Webinar Explores Career Moves for Next Gens Family Business Leaders

A webinar hosted by the Family Business program at St. John Fisher University will explore the value of outside experience for next-generation family business leaders.

The free lunch and learn webinar, “A Dilemma for the Next Generation: Should They Start Inside or Outside the Family Firm?” will take place from noon to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 28. Registration is available online through FisherNext, the University’s online learning platform.

This program includes a presentation hosted by Dr. Carol Wittmeyer, director of the Family Business Program, and Dr. Isa Bortero, George E. and Mary Lee Fischer Chair in Family Entrepreneurship in the Department of Management and Entrepreneurship at the University of Louisville Kentucky.

The discussion will unpack research Wittmeyer and Botero conducted to identify whether working outside the family firm makes for more successful future family business leaders. The team conducted in-depth interviews with several family businesses across the U.S. to understand what type of experiences (i.e., outside the firm and/or inside the firm) next generation members were exposed to and how this experience helped them learn so they could succeed in managing the family firm. During the webinar, Wittmeyer and Botero will discuss the implications of their observations.  Their research won a Best Paper Contribution to Practice Award from the International Family Enterprise Research Academy and has been presented at several family business centers.

The program will conclude with a question-and-answer session for the audience moderated by Desiree Silver ’24, a student majoring in management with a sport management minor, and member of the Silver family, which owns the minor league baseball team, the Rochester Red Wings.

For questions, email cwittmeyer@sjf.edu.