Question: Case Study Part A: The main assignment for this course sends you out into the field to investigate a family business and business family of your own choosing.
Your task is to find someone who is willing to provide you with details about their family and business, and to then develop and analyse your own case study.
Case Study Part B: Part B represents the complete case study including your recommendations to address the problems/issues identified in Part A of your analysis and will take the firm from the present into the future
Part B: 'Present to Future' analysis
Assignment 3: Individual case study of a family business
The main assignment for this course sends you out into the field to investigate a family business and business family of your own choosing. Your task is to find someone who is willing to provide you with details about their family and business, and to then develop and analyse your own case study. You may use your own family businesses for this assignment or, if this is not a possibility, there will be opportunities for you to become familiar with other family businesses within the locality.
Please note that if you plan on conducting interviews for this assignment, information sheets and consent forms must be completed beforehand. This is to ensure that University of Strathclyde ethics guidelines are being followed and to enable you to use your and your interviewee's time most effectively.
The case study is structured in two parts. The first part represents the introduction to the case study and will summarise the 'past to present' situation of your family and their business. It should contain the following components:
Situation description ;• A descriptive overview of the business with information such as founding date; brief history of the firm (you may use a time-line), nature of the business - products, services, geographic market scope, family enterprise organizational chart etc
• An identification of the organization's stage of development on the three dimensions of ownership, family and business
• An overview of the family with information such as genealogy charts, family involvement in the business, key events time-line
Key Stakeholders Perceptions: Based on the situation description, identify the key internal and external stakeholders of this family firm. Gauge perceptions of each key stakeholder of the following: current strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the family enterprise, future development of the firm for example ask each stakeholder to develop a stakeholder map for five or ten years into the future.
The second part represents your recommendations to address the problems/issues identified in the first part of your analysis and will take the firm from the present into the future. This should contain the following elements:
Problems / Issue Diagnosis
• An analysis of the underlying cause of the current issues / problems facing the firm or family members
• From the information gathered in the situation description and the stakeholder perceptions, identify 2-3 key decision questions or issues that would be interesting anchors for developing the case on this family enterprise. For example, a SWOT analysis of the family business and the business family might highlight opportunities and threats facing both and you could then assess how their strengths and weaknesses have contributed to the key problems /issues facing the firm and/or family members.
• You may use one or more conceptual framework as a means of structuring this analysis or you may wish to develop a SWOT analysis and assess how strengths and weaknesses have contributed to the issues and problems facing the firm and /or family members.
• In analysing the business family, consider any family system characteristics discussed in class that you judge relevant to your analysis (inter-generational relations, governance structures, communication patterns, conflict resolution patterns, sibling rivalries, life-stage etc).
• Recommendations - specific suggestions for addressing the problems / issues identified and a supporting rationale - a discussion of why specific suggestions make sense, given the key constituents and dynamics within the ownership, family and business spheres of your case family firm.
Information related to above question is enclosed below:
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