family business club (1)-1

7/30/2019 Family Business Club (1)-1

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Abdallah BenzidaneVioleta Cuba

Gojko Dakovic

Marthe Oeller

Family Business Club Regents College


Gojko Dakovic

Marthe Oeller



Gojko Dakovic

Marthe Oeller



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Table of Content

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Introduction

The purpose of this Club is to gather family business leaders together, from

around the world, in one social and professional environment where members

will be updated about current trends. Furthermore, this club is to help family

business people to resolve issues. The club will give them a base to address

their thoughts and needs. This long-term community will give the opportunityfor family members to collaborate and network between them in a positive

environment where everyone will share the same objective, contribute with

innovative ideas and gain more knowledge from other firms at home or from

overseas. Moreover, they will also have the chance to learn and discuss

about the other two dimensions of a family business: The Family and The

Ownership.

According to a survey made to 2,000 firms from around the world, family

businesses have grown 65% in the last year principally in Eastern Europe,

Latin America and Middle East. Nowadays, Regents College has more than

3,000 students; postgraduates and alumni included. Among all people there

are more than 130 nationalities (Regents College London, 2013). This great

diversity will provide a unique learning experience. The Family Club will help

these family business members to draw on and get to know other family

business from around the world.

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How to become a member

The Family Business Club will accept people who are involved in family

businesses and all people who are interested in family businesses.

Members will be asked to pay annual fees. As a Family Business Club,

members will be charged as family not as individual. The fees for membership

will be 300 per family (up to 4 members) and 150 for individuals. The fees

will be used for maintaining all club facilities and to organize different events

with guest speakers.

The application form (Figure 5) will be assessing all the necessary details in

order for the club to judge if the applicant is eligible to be part of the

community.

At the point in time when a person is accepted to join the club he will receive a

welcome letter, which provides his personal login details (username and

password). Our fees can be justified because we are placing ourselves to the

top of the Family Business Club. We committed ourselves to provide a value

added knowledge environment and a unique learning experience for our

members. Our club will be exclusive; our members will be from well-known

family businesses or working in well-known organizations. We are raising the

joining fees in order to attract only people that are interested on the Family

Business Club and who are willing to commit to it. Given the fact other Family

Business Club charge certain fees to cover their expenses. It has been

decided to also charge a fee. As an example, the PrinceCroft Willis Family

Business Club charge 100 per member annually.

How does it work?

FAMILY BUSINESS CLUB NEWSLETTER

This Newsletter contains up to date information about trends, new practices to

improve family business performances by also taking sustainability into

account.

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COURSES, SEMINARS AND PANEL DISCUSSIONS

Constant events will be a major part of the Club activities. In order to get a

great exposure of diverse knowledge across different businesses and

industries; business speakers will be invited. The Club will create events on a

regular basis. At those events guest speakers from the industry will be invited

and they will talk about different topics such as firms from abroad, succession,

values in a family business, among others. Due to those events all members

get the opportunity to make valuable connections to the right people.

Furthermore business insiders will share current leadership perspectives that

can be absorbed by all attending members and applied to their current

business situation. Figure 4 provides an overview of possible topics for

panels, discussions or presentations at such events.

A potential guest speaker for a club event can be from a bank, since one of

the biggest concerns for privately owned firms might be the way to fund their

exports (PWC, 2012). Therefore, bank debt is usually the best way for them

to achieve their objectives. The guest speaker can offer and give information

about possible opportunities for loans and interests they offer.

In these reunions, members will be able to discuss their uncertainties, the

board of directors or any member can give advice to any member who is

interested in starting its own family business.

WEB PAGE AND ONLINE RESOURCES

Additionally, the Club will also provide a web page where members will be

able to get an insight on success stories, upcoming events, registration tool

for events, a platform for communication with other members and access to

the latest publication of the Family Business Newsletter. The success stories

will provide great value for all members. It can change and improve their

perspective of how they deal with similar situation in their business.

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Successful stories can give cause for thoughts in their daily work

environment.

Besides, members will get in contact through social networks, as Facebook,

LinkedIn, Wikispaces, Twitter. There will be also an opportunity for members

to share their ideas and solve their doubts at a specific member forum.

