Globsyn launches Institute for family business

Updated on: Thursday, August 27, 2009

Mumbai: Globsyn Group, the Kolkata based innovation driven company attributed with introducing many first’s in the country including India’s first Software Finishing School, and ushering in the era of IT Parks in India, has added yet another one-of-its-kind offering to its stable by launching India’s first Asian Institute of Family Business (AIFB), dedicated to the cause of Research, Education and Advocacy of Family Business in India.

Unlike in the West, where there has been extensive research and studies carried out on both Family Business Management and Entrepreneurship, research and affirmative action in India has been largely restricted to the Entrepreneurship arena with almost little or no importance being paid to the study and research of family businesses despite the fact that for over a century, family-run business empires have held sway in India, so much so that Indian business families control 18 of the 30 firms on the benchmark BSE index, and a significant component of Indian GDP (in the range of 60 – 70%) is generated by family-run companies.

As the Indian economy grows at a fast pace, based largely on a conglomeration of family business ranging in size from micro to large multinational corporations, there is a profound lack of serious and in-depth research into Family Businesses, and the host of issues faced by them, for instance, reasons as to why a large majority of family firms don’t survive upto the 3rd generation; why are there generational issues in technology investments and change management; reasons for successful cousin consortiums; or why some businesses survive multiple generations and still hold majority stake in their organisations?

It is in this backdrop that the Asian Institute of Family Business, the first Institute in India dedicated to family business, is being formed as an exclusive research based institution, with its unique research and case study driven pedagogical framework, committed to the cause of research, education and advocacy in ‘Family Business’, focused on enabling the entrepreneurial growth of family firms and fostering a deep understanding of unique challenges and opportunities being faced by family run businesses, more so in the SME sector.

Being designed as an institute to dedicatedly cater to the needs of Family Business, irrespective of their size, the entire ethos of its programs and offerings would be unlike any of the programs currently available. More importantly the curriculum for AIFB programs apart from being developed to promote ‘hands-on’ learning, where individuals are exposed to the nuances of running their own businesses or interpreting data from their own businesses, are exposed to research and data of both similar and dissimilar firms of varied sizes to help businesses in various stages of their lifecycle – embryonic to growth to maturity - to share their experiential learning backed by research driven data that provides veracity, fortifies and concretises entrepreneurs/family business professionals intuitive mental models and decision making strategies. In fact, family business education is not about doing an MBA, but it is an MBA turned upside down.

Commenting on the occasion, Mr. Bikram Dasgupta, Chairman and CEO, Globsyn Group, opined “In many of my discussions with Family Business Owners, a huge latent gap on higher structured education for Entrepreneurship in general, and Family Business in particular, came about. I also felt, that in a world, where 80% businesses are driven by family and entrepreneurial instincts, there is a strong need for research based, business cases driven, education edifice. We will make AIFB as the ‘singular’ platform, for all Entrepreneurial and Family Business Research and Education, in Asia”.

AIFB, in its attempt to bring in global research and latest findings in the area of Family Business and Entrepreneurship to the benefit of Indian family run businesses, has already forged alliances with some of the best academic and research institutions including the Family Business Institute, North Carolina, USA; The Lyles Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, California, USA; Institute of Applied Entrepreneurship, Coventry University, Coventry, UK and the Family Firm Institute, Boston, USA.

Globsyn launches Institute for family business

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