2016 Family Enterprise Case Competition
This week’s Practitioner features the Family Enterprise Case Competition held at the University of Vermont, January 15-17.
One of the nice things about being The Practitioner is that you get invited places! Earlier this month, The Practitioner was invited to the University of Vermont to observe the 2016 Family Enterprise Case Competition.
This competition, now in its fourth year, attracted more than 225 individuals from Asia, Australia, Europe, North and South America. These people participated as competitors, coaches, judges, sponsors, and organizers for FECC 2016. Since its founding in 2013, FECC has hosted 38 different institutions from 16 countries.
Now you may ask, as a reader of The Practitioner, why should you care about a competition in a small US city in the dead of winter? What is the relevant message for practitioners from around the world?
Here are a few reasons:
1. They are coming!
A whole new generation of college graduates whose education includes family enterprise as a dominant form of business worldwide! It’s taken a while, it’s long overdue, and there is a long way to go, but in 30 years, this is surely progress. Here are the teams in Vermont this year.
| Canada Brock University Carleton University Concordia University Dalhousie University University of Manitoba Wilfrid Laurier UniversityChina Zhejiang UniversityColombia Universidad de Los Andes France India |
Netherlands Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences Windesheim University of Applied SciencesSpain ESADE Business SchoolSweden Jönköping International Business School USA |
| Mexico Universidad Panamericana Campus Aguascalientes Universidad Panamericana Campus Guadalajara |
|
See all the educational centers and programs listed on the FFI website.
2. We have cases!
30 years ago there were no cases dealing with family enterprise. Now they abound. In fact FFI created a small committee of Fellows (Jane Hilburt-Davis, Michael O’Neal and Jill Thomas) to choose from a wide range of pre-screened options when selecting the cases for the year’s competition. These cases are not only useful for the classroom but they also make great introductions to the consulting process. Many consultants use them as a “normalizing” experience before getting into the actual details of what their clients wish to discuss. The cases used this year were:
- Freedom Communications, Inc: Family Enterprise or Liquidity?
Authors: John Ward, Carol Adler Zsolnay - Juchheim: The Faithful Pursuit of Flavour, Culture and Family Values
Authors: Vanessa M. Strike, Takao Kawamoto - Four Generations Of The Owens Family (A) And B)
Authors: John L., Ward, Joachim Schwass, Colleen Lief
3. We have judges!
In 2016 the FECC had 57 judges from Australia, Canada, Japan, Switzerland and the USA. They are pictured below. More than half of them are members of FFI.
2016 FECC judges
4. We have winners.
Please join The Practitioner in congratulating:
2016 Undergraduate Division Winners
Universidad Panamericana Aguascalientes
2016 Graduate Division Winners
Jönköping International Business School
4. We have visionaries.
Special congratulations to the organizing team from UVM for its vision, and commitment to promoting family enterprise education in this way. Pramodita Sharma, Thomas Chittenden, Rocki-Lee DeWitt, Jie Zhang, Amy Tomas, Linda Kruger, John Turner, Nick Gingrow, Michelle Chapman, Alec Adams.
For more on the 2016 results and the 2017 dates, go here.
Yours in Practice,
The Practitioner