Firms that can participate in the Family Club

In order to obtain funds and make this Club possible, members and

connected organizations will pay a membership fee in order to get access and

to benefit from the Family Business Club.

COOPERATION WITH CONSULTANCY FIRMS

On the other hand, given that succession is one of the main concerns in a

family business, consultancy firms will be more than interested in participateand be a part of this Club. This will beneficiate not only the consultancy firms

as a way of opportunity to gain potential clients, family businesses will also

have the chance to make this transition successful.

In this manner, the Regents College Family Business Club will build a

relationship with a family business consultancy firm, such as Peter Leach and

Partners.

Family Businesses do not solely rely on how much money they make.

Moreover a big stake in their success is a shared vision and a strong bonding

of all participants. Over time there can be conflicts, which will be raised. In

order to solve those conflicts and to make the business more efficient, the

consultancy company will take over. Most of the time conflicts and different

views occur among three different groups in family businesses. The groups

are the ownership, the family and the management (Figure 1). The

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consultancy will come up with customized solutions, which will suit the

business culture, all specific needs of the family business.

LEGAL ADVISORS

Our Family Business Club will provide for our members a legal advisor to

clear issues, which arise in their family businesses. Most of the time during

the succession period of a family business, a legal advisor will be needed.

WHATDOESALEGALADVISORDO?

First of all the legal advisors should identify the client in a family business

whether it is the business, the managing director, the married couple who

owns together the shares or the wider business. In the case it is the wider

family represented, the advisor should be able to draw a line of where the

word family end (Stepek M). Most of the time the legal advisor will be

dealing only with one client that is normally the business owner, the Managing

Director or the Chairman of the business. This is the best situation as the

advisor learns to know in depth his client and the issues faced. Many family

businesses dont deal with succession planning, governance structure and

family communication for such a long time that even when the advisor is

called it is almost impossible to deal with it (Stepek M).

Another important role of the advisor is to get to know his client. The advisor

always has to approach the client with a mind that is open and clear. Year

after year the advisors become more experienced of working with a particular

client and start to see patterns for typical situation that work with clients, or

patterns of what clients expect. Therefore, it is more difficult for the advisor to

approach the client with a clear and open mind that is crucial as family

businesses are able to change perspectives, priority and vision (Stepek M).

The advisor is also helping the family to regain or sustain trust. It is important

for a family business to trust its members. The advisors will organize family

meetings and encourage and help shape the structure of a family council

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within the business family system. This will allow the family to strengthen their

links (Stepek M).

A win-win situation can occur between advisors and client. If the advisor

invests his time in truly knowing his client and his family and their deeper

motivations and visions, more issues will appear which the advisor will be able

to advise. As this advice comes from a depth of understanding of the client

group, the client will understand the need to tackle these issues for the longer-

term safety of the family and the business (Stepek M). Therefore, a true win-

win can frequently happen. The advisors benefit from more business from the

client and the client is satisfied by the quality of work the advisor provide.

Advantages for being a member

Given that the school has students from all over the world, the Club will offer

the opportunity to discuss and get to know about other business around the

world. Moreover, being part of this Club will help these firms to grow and

expand their business to other countries. According to a survey made in 2012

with 2,000 firms, from both developed and developing markets, from sectors

different as manufacturing, retail, automotive, and construction, their current

exports have increased between 2 and 12% in the last 5 years. The following

graph shows how countries such as Singapore, Italy, Greece and Romania

have had a significantly increase between 9 and 12% (Figure2). In this

manner, it can be seen that other countries such as Brazil, Russia, India and

South Africa are increasing their exports; therefore this Club can be an

opportunity to these members to get to know people from other countries,

understand business culture overseas, local regulations and even local

economic conditions and continue increasing their sales abroad (PWC, 2012).

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Figure 2 Exports of Family Business per Country

Furthermore, besides giving innovative ideas for doing business abroad,

members will have the chance to exchange information of suppliers or even

find new job opportunities. For example, if someone is in the hotel industry

and is going to open hotels in the coming years and needs new suppliers of

tableware, it is possible that someone else in the club is also in the same

industry and can share information from its suppliers. Or even better, another

member may be a supplier of tableware which meet its requirements.

