Publications

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

September 2000
Article

Challenges Facing Family Companies in the Gulf Region

By: John A. Davis

Keywords: Problems and Challenges; Family Business; Global Range

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19 Oct 1997 - 20 Oct 1997
Conference Presentation

Challenges Facing Family Companies in the Gulf Region

By: J. A. Davis, E. Pitts and K. Cormier

Keywords: Family Business; Local Range; Problems and Challenges; Mexico, Gulf of

16 Jan 2019
News

Employers Are Clueless When It Comes To Family Caregiving

03 Jul 2020
News

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

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

25 Oct 2013
News

Cardinals' DeWitt Family Has Decades-Old Roots in Baseball

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

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

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

May 2006
Article

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

Keywords: Family Ownership; Business Ventures; Value

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Read Now

01 Dec 2022
News

Built to Last

business model. “We sell and service products that still rely on an internal combustion diesel engine,” Weisiger explains. “Our manufacturers recognize that sustainability is an issue, and so does CTE. Perhaps our View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; family business; leadershp; employee management; Machinery Manufacturing; Manufacturing

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

March 2023 (Revised April 2023)
Case

Shelly Sun at BrightStar Care: The Evolution of a Leader

By: Boris Groysberg, Colleen Ammerman and Sarah L. Abbott

Shelly Sun had founded BrightStar Care, a home health care and medical staffing agency, 20 years earlier and had grown the business to over 300 franchised locations and $654 million in annual system-wide sales. Sun had spent years working to get “the right people in... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneur; Family Business; Franchising; Health Care; Women-owned Businesses; Growth And Scaling; Organization; Franchise Ownership; Entrepreneurship; Work-Life Balance; Growth and Development; Health Industry; United States

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

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