Family Business researchers, practitioners and speakers bring their knowledge and experience to the Center’s members in a variety of formats and venues. Topics include those relevant to families in business, as well as topics that are critical to the success of all businesses. Speakers share tools and strategies with members during interactive programs on family business topics ranging from leadership and ownership succession and estate planning to working in sibling/cousin teams and dealing with conflict. Programs also touch on the challenges and opportunities of doing business in a time of change and uncertainty and incorporate topics such as employees and the workplace, technology and data, and staying relevant.
Weatherhead’s Center for Family Business programs are exclusively for family business members – owners, senior leaders, rising leaders, family working and not working in the business and non-family executives. Please contact Laura Bonnet at 216-368-1701 or familybusiness@case.edu if you are interested in learning more about the programs or the benefits of joining the Center.
Programs for the 2024-2025 Program Year
Family Business Series
The Family Business Series are half-day programs taught by family business experts. The programs are held at the Tinkham Veale University Center and complimentary parking is available in the Campus Center Garage. The general schedule for the programs is as follows:
• 7:30-8:30 AM – breakfast and registration
• 8:30-11:30 AM – program
Unleashing Leadership Potential in the Family through Emotional Intelligence
Scott Taylor – Wednesday, September 25, 2024
We live in an unprecedented time given the pace of change all around us. Fortunately, new insights from organizational science, neuroscience, psychology, and social psychology have reshaped our understanding of how to lead during these turbulent times. While emotional and social competence has always been interconnected with outstanding leadership, we now understand why it is so vital and how to effectively develop this capability in others in sustainable ways. In this highly interactive and experiential program, you will learn what it means to be a resonant leader, how to apply emotional and social frameworks, understand the importance of the Ideal Self and how it impacts leader development, and how to do this in the relationally dynamic setting of the family business. You will be a more effective leader in unleashing the potential in your family and enterprise. Scott is a professor of Organizational Behavior at Babson College with extensive research in leader assessment and development and experience in applying these insights with family businesses.
Wearing Multiple Hats in the Family Business: How to Keep it Under Control
Natalie McVeigh – Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Being in a family business often means wearing multiple hats – leader, owner, parent, cousin, child, board member – and at times it can be difficult to manage the overlap and boundaries. Coupled with work, screen time, distraction, and disruption, this can make us want to shut down and spin into overwhelm or, ideally, to restart and reinvigorate. Research has shown you can control your response to various stimuli. Natalie will share tools and strategies to manage your responses. You will also learn how to identify and manage stress triggers that result from multiple and often competing roles. Natalie is the Managing Director at EisnerAmper’s Center for Family Business Excellence, which provides tools, training and coaching to family businesses going through generational transition. She also serves as Faculty at the Family Firm Institute.
Keeping Innovation and Entrepreneurship Alive in the Family Business
Kim Eddleston – Thursday, January 30, 2025
To stay successful through multiple generations, family businesses need to look to the future and harness innovation. While traditions can provide building blocks for innovation, they can also make a family business resistant to change and stagnant. In this interactive workshop, you’ll discover your personal approach toward innovation and then learn how you can better harness your style to benefit your family business. You’ll also learn to appreciate other approaches towards innovation and why it is important for your family business to embrace both exploitative and explorative innovation strategies. Kim is the Schulze Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship at Northeastern University and editor of Familybusiness.org.
Deconstructing Conflict
Doug Baumoel – Thursday, May 1, 2025
Understanding and managing conflict well is probably the most important critical success factor for families who work and own together. This is because of the high potential for conflict that is built into a family enterprise. In this program, Doug, author of Deconstructing Conflict: Understanding Family Business, Shared Wealth and Power will teach a new way to approach conflict in enterprising families – conflict which can be extreme and intractable. Doug will break down conflict into its component parts, defining typical areas of differences that develop in families and distinguishing between what is a simple dispute and systemic conflict. You will gain skills and frameworks to help your family manage differences for the long term. Doug is the Founder of Continuity, LLC and brings an extensive background in family business, family office operations and governance to his clients. He also started and ran businesses in the U.S. and Europe, including managing the European operations of his own family’s business.
Company Chats
Tabasco – 150 Years as a Family Business
Tony Simmons – Wednesday, October 30, 2024
John S. Knight Center, 77 E. Mill Street, Akron
• 7:30 AM – breakfast and registration
• 8:00 AM - program
Tony Simmons is a fifth-generation family member and the seventh CEO to run McIlhenny Company, the privately held company that makes Tabasco Brand Pepper Sauce which is exported to over 195 countries and bottled in 22 languages. Success has been sweet for Simmons and the generations before him as one of the country’s oldest and largest family-owned and operated businesses. Simmons will share their family’s history and the ‘secret sauce’ behind their success.
Other Educational Opportunities
Navigating Leadership Blindspots: Online Workshop to Master Polarity Thinking
Cathy Carroll - Wednesday, July 10, 2024
Webinar 2:00-3:00 PM
Carol is the author of Hug of War: How to Lead a Family Business with both Love and Logic. This dynamic 60-minute webinar will shed light on those elusive blind spots in leadership and equip you with the tools to tackle them head-on. You will learn the power of polarity thinking, and how to apply it both within your family business and on a personal level. By the end of our session, you'll not only grasp the concept of polarities but also gain insights into your own blind spots and how to address them effectively. Co-sponsored with Loyola’s Family Business Center and the Center for Family Business at Cal State Fullerton.