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On the other hand, attracting appropriate skilled staff and retaining them might

be a difficult challenge for this type of firms. The net graph shows how in

certain countries these firms think they dont have the right skilled people.

Many people might prefer to work in recognized multinationals where they

have a clear career path than in a family business. In this manner, this Club

will be the best place to recruit skilled and talented people (Figure 3). place

Figure 3 Amount of skilled people per country

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Competitive Analysis

Competitors Map

London Business School Family Business Club:

The London Business School Family Business Club has 3 key goals: building

knowledge, expanding networks and growing the LBS brand in the global

family business community. Nowadays, it has 400 members from all over the

world. Moreover, there are no joining fees specified.

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The activities the club proposes are:

Guest Speaking from the world of family business and collaboration

with other leading organizations and business schools Networking Events

Conference

Learning Seminars

Two presidents, thirteen vice-presidents, and one treasurer compose the club.

Family Business Place

Family Business Place offers opportunities to members to share their

experiences, get to know professional advisors and create a network of

contacts with the same interest and needs. Furthermore, they are interested

in any one who has a small, medium or large business and even start-ups.

Some of the services they offer are:

- Consultancy in different areas as succession, governance, familyconflict, among others.

- Events with guest speakers

- Subscription to a family business magazine

- Access to their marketing channel: Newsletters and Magazines

- Discounts at family businesses locals

The annual membership fee to become part of this club is 50

(familybusinessplace, 2013).

Family Business United

In this online platform people will be able to read news, newsletters, family

business issues, among others. All of these topics are related to family

business. Furthermore, people will have the chance to participate in a table

talk where they will have the opportunity to discuss about certain topics and

give their own opinions (familybusinessunited, 2013)

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Analysis

In order to compare and analyse what each club offers and the benefits and

limitations they might have, it has been decided to evaluate what each of

them offer.

Regents Family Business Club

The purpose of this Club is to gather family business leaders together, from

around the world, in one social and professional environment where members

will be updated about current trends. The annual fee for our club is 300 per

family (up to 4 members) and 150 for individuals.

The Regents Family Business Club propose more activities than its

competition and a more complete website. This Club is a high cost and high

quality club. The club is differentiating from its competition by the activities it

provides and by it costs that are high to attract only highly involved people.

LBS

London Business School Family Business Club offers similar features as the

ones Regents College Family Business Club will offer. The aim of both clubs

is to gather people who are involved in family businesses and can have the

opportunity to do networking, look for business opportunities, among others.

Furthermore, this club is designed to help people to resolve issues they might

have and give them a base to address their thoughts and needs. This long-

term community will give the opportunity for family members to collaborate

and network between them in a positive environment where everyone will

share the same objective, contribute with innovative ideas and gain more

knowledge from other firms overseas. Moreover, they will also have the

chance to learn about and discuss on the other two dimensions of a family

business: family and ownership.

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Family Business Place

Despite this club offers good value for money, the main difference that has

been found is the fact that it doesnt belong to a university. In this manner, it

can be assumed that a new member might prefer to join a Club from a well-

known university with prestige than a club without any backup or trajectory.

Especially if the target market of this new club is to gather members that are

related to Regents college students.

Family Business United

This platform doesnt offers Club membership, however, it offers similar

services as the other clubs. Furthermore, there is no fee to be able to read

the information or even to participate in the table talk.

Surveys

In order to get to know what people who might join the club want, it was been

considered to carry out a survey to 20 people. This survey had 10 questions,

which mainly gave an idea of what people prefer.

Questions and Answers

1. Do you have a family business?

55% of the people said they did have a family business.

2. Which country are you from?

Mostly the people came from Europe, mainly from Germany.

3. Would you be willing to pay a fixed annual membership fee (includes

all events, facilities and resources)?

63% of the people said they preferred to pay a fixed annual

membership fee.

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4. Would you prefer an annual membership fee of 150 or separate

payments for each resource, facility and event (range from 25 to 50)

70% of people said they would prefer an annual membership fee rather

than separate fees.

5. Are you interested in attending family business gatherings (tennis

competition, dine/win, golf tournament)?

85% of the people said they will be interested in attending family

business gatherings.

