Interview with Josep Tàpies, holder of IESE’s Chair of Family-Owned Businesses
Managing Relationships in Family Firms

The first Family-Owned Business chair in Europe was started at IESE in 1987. Almost 20 years later, the second holder of the chair, professor Josep Tàpies, at the helm of a fantastic group of professionals, has brought it up to “cruise speed” so it can continue to uncover all the secrets of family-owned businesses and business families.

Since he was appointed holder of IESE’s Chair of Family-Owned Businesses upon the retirement of Emeritus Professor Miguel Ángel Gallo, Josep Tàpies has continued strengthening activities on many fronts in order to consolidate its prestige in both Europe and internationally, and to open up new avenues of research in this field.

Where is the research currently being conducted from this department headed?
In general, we address all those issues that contribute toward the survival and development of family businesses. After many years of researching mainly family business governance and their day-to-day operations, we have recently turned toward researching the business family and all the issues that arise around it. This includes from the first to the subsequent generations, all of whom face very different challenges.

Our goal of observing and studying real problems led us to create a multidisciplinary team. The members are able to contribute, from different perspectives, new ideas for increasing the effectiveness of business families and their companies.

Why do you place such a heavy emphasis on personal relationships?
The department has always stressed this issue, just as through its mission IESE has placed people at the center of organizations. However, although it may seem obvious, in family-owned businesses, and the flip side of the coin, business families, the positive or negative impact of personal relationships among members of the family multiplies.
Each stage of development has its own features and characteristics. The first generation, for example, faces the question of who will succeed the founder, who tends to act as both top executive and owner. In the second generation, the property is divided, the company is governed by someone else, and the management is in the hands of the successor. In the third generation, usually the board of directors can no longer accommodate all the family members, the property is highly divided, choosing the company management becomes a thorny issue, the management of assets — not only economic, but the values of the family, which shape those of the company – requires agreements and unity, and so forth. At this point, an extended family and its relationships are at the core of the company. For this reason, our current focus starts with the individual(me), and the concentric circles of family relationships surrounding him or her: my family, my extended family, my family-owned business.

With this in mind, how can one ensure that a family-owned business is well-run?
Each company and each family needs its own solutions, its own formulas. Obviously, there are common factors, but neither generic solutions nor organizational systems that have worked properly in other situations may be applied. Each company is a world unto itself, and this uniqueness is even more pronounced in family-owned businesses.

But what family-owned businesses have in common, which sets them apart from other types of businesses, is their need to define the different roles of ownership, governance and management. Listed companies, the relationship between these three parts is linear. Ownership, board of administration, managers. In a family business, this is not the case. We forget the line, given that some owners are on the board, they are parents of the managers – who are also owners in many cases – and other shareholders who are not directly linked with the business. We have a criss-crossing triangle of personal and professional relationships and must be managed intelligently.

The realm of family-owned businesses is thus utterly steeped in people and personal relationships.
That’s right, and we have to build on this reality in order to provide answers to the needs of each family-owned business and each business family. There are some general guidelines: we recommend that a protocol be drafted to determine what type of relationship there should be between the family and the company. Also, the family should have a clear idea of the values it wants to preserve and transmit, of how it wants the assets to be managed, of what governing bodies should be set up in the family-owned business – family board, family office, etc.; of how future owners should be educated; of how to strengthen the family’s commitment to the company.

In short, there is a plethora of issues with a common foundation: people and family ties. And this is what we are doing, staying very close to family-owned businesses, finding out about their problems and challenges and trying to provide solutions.

Executives Hold Key to Ethics
135 Experts Take Part in Annual Symposium at IESE

This year’s 14th International Symposium on Ethics, Business and Society took place at the Barcelona campus in May and brought together 135 experts from 23 countries to speak about the integration of ethics in management. It was hosted by Prof. Jordi Canals, Dean of IESE, and organized by Prof. Domènec Melè, holder of the Chair of Economics and Ethics at IESE.

During the event, Prof. Lex Donaldson of the Australian Graduate School of Management, University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales, stated that the well-being of business executives, and setting good examples should take priority over giving into business pressures and incentives.

Prof. Donaldson also suggested that business schools add courses that focus on managers as a positive force in society, and that schools should seek to “develop management as a profession.”

