As previously explained, as from the 20th June a series of free training sessions, specially designed for Family Businesses, will be delivered.The topics that will be covered in the first 3 sessions have been outlined in an article I circulated a few days ago.

May I remind you that the 1st session (20th June) and the last session (27th July) will be done in a hybrid format, whereby anyone can attend physically for the session at the Chamber of Commerce in Valletta or follow the session online. I strongly recommend you attend at least either the 1st or last session physically as this will give you an opportunity to discuss common issues presented in this training with other family businesses. As I will be outlining in this training, virtually all family businesses face the same challenges although in different contexts and so there is great value for family businesses to come together and discuss these common issues and learn from each other.

All the remaining sessions (the 2nd session to the 6th session) will be delivered online through the youtube channel of both the Chamber of Commerce and Malta Enterprise.

Today I will give a brief overview of the topics that will be outlined in the remaining 4 sessions.

The forth session will focus on the need for a Strategic mindset in Family Businesses. Specifically this session will deal with the following aspects

1. Defining value in terms of growth, liquidity, and control
2. Articulate a compelling purpose
3. Translate that purpose into specific goals
4. Define safety systems to keep your company from veering off course
5. Communicate your purpose and goals in a coherent business Strategy

The fifth session will deal with effective Communication and proper Information flow in family businesses. This session will deal how to best go about putting in place the infrastructure to facilitate effective communication as the family grows. In the early stages of a family business, information flow is organic, often taking place over shared meals. As the family business grows, one would need to consider what meetings, policies, functions, or technological platforms can help improve dialogue across the family business. Communication can vary in its frequency and its formality. This session will help you evaluate how best to decide what pace and level of formality are right for your family business.

The sixth session will focus on the essential elements for successful succession planning in family businesses. This is an extremely important topic. This session will focus on helping you understand that although the final decisions usually lies with the current owners, a successful transition can’t happen without cross-generational collaboration. Essentially this means that an unplanned transition is extremely risky and so it is extremely important to find a way to get the process started early and maintain momentum.

The seventh and final session will dealing with various challenges which are particular to family businesses. This session will deal with how to setup a family employment policy and so how to attract the talent in your family, creating entry rules for family employees, plan family employee career paths, compensate family employees and also preparing an exit path for family employees. This session will also deal with how to manage conflict in family businesses and so how to move from a fake harmony to constructive conflict and how to avoid the conflict spiral and escape any family feud.

As I hope you have realised so far, this training is being setup in the most convenient way and specifically targeted for family businesses, besides being completely free. I think its a unique opportunity not to be missed. Please click HERE to register and follow these sessions.