International Conference in Tartu for Baltic Family Business Champions and Leaders

On June 30 of this year, an international conference will take place in Tartu, where representatives of family businesses from the Baltic region, business leaders and researchers from all over the world will gather, including the naming and confirmation of the champions of Baltic family businesses, according to the organizers of the event.

The main goal of the list of Baltic family business champions (“top”) is to promote awareness of family businesses and their importance in the region, says Anete Pajuste, co-founder and board member of the organizer of the event “Baltic Family Firm Institute”. Such companies are a fairly new phenomenon in the Baltic region, and often people do not understand what a family business is, what its challenges and opportunities are.

“We have come across medium-sized companies that are owned and managed by several family members, confused as to why they are counted as family businesses, since they are “small and have no other employees besides family members”. This is not the case. For example, giants such as Ford Motor Company, Wal-Mart and Ferragamo are multi-generational family businesses. They usually have a strong sense of tradition and values ​​and can serve as a model for other companies for sustainable development,” explains Pajuste.

She also adds that in the selection of this year’s champions, in addition to financial indicators, attention is also paid to those companies that are proud of their family business status,

The main theme of this year’s conference is the resilience of family businesses and strategic choices in difficult circumstances. Experienced world-class family business research and practice experts will participate in the conference, who will give presentations and lead workshops for representatives of family businesses. Professor Morten Bennedsen of the University of Copenhagen, who is a manager of family business programs and a consultant in various countries around the world, researcher of family businesses, professor Kimberly A. Eddleston of Northeastern University in the USA, professor Alfredo De Massis, is expected at the event. , one of the world’s most widely published authors in the field of family business research, etc

One of the pressing issues for family businesses in the Baltic region is the timely preparation of the company for the change of generations – either within the family or by attracting professional managers from outside. Data show that generational change in the region is slow. For example, 80% of the largest family businesses in Latvia are still under the control of their founder. The panel discussion of the conference will be devoted to the study of the success formulas of multi-generational companies, and representatives of next-generation family companies from the Baltic region, Norway and Germany will participate in it, including Martin Schily, the fifth generation representative of the family company “Voith Group” (Germany).

The conference is organized by “Baltic Family Firm Institute”, European Corporate Governance Institute, University of Tartu, Stockholm School of Economics in Riga with the support of “Livonia Partners”, “Signet Bank”, “Sorainen” and Ivars Bergmans (“ViaClarus OÜ”).