Family businesses account for a significant share of the world’s most successful and enduring enterprises. From small local companies to multinational corporations, family-owned businesses have shaped economies by combining entrepreneurial vision with long-term stewardship, shared values, and generational continuity. Yet, family enterprises face unique challenges, including succession planning, governance, conflict management, leadership transitions, wealth preservation, and balancing family relationships with business performance.
Family Business & Legacy Entrepreneurship is a practical, executive-oriented course designed to prepare Junior MBA students to build, manage, grow, and sustain family enterprises across multiple generations. Rather than focusing solely on entrepreneurship or corporate management, the course integrates leadership, governance, finance, psychology, family dynamics, succession planning, innovation, wealth preservation, and legacy creation into a comprehensive framework for long-term business success.
Students will explore entrepreneurial family culture, governance structures, succession strategies, family constitutions, conflict resolution, strategic growth, innovation, stewardship, family offices, philanthropy, multigenerational wealth management, and legacy leadership. Throughout the course, emphasis is placed on practical executive decision-making and building organizations that thrive across generations while preserving both family unity and enterprise value.
Course Objectives
By the conclusion of this course, students will be able to:
• Understand the unique characteristics and challenges of family-owned businesses.
• Develop governance systems that balance family interests with business performance.
• Design succession strategies that support long-term organizational continuity.
• Apply leadership principles within multigenerational family enterprises.
• Manage conflict constructively while preserving relationships and organizational effectiveness.
• Build scalable family businesses capable of adapting across generations.
• Understand wealth preservation and stewardship within entrepreneurial families.
• Foster innovation while protecting organizational legacy and values.
• Develop executive skills for leading complex family-owned organizations.
• Build enduring enterprises that create economic and social value across generations.