Prof. Melè, during the symposium introduction, explained some of the many problems and solutions that exist in the attempt to integrate ethics in current business theories and practices. The six keynote speakers and 54 presenters also spoke on this topic, each sharing their own perspectives.

A Focus on Performance
Financial Experts from Around the World Present Latest Research

IESE's campus in Madrid was the setting for the recent workshop on portfolio performance evaluation and asset management, sponsored by the International Center for Financial Research, held on May 12.

During the event, four papers were presented by international experts:

Earlier this spring, the CIIF held its 13th Annual Symposium, drawing experts from the field of finance.

Online Marketing Myths Exposed
EXPERTS GATHER TO DISCUSS BUSINESS EXPERIENCES AND REFUTE MISCONCEPTIONS

With a continuous increase in capacities and functions available over the internet, online marketing has become a new hot spot for marketing and publicity. This topic was the focus of a recent seminar organized by the e-business Center PwC of IESE Business School and the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Spain (IAB), which took place at IESE’s campus in Madrid. IESE Professor Josep Valor led the opening session.

During the event, five popular Internet myths were identified:

Guest speaker John Marcom, senior vice-president of Yahoo International Inc. refuted the myth that “we do not know the consumer,” claiming that “never before in history has it been possible to know the consumer so well.” While many other media outlets, such as newspapers or magazines, sometimes force advertisers to make blind guesses about their public, the internet allows us to measure and track consumer behavior.

Women Worldwide Effecting Change
IESE Hosts International Business Women’s Conference

Businesswomen from all corners of the globe recently gathered at IESE’s campus in Madrid to participate in the “Women, Business and Society in the 21st Century” Symposium organized by IESE Prof. Nuria Chinchilla. The symposium provided an open forum for participants to engage in discussion about women’s unique contributions to the economy and society, and express the importance of taking full advantage of opportunities.

Chong Siak Ching, president and CEO of Ascendas, a Singapore-based business space provider, spoke on the importance of attracting and retaining good employees and the family-friendly policies that are in place to do so. Ascendas family-friendly policies include flexible work arrangements such as unpaid leave for family needs, a nearby child-care center, and company-subsidized social and recreational activities. Chong also cited results of a recent study which found that “Women leaders are more persuasive than their male counterparts and possess stronger inter-personal skills and are more assertive.”

Chong explained how her husband works part-time from home to ensure that their daughter enjoys a full family life, a situation she has in common with other female executives in Singapore.

Also touching on work-family balance, Marueen Mahoney, dean of Smith College, said that while over 70% of American women with children work outside of the home (many due to economic necessity), recent studies show that these women are still spending more time with their children compared to stay-at-home moms in 1975. “This is only possible because they are sleeping less,” she noted, and don’t have time to themselves.

Mohoney is now involved in the “Women’s Narratives of Success Project.”

IESE Publishing to Distribute Harvard Cases
agreement triples number of cases in Spanish

IESE Publishing (IESEP), the case distribution arm of IESE Business School, has signed an agreement with Harvard Business School Publishing (HBSP) to distribute more than 13,000 Harvard products. With this agreement, IESEP becomes the first case distributor to offer Harvard Business School (HBS) cases in Spanish.

With more than 14,000 registered customers, IESE Publishing was already the market leader in management education materials in the Spanish-speaking world. Its collection comprised more than 4,000 items, produced by IESE Business School and IESEP’s academic partners (11 prestigious business schools, including IAE-Argentina, IPADE-Mexico, ISE-Brazil, IMD-Switzerland and Ivey-Canada).

The alliance with HBSP consolidates IESEP’s offering in the teaching materials market, while strengthening the ties between the two institutions. According to Prof. Joan Enric Ricart, Dean for Research at IESE Business School, “This alliance is another example of the faith HBS has shown in IESE for over four decades.”

Two Pioneers of the Case Method

Case studies (and related teaching materials) are the basis of the case method, an educational system used to stimulate the acquisition of knowledge, capabilities and attitudes in students with business experience. The students read an account of a real-world business situation and are called upon to analyze and discuss it with their peers before, finally, making a decision.

Harvard Business School launched the case method in the 1920s and since then has used it as the primary teaching method in 80% of the sessions in its academic programs. HBS produces more than 800 cases per year, which today are used in leading business schools around the world. IESE Business School, too, has used the case method since its inception and has been active in spreading the method through its network of associated schools, its doctoral program, and other teacher training initiatives.