Rajiv Agarwal, PhD, is a professor at SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) in Mumbai, India. His areas of interest include management and strategy, family business, and technology. He has also worked for more than 20 years in his own family business. Rajiv holds FFI certificates in Family Business Advising and Family Wealth Advising.

On Tuesday, April 5, he and David Hertzenberg of Harvard Business Publishing Education will co-lead an online seminar entitled, “Using a Simulation to Explore Changing Dynamics in Families.” This simulation, “Honey Heritage,” published by Harvard Business Publishing, follows a family from founding a business and continues through three generations with a focus on both the family and the business. Participants in this seminar will play the role of a protagonist over these three generations and will have to make various choices along the way. These choices are examples of decisions that a family business may typically face, including professionalizing, succession, raising funds, having independent boards, etc. The simulation concludes with an outcome for the business. Participants then reflect on their performances and analyze their decisions. This seminar gives participants a better idea of how to use this technological tool in their classroom and/or practice to help families reflect on their current thought processes and bring about change. All attendees will be given a free personal license to use during the workshop.

Jane Beddall, JD, is principal of Dovetail Resolutions in Naples, Florida. She holds a JD from the University of Pennsylvania and founded Dovetail Resolutions in 2006 to provide mediation services to help parties in conflict reach resolutions tailored to their interests. To dovetail is to connect distinct parts together to create a harmonious whole. In carpentry, the dovetail joint is recognized for its high quality, custom fit. Her specific focus now is working as a family business mediator and family wealth mediator. Jane holds FFI advanced certificates in both Family Business Advising and Family Wealth Advising.

On Wednesday, April 6, she will join John Wofford and Natalie McVeigh to present “Working with Conflict in the Family Enterprise.” This online seminar will discuss how conflict is a natural part of family enterprises, and how advisors can best support families in managing their conflict, which is both an art and a science. This program will introduce participants to common family conflict models, styles, and tools to use while working with enterprising families.

Rania Labaki, PhD, is an associate professor at EDHEC Business School and director of the EDHEC Family Business Center in Roubaix, France, where she teaches and conducts research at the intersection of the fields of finance, entrepreneurship, and family businesses. Her current interests focus on the role of family and emotional dynamics in financial, social, philanthropic, intra/entrepreneurial, and family business succession decisions. She is an FFI Fellow and received the 2020 Barbara Hollander Award from FFI.

On Monday, April 5, she will co-lead an online seminar entitled “The Hero’s Journey: An ancient narrative model for a new practice.” This seminar presents a fresh and practical look at an old storytelling model that has been retold for thousands of years—the Hero’s Journey—as a new methodology for the transmission of the values and principles that will inspire the entrepreneurial behavior of the next generations of families in business. Through this workshop, the participants will:

• explore the importance of narratives, with a focus on the “founder’s myths,” and how to apply that knowledge towards a successful succession process.
• amplify their knowledge based on the research and practice of the dynamic utility of myths.
• discover a new methodology through applied and interactive exercises, based on ancient narrative models and the monomyth concept of Joseph Campbell, to help founders pass the baton and instigate entrepreneurial behavior from the next generation through transmission of values and principles of the family business.

Natalie McVeigh is a managing director in the Center for Individual and Organizational Performance and the Center for Family Business Excellence Group within the Private Business Services Practice of US-based EisnerAmper. With more than 10 years of experience as a consultant and coach, she has expertise in domestic and international multinational corporations both public and private, and family-owned businesses. Natalie’s expertise is in complex conflict resolution, with a certificate in mediation, specializing in interest-based negotiation, received from Harvard Law School’s program on negotiation. She is a faculty member in the FFI GEN certificate program.

She will be co-leading the Wednesday, April 6, online seminar, “Working with Conflict in the Family Enterprise,” with Jane Beddall and John Wofford.

Guillermo Salazar is founder and managing partner of Exaudi Family Business Consulting. An FFI Fellow, founder of the FFI IberoAmerica Virtual Study group, and former FFI board member, Guillermo is a frequent contributor to FFI Practitioner. Guillermo is a family business member and an expert on corporate governance and family legacy succession. He has served as an advisor for numerous business families on their protocols, generational transition, family vision and values for decision-making, and conflict resolution. Author of the books A Road to Triumph in Family Business and Empresas Familiares: Herramientas para gestión del amor y el dinero, Guillermo is a frequent lecturer and educator in the field of the family business in Latin America. He is the recipient of the 2015 International Achievement Award from the Family Firm Institute.

Guillermo will be co-leading “The Hero’s Journey: An ancient narrative model for a new practice” on Monday, April 5 with Rania Labaki.

John Wofford, a lawyer, is a mediator, facilitator, and arbitrator with his own practice based in Cambridge, MA. He provides impartial dispute resolution services, often in a highly-charged, multi-party context, in a wide range of subject areas, including family business and other family enterprises, commercial, construction, employment, insurance, intellectual property, real estate, and small business. Previously, he was law clerk to a federal district court judge, partner in the real estate department of a law firm, director of long-range transportation planning for the Boston region, associate commissioner of public works for Massachusetts, deputy general counsel of the US Department of Transportation, and presidential appointee to the panel that resolves impasses in federal labor negotiations. An FFI Fellow, he is a former member of its board of directors. Mr. Wofford has degrees from Harvard College, Harvard Law School, and Oxford University (as a Rhodes Scholar).

Jack will be co-leading the Wednesday, April 6, online seminar, “Working with Conflict in the Family Enterprise,” with Jane Beddall and Natalie McVeigh.