 | | | | Austin Family Business Program: 20 Years and Still Innovating
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AFBP director Mark Green gives the opening remarks at the 2006 Austin Family Business Conference. | Twenty years ago, then College of Business Dean Lynn Spruill and Professor Pat Frishkoff, with the support of Ken and Joan Austin, started the Austin Family Business Program (AFBP). They saw the mission of the program as helping family business owners manage the day-to-day operations while planning for future growth and succession. Today, while the mission has not changed, the channels through which the program delivers services to family businesses have expanded significantly under the leadership of Professor Mark Green.
The program has just completed another busy year of workshops including:
· Two sessions of "BusinessKillers… Keeping Your Business Alive for Generations," an introductory workshop designed to help family business owners learn how to avoid mistakes that can destroy their businesses.
· Three sessions of "Ties to the Land: Keeping Family Forests and Farms in the Family," a workshop that explores the human side of estate planning, focusing on ways to maintain family ties to the land from generation to generation.
· "Pearls of Wisdom," a workshop that assists women business owners in setting financial goals, protecting their assets, and building funds for the future.
· "Siblings as Business Partners," a luncheon co-produced with the Portland Business Journal, that features a panel discussion examining how effective co-leadership by siblings can be achieved.
· "Challenges and Opportunities in Managing Family-Owned Real Estate," a full-day workshop that offers concrete practical advice to assist family real estate owners in understanding basic real estate concepts, and ownership structures and strategies.
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Thriving Theatre! delighted the conference audience with improvisations created specifically for AFBP. | In addition to the workshops which are focused on specific topics or industries, the AFBP annual conference is much broader in scope. This year, the day-and-a-half May event was held on the Corvallis campus with the theme: "Family Business - Putting It in Practice." Thriving Theatre!, a local team of improvisational artists, opened the conference with three skits showing the pitfalls that family owned businesses face while keeping the "FUN" in dysfunctional. After a lighthearted opening, participants delved into many serious and often difficult issues such as understanding the intangible assets, negotiations, strategies for improving communication, preparing for business disaster, employing family members, branding the family name, and couple-/ woman-led businesses. Each seminar and panel discussion provided the participants with practical tools to put the lessons into practice. Examples of such tools include the risk barometer survey, a family employment policy from a well-known company, and many interactive exercises.
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Conference participants put new skills into practice through interactive exercises led by Pat Frishkoff. |
In addition to the workshops and conference which are open to the public, the AFBP also forms and facilitates closed-membership affinity groups in Salem and Portland. These small, self-sufficient, autonomous support systems, made up of family business owners, meet on a monthly basis to network, share problems, and discuss strategies for dealing with common yet difficult family business situations.
"The Portland Affinity Group has given me an opportunity to speak openly about my family business and ask for constructive input on how to improve on my business strategy," affirmed Ken Madden of Madden Industrial Craftsmen, Inc. "In addition, I have formed a bond with a group of family business members who I like and trust, as well as providing me with valuable ideas."
Lori Luchak of Miles Fiberglass & Composites, Inc. finds similar benefits. "Being part of the OSU Family Business Second Generation Affinity Group brings me a unique perspective from other second generation members of family businesses," said Luchak. "It does not matter what business you are in, when it comes to family business, most of the issues are similar. It is nice to have others to discuss these issues with and help work through some of the challenges that arise from working with family members. The fact that there are other people in family businesses that share the same challenges is comforting in a way that you don't feel alone and there is someone to get feedback from in a positive, safe way."
AFBP also produces checklists, workbooks and videos on a variety of family business topics. The newest tool is a workbook and DVD set, Ties to the Land: Your Family Forest Heritage, designed to guide family forest landowners through a smooth transition process of passing the land to their successors. This set is part of the Intergenerational Family Forest Project coordinated by the OSU Forestry Extension Program.
The AFBP was created to foster healthy family businesses. While continuing well-recognized programs such as its annual Excellence in Family Business Awards to recognize family businesses, the AFBP strives to promote learning among its constituents by researching, developing, and offering new and innovative tools and services to help family businesses succeed. |
