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Business Families Centre

Programs

Programs for Families

The Business Families Centre believes that information and education is the key to success for every enterprising family. The BFC's programs are both practical and powerful, delivered by leading Sauder faculty and experienced business family owners. Our experts use interactive learning formats and relevant case studies to maximize learning and engagement.

Our programs range from introductory to advance level and cover a wide range of topics, both general and specific. We also provide different formats, from individual learnings to full family education. The BFC program is a transformational learning opportunity for family members involved in every stage of the business.

This one-day course provides your family with customized full-family education in a confidential setting. Specifically designed around your family’s unique learning goals, course content is tailored to key family enterprise topics pre-selected by your family. 
No two family businesses are the same. But they face many of the same challenges. To help you navigate the dynamic – and very personal – nature of family-run enterprises, UBC Sauder Business Families Centre is launching the free online course Family Business: Strategy Essentials.
This five-day course provides a comprehensive understanding of family business by integrating key business and leadership topics with family enterprise theory and best practices.
For many family firms, the question is not whether to partake in family philanthropy, but how to get started, and to focus the family’s giving in an organized and strategic way. This half-day workshop will provide you and your family with practical tools to identify and plan for a cohesive approach to your family’s philanthropy.
Regular family meetings are frequently cited as one of the key contributing factors to family business longevity and success. This half-day workshop will provide you and your family with practical tools to understand, introduce, or improve family meetings, which are one of the simplest, yet most effective, forms of family governance.
How women are creating social impact with value-based leadership. The number of women taking leadership roles in family firms is on the increase, and it’s having a positive effect on both community and business.
UBC Sauder Business Families Centre launched its Back to the Classroom series with its first event, ‘Tale of the Cocktail’ on March 22, 2016 at the intimate Reflections lounge in the Rosewood Hotel Georgia.
In addition to the Business Families Centre’s catalogue of educational programs for business families and the professionals who work with them, the BFC has extensive experience in creating custom programming for individual families, trade associations, and financial services organizations.
As part of UBC’s Sauder School of Business, the Business Families Centre is backed by one of the most respected, cited, and authoritative business schools in the world. Since 1969, Sauder’s Executive Education has delivered programs designed to make a real difference in the way individuals do business. 
In this course, family business participants examine the importance of cultivating their own emotional intelligence (EQ) to achieve greater business success. While the course focuses primarily on next-generation successors, it also provides elders with an opportunity to explore their own experiences in order to help sustain healthy family business relationships, especially during transition periods from one generation to the next.

NEW: Become a Designated Family Enterprise Advisor

Comprehensive curriculum designed specifically for professional advisors to business families.

UBC’s Sauder School of Business proudly offers the Family Enterprise Advisor (FEA) Program in partnership with the Family Enterprise Xchange (FEX), founded by the Business Families Centre in 2009.

Suited for all professionals working with family business clients, including accountants, lawyers, financial advisors, board members, and consultants, the FEA Program prepares participants to understand the unique challenges of family enterprises and how to better support them.  Comprised of seven, two-day modules, the FEA Program delivers proven tools and strategies for incorporating social and human considerations into a technical practice, giving advisors the full skill set needed to successfully work with business families. 

The FEA Program is also the first step to becoming a certified Family Enterprise Advisor (FEA), the first and only family enterprise advisor designation in the world.

For more information or to get the inside scoop from a certified FEA, visit the FEA program page or contact Tim Mohr at tmohr@FEXCanada.ca

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  • Get in touch

    Sauder School of Business
    bfc@sauder.ubc.ca
    +1 604.822.8262
    Fax: +1 604.822.8496
    1600 - 800 Robson Street
    Vancouver, BC V6Z 3B7