B&E center assists area family-owned businesses

Family businesses are vital to the local, regional and national economy, according to James O'Neill, director of the Center for Family Business, recently established in the College of Business and Economics as part of its outreach program.

Current research has shown that family businesses pay 65 percent of all wages and account for 50 percent of the country's gross national product, O'Neill pointed out. However, due to a lack of planning, family conflicts or other issues, only one-third of family businesses survive into the second generation, and only 10 percent into the third.

"Family businesses, whether they are small, local enterprises or large, national companies, have unique concerns, such as interrelationships between family members, the question of succession in the next generation, maintaining talent, ownership and finance, plus all the problems that other businesses face. The University has resources to assist, inform and support family businesses and also provide the means for networking among them to learn from each other's experiences, " O'Neill said.

With the motto, "generation to generation," the center's goal is to serve family businesses in Delaware and the region by helping to further the development of family-owned businesses, recognizing their importance to the economy and providing practical solutions to the many special challenges they face.

The late Dean Dana Johnson of the College of Business and Economics gave impetus to establishing the UD center, O'Neill said. Mass Mutual Insurance Co., which has sponsored more than 50 family business centers in universities around the country, was the catalyst providing expertise on establishing a center. In addition to Mass Mutual, Morris, James, Hitchens & Williams law firm and Simon, Master & Sidlow, P.A. and Wilmington Trust Co. are sponsoring the center.

Jo Peavey acts as a liaison between the University and family businesses in the area. She has had firsthand experience working for a rapidly growing family business in Virginia whose assets rose from $50 million to $500 million, which has made her aware of the opportunities and problems associated with family management and ownership.

The center has formed a board of directors, many of whom run family businesses, and representatives of area family businesses are invited and encouraged to become members of the center, to use its resources and to network with other family-owned companies.

A series of seminars, lectures and group discussions are scheduled in May, June, September, November and December, and will cover such topics as developing skills for successor CEOs. The sessions will be interactive and open to discussion after the formal part of the program.

"Some of the events are facilitated roundtables where members can get together and identify issues that are important to them and discuss strategies that they have discovered strengthen family businesses. We need input from family businesses to learn what their major concerns are and how they have successfully solved different problems as they arise," O'Neill said.

"The focus of the new center primarily will be well-established family businesses, but we also will work with Clinton Tymes and UD's Small Business Development Center, which assists businesses in their start-up and progress," O'Neill said.

In the future, O'Neill said that center plans to gather a cadre of resource people from the faculty, who have expertise in fields that are germane to family businesses and can help them in different areas.

For information about the Family Business Center, located in Room 104, MBNA America Building, call 831-0743.

--Sue Swyers Moncure

---