Graduate Pathway
The Intensity Track is a self-directed, structured pathway for MBA students to leverage their family entrepreneurship legacy to chart their own path.
*Please note: Students can participate in any of the classes/programs listed below, whether or not they are part of the Intensity Track.
The following are the requirements for being part of the Intensity Track:
Join the Family Entrepreneurial Leadership Program (FEL)
Our flagship Family Entrepreneurial Leadership program (FEL) — one of our most impactful programs -- is a student's lifetime confidential personal board of advisors. Students meet with a group of 8 peers and a Babson mentor/advisor once a month to share and learn from one another — and develop critical leadership skills to succeed in the zone of person-family-business. Students who complete the requirements of FEL will receive the Family Entrepreneurial Leadership Badge.
Take 2 (out of the 4) courses/co-curricular below:
EPS 7556-E01 FOUNDATIONS OF FAMILY ENTREPRENEURSHIP (Professor Bill Gartner; 3 credits; Spring Semester)
The Foundations of Family Entrepreneurship Course provides a broad overview of topics that are relevant to understanding the nature and dynamics of entrepreneurial families. It covers such topics as; defining family entrepreneurship versus family business, identifying the pervasiveness of family entrepreneurship and its economic and social contributions, governance and succession in entrepreneurial families, the management of change and transgenerational value creation, conflict management, and the development and allocation of financial and human assets.
EPS 9551-B01 CRITICAL QUESTIONS FACING BUSINESS FAMILIES (Tim Habbershon; 1.5 credits; Fall Semester; 2-day Intensive Oct 28th: 8am - 5pm and Oct 29th 8am-5pm)
“How do I move from a parent-child to a professional-peer relationship with my parents?”
Students will learn: how to build relationship capital in the family, living with your family history, understanding the goals for effective communication, developing next stage communication skills, learning to have hard conversations, how to stop acting like a child, how to get your parents to start acting like a peer, giving and taking feedback in the family, creating a self-coaching family team, creating sibling unity, having successful family meetings, and many more.
EPS 9553 FAMILY BUSINESS TO NEXT STAGE OF GROWTH (Tim Habbershon; 1.5 credits; Spring I Semester; 2-day Intensive)
TRANSFORMATIVE FAMILY BUSINESS LEADERSHIP (Lauri Union; Co-curricular; Spring II Semester; Half-day workshop)
At our highly-impactful, small group, half-day workshop, you will learn:
- How to use both business skills and relationship skills to create value with your family.
- How Collaborative Organizational Transformation can help you grow and transform your business through focusing on culture and people
Transformative Family Business Leadership is based on Bertarelli Institute for Family Entrepreneurship Executive Director Lauri Union's "Collaborative Organizational Transformation" approach and her experience in successfully transforming three organizations, including her own family business (taking it from a $9MM revenue company that was loss-making to a highly profitable $110MM industry leader) as well as turning around another $200mm revenue family business, growing its EBITDA by $5mm in just one year.