Curriculum (maybe a better line here?)
Students praise their family business courses as the most valuable of their academic careers. Coursework synthesizes learning from core subjects with practices that are common to successful family businesses.
MBA students can pursue an MBA Family Enterprise Focus.
UBP students can select Family Business as an Area of Interest.
Each year, we teach and advises approximately 100 students from all over the world. Our students have come from Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, Chile, China, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Venezuela and the U.S.
We offer two foundational Family Business courses to UBP, MAC and MBA students, as well as select UNC undergraduate and graduate students with family business interests. Both courses are built upon Steve Miller’s research “Developing Next Generation Talent in Family Businesses,” which focused on factors that influence next-generation leader development. It is incorporated into class discussions and assignments, so students learn practical applications that support successful transition from one generation to the next.
The courses explore and analyze family business continuity challenges and common practices for successfully leading family-owned businesses. The focus is on developing pragmatic, action-oriented management, governance and family business leadership skills. We teach the classes using live cases, assigned readings, class discussions, lectures and student research.
Family Business I
Introduction to Family Enterprise prepares students to be more effective in their own family enterprise (as an employee and/or as an owner), as a non-family executive in a family business or as an advisor to a family business.
Students examine their own family enterprises through the lens of family history and values, as well as through the lens of business strategy. Students benefit from observing live case studies of successful family businesses, hearing lectures by multiple family business experts, and interacting with other next-generation family business leaders.
They develop an understanding of the evolutionary stages in the life of a family business and the challenges and opportunities that must be managed at each stage.
Topics covered include:
- Next generation leadership
- Family systems, relationships and communication
- Entrepreneurship and growing the family business
- Succession
- Strategy and change
- Professionalizing the family business
- Non-family management
Family Business II
Governance & Ownership outlines the specific ownership, stewardship, tax, transition and wealth management issues that affect family enterprises. Family Business I: Introduction to Family Enterprise is highly recommended as a prerequisite.
Topics covered include:
- Family governance and communication
- Business governance and boards of directors
- Ownership and stewardship
- Financial considerations and valuation
- Transfer, estate and gift tax planning
Family Business Club
The Family Business Club is open to all students with an interest in family business. Students whose families own a family enterprise, who plan to work as a non-family executive within a family business or plan to advise family-run companies benefit from frequent lunch meetings with their peers.
For more information, contact Lauren Willets, director of the Family Enterprise Center.
MBA Family Enterprise Focus
The MBA Family Enterprise Focus prepares students for leadership in their family firms. It complements their MBA coursework by providing a lens with which to view other academic disciplines. Students also may choose to couple this Focus with a Concentration in another area of interest.
Students can customize the Family Enterprise Focus to create a learning plan to address the strategic vision of their family firms and build upon their individual strengths. A key benefit is developing a robust network of peers and family business leaders who will be resources both during and after their UNC Kenan-Flagler MBA experience.
MBA Focus requirements
To receive a certificate of completion, MBA students must complete a total of five courses or the equivalent of 7.5 credits from the following list:
Required: Two Courses (total of 3.0 credits)
Professors Steve Miller and Cooper Biersach teach these courses.
- MBA 843A: Family Business I: Introduction to Family Enterprise
- MBA 843B: Family Business II: Governance & Ownership in the Family Firm
Electives: Minimum of three courses (total of 4.5 credits)
- MBA 794: Private Wealth Management
- MBA 799: Governance and Financial Accountability
- MBA 805: Corporate Strategy
- MBA 807: Leadership Immersion
- MBA 817: Venture Capital Valuation and Deal Structure
- MBA 823: Leading from the Middle
- MBA 828: Strategic Innovation
- MBA 835: Introduction to Entrepreneurship
- MBA 843: Entrepreneurship through Acquisitions: Structuring Your Buyout
- MBA 845: Navigating Self, Conflict and Change
- MBA 846A: Private Equity
- MBA 846J: Business Plan Analysis
- MBA 846K: Startups: Ideas, Passion and Intellectual Property
- MBA 847: Sales Management
- MBA 848A: Launching the Venture: Opportunity
- MBA 848B: Launching the Venture: Feasibility
- MBA 848C: Launching the Venture: Business Planning
- MBA 848D: Launching the Venture: Financing
- MBA 852: Real Estate Process
- MBA 853B: Real Estate Law
- MBA 853C: International Real Estate Investment
- MBA 853D: Real Estate Macroeconomics and Securities Markets
- MBA 853E: Financing Real Estate in Today’s Capital Markets
- MBA 854: Real Estate Development Process – Development
- MBA 854A: Real Estate Development – Finance
- MBA 880P: STAR/ Leadership Project
Cooper Biersach is the coordinator for the Family Enterprise Focus. Please contact her with questions.