On Friday, November 20, the 2nd Edition of the Family Business Employability Course organized by the Chair of Family Business of the University of Valencia took place. Alejandro Escribá (Director CEFUV and Professor of the UV) and Tomás Guillén (CEO of Grupo Ifedes) were in charge of giving the first sessions.

Tomás Guillén is currently CEO of the Ifedes Group, PhD in Business Management and Management and has been a consultant for Family Companies for more than 25 years.

Alejandro Escribá is Professor of Organization of UV Companies, Director of the Chair of Family Business of the UV and directs the Observatory of Strategy and Competitiveness Government (GECE) that he develops together with IVIE and Bankia.

"Understanding the importance of Family Business in the Labor Market and the Economy" was the title of the session given by Alejandro Escribá. During the session, Alejandro tried to define the Family Business, showing the attendees of the course, who are largely students, that the probability that they will end up working in a Family Company is very high, since they have a lot of weight within the Spanish Economy.

"When a Family Business is professionalized through Board of Directors, it is much easier to organize Family Councils. If this is not done, we lack a diversity of perspectives and approaches"

Alejandro Escribá

Throughout the session, Alejandro Escribá showed relevant data to better understand the reality that Family Businesses are going through today. Among this data Alejandro highlighted: "70% of companies in the Valencian Community are micro, with fewer than 10 employees. This implies that most of the companies you will operate with will be of this kind."

At the conclusion of his session, Alejandro presented the professionalization of Family Enterprises as a factor of growth and competitiveness: "When a Family Business is professionalized through Board of Directors, it is much easier to organize Family Councils. If this is not done, we lack a diversity of perspectives and approaches."

For his part, Tomás Guillén offered students a dynamic and participatory session under the title "Understanding the different levels and roles of the government of the company and the influence of the entrepreneurial family"

Tomás pointed to multi-dimensioning as one of the most differential characteristics within family companies: "There are 3 dimensions within family companies. The family dimension, the ownership/company and the company's dimension."

"Only 17.4% of Family Companies are considered evolved, this is that they have external advisors, large board of directors and consolidated family councils"

Tomás Guillén

In turn, Tomás mentioned the importance of defining roles in each of the 3 dimensions of Family Enterprises. To this end, he told us from his experience that the lack of definition of these roles is often the cause of many errors in strategic decisions and inefficacy in the functioning and achievement of objectives/results.

Finally, and concluded his session, Thomas told us about the structuring of the corporate and family governing bodies explaining that: "Only 17.4% of Family Enterprises are considered evolved, this is that they have external advisors, large board of directors and consolidated family councils."

Next Friday we will have Pilar González (Professor of UV Psychology) and Victoria Casañ (RRHH Grefusa) to tell us about "Values, Attitudes and Skills useful for Employability in Family Business" and "Employer Perspective"

La Cátedra de Empresa Familiar de la Universitat de València (CEFUV), promovida por la Asociación Valenciana de Empresarios (AVE), la Escuela de Empresarios (EDEM), el Instituto Valenciano para el Estudio de la Empresa Familiar (IVEFA), el Instituto de la Empresa Familiar (IEF) y la Universidad de Valencia (UV), y cuenta actualmente con el patrocinio de BANKIA y BROSETA ABOGADOS.