Growing, Financing, and Managing Family and Closely Held Firms: Overview of the Course

Most companies around the world are controlled by their founding families, including more than half of all public corporations in the U.S. and Europe, and more than two thirds of these in Asia. These companies are the subject of the Financial Management of Family and Closely Held Firms course, an elective MBA course at Harvard Business School. The course introduces students to the unique finance, governance, and management issues faced by family firms, and to the ways in which these issues can be addressed. The course provides students with a framework for analyzing how family ownership, control, and management affect value, and whether and how more value can be created for the various stakeholders in family firms. The course is designed for students who may be involved with these companies in a variety of roles, including those of founders, shareholders, or managers of their own family's firm, as well as those of non-family managers and employees, investors or business partners (e.g., private equity investors), and advisors of various kinds (e.g., Investment bankers, board members, or consultants).