This week’s Practitioner features the Family Enterprise Case Competition (FECC) held at the University of Vermont in mid-January.

One of the nice things about being The Practitioner is that you get invited places! And sometimes more than once! Such is the case with the University of Vermont’s Family Enterprise Case Competition. This year the competition, now in its fifth year, attracted more than 250 participants from 20 countries this year. These individuals participated as competitors, coaches, judges, sponsors, and organizers.

Why is this competition important to the field of family enterprise? Here are just a few reasons.

• A new generation of college graduates whose education includes family enterprise as a dominant form of business worldwide is being created. Here are the schools from 2017.
  

  Canada Brock University Carleton University Concordia University Dalhousie University HEC Montreal University of Alberta University of Guelph-Humber University of Manitoba Wilfrid Laurier UniversityColombia Universidad de Los AndesFrance   ICN Business School Germany Munich Business School	Netherlands Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences Windesheim University of Applied SciencesSpain ESADE Business SchoolUK Lancaster University USA Grand Valley State University Saginaw Valley State University Stetson University Syracuse University University of North Texas University of Vermont
  Mexico Universidad Panamericana Campus Aguascalientes Universidad Panamericana Campus Guadalajara

Go here for a directory of educational centers and programs.

• Case-based learning is encouraged.
  For the last two years, FFI and FECC have collaborated in reviewing and choosing the cases used in the competition. Thanks to FFI Fellows Jane Hilburt-Davis, Michael O’Neal and Jill Thomas for serving in this capacity.

• Judges represent varying perspectives on the field, giving the students feedback from academic, professional, and enterprise points of view. In 2017 there were more than 80 judges from 16 countries. Nearly half of them are members of FFI.

• The winners are great! Congratulations to:

The Team from Lazaridis School of Business at Wilfrid Laurier University for winning the Undergraduate Division. The coach is John Young.

The Team from ESADE Business School for taking home the prize for the Graduate Division. The coach is Maria Jose Parada.

Please join The Practitioner in congratulating all those who participated this year!

For more on the 2017 results, go here.

Yours in Practice,

The Practitioner