6. Please rate your priorities in attending the family business club (1 most

important, 5 least important)

In these questions, people had the chance to select through different

options such as networking, courses and seminars, recruitment,

business opportunities and business partnerships. The most voted

answer was networking.

7. Are you interested in taking the help of a legal adviser or consultancy

firms for your family business?

65% of people said they are interested in taking the help of external

firms as legal advisers and consultancy firms.

8. Would you use online resources to discuss potential topics?

95% of people said they would use online resources as a way to

discuss about topics.

9. Would you rather pay for an individual subscription or family

subscription (give that 4 family members benefit from 50% discount)?

60% people prefer a family subscription.

10. List some reasons for not joining the club.

Some of the reasons people listed where:

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- Lack of time

- Distance

- Topics discussed

In general, it can be considered this survey has helped the team to have a

clear idea what potential members are looking for in a Family Business Club.

It has been considered to take some considerations to ameliorate the initial

proposal. From the answers given, it has been considered that it can be

assumed that every 2 people, one has a family business. Among regents

students, there is a high target audience it can be reached.

Furthermore, the majority of students belong to European countries. In this

manner, the events and services offered can be oriented, at the beginning, to

European aspects for example. However, the club will need to evaluate in

which other countries does their businesses operate to see if its worth

mentioning aspects from America or Asia for example.

Moreover, people prefer to pay a fixed price in order to have access to every

single service the club offers. In this manner, the way in which was proposed

at the beginning was appropriate.

On the other hand, it can be clearly seen that why people attend to these

events is because they have the opportunity to do networking. Additionally,

the fact that 95% of people think in having external advice would be a good

idea, can be the key to look for other types of advise that can be related to

family businesses as mentoring for example, which was not consider at the

beginning.

Moreover, people are more interested in having the opportunity to share their

ideas and discuss certain topics on the Internet. It can be assumed that many

of the people who answered are thinking in going back to their countries or

they might not have so much time to attend to every single event. In this

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manner, the club will need to develop an appropriate platform offering a wide

range of ways so members can communicate appropriately.

Finally, the discount on the fee can be promoted with more emphasis. It

seems people are more interested in joining with more than one person. In

this manner, the club will have more members than it was speculated at the

beginning.

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References

Club London (2013) Available at: http://clubs.london.edu/family/about/(Accessed 17th of April 2013)

Family business place Available at:

http://www.familybusinessplace.com/become-a-friend-_520/ (Accessed 18th

of April 2013)

Family Business United (2013) Available at:

http://www.familybusinessunited.co.uk (Accessed 17th of April 2013)

PWC (2012) Family firm: A resilient model for the 21st century Available at:

http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/pwc-family-business-survey/index.jhtml (Accessed

on 13th of march 2013)

Regents College London (2013) Available at:

http://www.regents.ac.uk/business_relations/vacancies_board.aspx

(Accessed on 13th of march 2013)

Stepek, M. Advising the Business Family, Accessed 14 March 2013

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Appendix

Figure 1

http://www.smeadvisor.com/2013/01/family-firms-and-governance/family-

business-system/

Figure 4 Possible topics for Events

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http://www.isb.edu/faculty/Ramachandran/Expertise.html

The Family Business

Membership Application Form

Personal Particulars

Title Dr. Prof. Mr. Mrs. Ms. (please tick the appropriate box))

First Name Last NameMaiden Name (if applicable):Position/Title

Company/OrganizationSectorTelephone (office) MobileFax E-mailAddressCity Country Postal CodeMembership(please tick the appropriate box)

Family Membership (Annual Fees 300)Eligibility: Members of Family Business

Individual Membership (Annual Fees 150)Eligibility: Interested in Family Business or Working in Family Business

Payment Method (please tick the appropriate box)By cheque (Payable to Regents College)

Other Informations

1. Where did you hear about us? please tick the appropriate box(es)

Regents College Website Social Media Internet Other:________________

2. What kind of activities are you interested about? please tick the appropriate box(es)

Conference Seminar Workshop Other:_____________________________

3. What is/are the motivation(s) of the applicant(s)?

:___________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

4. How will you add value to the club? :

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

Signature Date

Figure 5 Application Form

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