Held during Family Weekend, the forum, hosted by the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, explored how entrepreneurial families can prepare future leaders, navigate succession and create opportunity across generations.
Entrepreneurial families face challenges that extend far beyond running a business. Questions of ownership, leadership, succession and long-term vision often involve multiple generations and relationships that can shape the future of both the family and its various businesses.
Those challenges were at the center of the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business’s Family Entrepreneurship Forum on Sept. 25, which brought leading scholars and practitioners together with students, alumni and business-owning families during Family Weekend.
Organized by David Jiang, associate professor of management and entrepreneurship, the forum, “How Families Create Opportunity Across Generations,” combined research-informed expert insight with interactive conversations about leadership, governance, succession and entrepreneurship.
The program featured several nationally recognized scholars in family business and entrepreneurship from UNC Charlotte, N.C. State University, and UNC Greensboro, along with Steve Miller, former executive vice president and the most senior non-family executive in the history of the Biltmore Estate and co-founder of UNC Chapel Hill’s Family Enterprise Center.
Miller opened the forum by drawing on nearly four decades of experience with the Vanderbilt/Cecil family-owned Biltmore Estate and focused on three priorities for family enterprises: ownership, leadership development and “working on the family as hard as you work on the business.”
“That sometimes gets neglected,” Miller said. “So it’s really important.”
He emphasized the need for families to have a shared vision for the future of the enterprise.
“It was amazing when we talked to, particularly when many family members were involved, about what your vision was for the family firm,” Miller said. “They may have different opinions about that and never really talked about it.”
Miller also stressed the importance of preparing future leaders through meaningful responsibility and challenging work.
“In terms of training the next-generation leader, provide them with work assignments that really are challenging,” he said.
Biltmore’s own history, he said, shows how differences in vision can shape a family enterprise and how clearer communication and shared stewardship can help guide it forward.
Following the keynote, participants joined two rounds of small-group discussions facilitated by:
- Franz Kellermanns, Addison H. & Gertrude C. Reese Endowed Chair in International Business and Distinguished Professor of Management at UNC Charlotte, on family succession conflicts.
- Torsten Pieper, professor of management at UNC Charlotte and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Family Business Strategy, on family offices, entrepreneurship and philanthropy.
- Jon Carr, Jenkins Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship at NC State University, on families as catalysts for entrepreneurship.
- Esra Memili, professor of entrepreneurship and Margaret Van Hoy Hill Dean’s Notable Scholar at UNC Greensboro, on family and wealth governance.
- David Jiang and Steve Miller, on preparing the next generation for success.
“Since every family and family business is different, there is no one-size-fits-all model or approach,” said Esra Memili, professor of entrepreneurship at UNC Greensboro.
The small-group format gave families space to ask questions, share experiences and talk through issues they may be facing in their own businesses.
“Family Weekend gave us a unique opportunity to bring students and their families into the same conversation,” Jiang said. “And these conversations aren’t just for established business owners. Any family can work together to pool resources, bear risks, and support one another in ways that can open new opportunities.”