What can a family business learn from the former CEO of a big company? In the case of Michael Sullivan, quite a bit.
Just because a business belongs to a family doesn’t mean that running it comes naturally to all family members. Family dynamics can negatively influence how well the business is run, and how smooth the management transition is from one generation to the next. In other words, even families who’ve been in business for generations have something to learn.
One academic option for managing these kinds of issues is the Family Enterprise Program at the University of St. Thomas. Founded in 1990 and now part of the university’s Opus School of Business, the program has been chaired since September 2005 by Sullivan, a name that should be familiar to long-time observers of the Twin Cities business scene.
He has the real-world business chops for the job. A long-time attorney with the Minneapolis law firm Gray Plant Mooty, Sullivan also spent 14 years as president and CEO of Edina-based International Dairy Queen until 1997, when he helped orchestrate the company’s merger with Warren Buffett’s Omaha-based holding company, Berkshire Hathaway.
The Family Enterprise Program’s purpose, Sullivan says, is “to promote both the appreciation and the understanding of family business and the dominant role it really plays in the economy of the country and, for that matter, the world.” Sullivan has been busy strengthening the center’s outreach to family businesses, talking up its offerings of seminars, college courses, and peer-learning events.
One of the programs that Sullivan helped to develop is a 14-week mini-MBA for family businesses. Sullivan also helped create the Family Enterprise Executive Development Series for family members and key non-family managers who are actively working to improve both business performance and family relationships. The series consists of several one-day executive education seminars, roundtables, and similar events.
In addition, the center has developed the two courses taught at the Opus School of Business on family-run enterprise, and is offering research grants in 2007 “to help promote research in family business,” Sullivan says. Topics that past center grantees have covered include strategies for growing and developing family businesses. The center also has helped fund the building of a research database for understanding what makes a family business successful.
