Publications

July 2012 (Revised August 2012)
Case

Friend Bank: The Time for Hope (Abridged)

By: Clayton Rose and Aldo Sesia

In 2010, Friend Bank was entering the fifth year of Hope Harris Johnson's ambitious 20-year growth plan to transform her family's one-branch community bank into an institution with a substantial presence in southeastern Alabama. Harris Johnson was pleased, so far, with... View Details

Keywords: Banking; Family Business; Strategy And Execution; Banks and Banking; Family Ownership; Financial Institutions; Strategy; Banking Industry; United States; Alabama

02 Feb 2012
News

Study: Little Hope For Families Aiming For Long-Term Financial Prosperity

February 2023 (Revised April 2023)
Case

Kvadrat: Focus, Execute, and Grow

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott

Kvadrat was a family-owned global textiles company. The company had enjoyed impressive top-line growth and was shifting gears to emphasize profitability via a shorter strategic agenda. Agenda items included: U.S. expansion, generating improved margins in its consumer... View Details

Keywords: Growth; Culture; International Expansion; Organization; Family Business; Leadership; Growth and Development; Strategy; Organizations; Supply Chain; Family Ownership; Profit; Organizational Culture; Denmark

September 2021
Supplement

Ensuring Your Family’s Future: The Alagil Family Office (B)

By: Lauren Cohen, Esel Çekin and Fares Khrais

Keywords: Family Business; Financial Services Industry; Saudi Arabia

May 2016 (Revised June 2016)
Case

A Succession as the Engine for Success

By: Jay Lorsch, Emily McTague and Rosa Maria Fite

Francisco J. Riberas sat in his office reflecting on his first summer working at the family business, in 1989. Growing up, Francisco Riberas had learned about the company through conversations with his father, Francisco Riberas Pampliega, over the dinner table and in... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Alignment; Organizational Behavior; Corporate Governance; Family Business; Family-owned Business; Succession; CEO Mentoring; Spain; Family and Family Relationships; Management; Leadership; Auto Industry; Europe; Spain

February 2009 (Revised April 2011)
Course Overview Note

Growing, Financing, and Managing Family and Closely Held Firms

By: Belen Villalonga

This note provides instructors with an overview of the course, its module structure and its unifying framework. The note contains information that should only be available to instructors, and should not be distributed to students. A shorter version of the note for... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Corporate Finance

October 2001
Case

Blethen Family and the Seattle Times Company (B), The

By: John A. Davis and Cathy Quinn

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Entrepreneurship; Family Business; Journalism and News Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry

28 May 2015
News

The 24/7 Work Culture’s Toll on Families and Gender Equality

14 Mar 2016
News

Spinning a New Yarn at a Family Textile Company

Keywords: Textile Mills; Manufacturing

17 Nov 2014
Lessons from the Classroom

Managing the Family Business: Are Optimists or Pessimists Better Leaders?

Editor's note: This is part of a series of occasional columns on managing the family business written by Senior Lecturer John A. Davis. Optimism and pessimism are strong, stable traits that reflect our... View Details

17 Nov 2020
Blog Post

Partners and Families Are an Integral Part of the MBA Experience

what they will gain from their time in business school and the experience they will walk away with. One group of people who attend school in a distinctively unique position are those who come to HBS with partners and families. The Harbus... View Details

October 2022
Case

Star Magnolia Capital: Becoming Experts at Finding Experts

By: Lauren Cohen, Hao Gao, River Ewing and Grace Headinger

Shinya Deguchi, Founder and Managing Partner of Star Magnolia Capital, a Shanghai-based multi-family office (MFO), considered how to convince a new prospective family that the MFO’s endowment model approach would best suit their needs. In recent decades, there has been... View Details

Keywords: China; Asia; Family Office; Shanghai; Financial Industry; Asset Management; Financial Instruments; Financial Management; Financial Strategy; Investment; Investment Return; Investment Portfolio; Human Capital; Family Business; Financial Services Industry; China; Shanghai

October 2022
Case

Weapons of Self Destruction: Zak Pym Williams and the Cultivation of Mental Wellness

By: Lauren Cohen, Ronnie Stangler and Grace Headinger

Zak Pym Williams, mental health advocate, grappled with the question of how to create a proactive mental health family environment for his children. Having witnessed how mental health challenges such as addiction and depression had impacted the past four generations of... View Details

Keywords: Family; U.S.; Mental Health; Family Business; Entertainment; Values and Beliefs; Ethics; Leading Change; Family and Family Relationships; Well-being; Social Issues; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States; California

03 Jul 2020
News

Raj Choudhury Sees a Future Where You Don’t Have to Move Your Family for a Job

Rong Family: A Chinese Business History

Provides the complex historical background to understanding the development of family businesses in China from the late 19th century to the present. Using the example of the Rong family, China's most prominent industrialist family in pre-1949 China, analyzes the... View Details

May 2006
Article

How Do Family Ownership, Control, and Management Affect Firm Value?

Keywords: Family Ownership; Business Ventures; Value

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October 2024
Case

Reed Group and Succession in a Family Business: An Impossible Job to Fill?

By: Lauren H. Cohen and Tonia Labruyere

James Reed had taken over Reed Group, the recruitment and career services company his father had founded and built, in 1994. He was now reflecting on succession planning and other challenges that lay ahead: with no obvious choice among his family members, he needed to... View Details

Keywords: Charity; Succession Planning; Family Business; Values and Beliefs; Management Succession; Mission and Purpose; Family Ownership; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Family and Family Relationships; Recruitment; AI and Machine Learning; Employment Industry; United Kingdom; London