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dnaunion: A Close Encounter with Families in Business

Families in business play an important role in economic prosperity of any country. With due regard to its traditional fabric and the deep concept of family, Iran is full of families in business so much so that many big private companies are run by families.

As the main component of these enterprises, the family can act as a double-edged sword: it can both help the growth and survival of the business and can destroy the enterprise by mismanagement. Crisis management, transfer of the business to next generations and helping its promotion are among issues that have not been heeded in our country.

The first conference on families in business was held at the Management Faculty of the Tehran University on September 3. The conference attended by instructors and entrepreneurs in the field of family enterprises, aimed at pathology and management of this type of business.

Nasser Pashapour, dnaunion CEO one of whose main concerns is to fulfil his social responsibilities in organizational and individual domains, addressed the conference and spoke of his experiences in running a family enterprise.

Dr ..? Ebrahimnejad, university lecturer and CEO of Rose Consulting Group who has conducted expert studies and research on this type of business for long years, says: “The aim of this conference is to present solutions for better management of companies and institutes that are run by families and play a significant role in Gross National Product (GNP).”

He said successful brands such as Golrang, Golestan, Mihan… have been running under family enterprises for long years. He added: “Discussing the challenges facing these businesses and finding ways and means to tackle these challenges are among other goals of the conference.”

Dr Ebrahimnejad noted that lack of information about the challenges facing families in business has added to the existing problems. However, he noted, family enterprises can easily leave the crisis behind and overcome the problems through consultation and transfer of experiences of successful groups.

On the sidelines of the conference, specialized panels were held where entrepreneurs and families in business shared their information and experiences with the audience.

Faculty member at Harvard Business School since 1996, Dr John Davis, spoke to the audience by video conference. Outlining his experiences in 60 countries, he stated that in any economy, two thirds of companies are run by family enterprises. He added that 60 percent of New York stock companies are run by families in business.

Families in business owe their survival to families. The family would find a more profound concept of ‘being together’ through this type of enterprise. To know the advantages and disadvantages of this type of enterprise and crisis management can be considered its positive points and ensure the survival of an organization.