappointing. In this post, I won’t refer to large corporations but to medium-sized companies, defined by the European Union as firms with revenues […]
What’s the link between purpose and the bottom line?
A clear purpose drives results. These are the words of Claudine Gartenberg, a Wharton School professor and co-author of one of the largest studies ever conducted on corporate purpose. According to Prof. Gartenberg, purpose is “a set of beliefs about the meaning of a company’s work beyond quantitative measures of financial performance.” In a recent […]
A chat with Nobel laureate Amartya Sen
As Secretary of the Jury of the Princess of Asturias Foundation Award, I had the tremendous honor of speaking with economist and philosopher Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize in Economics and 2021 Award Winner of the Princess of Asturias in Social Sciences. Human development and human capabilities are at the heart of his work. In our […]
10 reasons why we need family businesses
Family-owned firms play a vital role in the global economy, an undisputed and internationally recognized fact. Going a step further, I would like to highlight 10 ways in which family firms positively impact the world based on my firsthand observations of how they operate and confront challenges. 1 – They drive and sustain employment I’m […]
