On the shores of Lake Geneva this spring, 23 participants from business-owning families assembled at the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne to learn how to manage and pass on their companies and wealth.
With trillions of dollars predicted to change hands from one generation to the next in the coming years, business schools are moving to capture demand for training in succession and governance, encroaching on territory long occupied by private banks and advisers.
Not everyone on IMD’s five-day, SFr11,900 ($15,244) course came by choice. Some are half-jokingly described by organisers as “prisoners” — sent by their families rather than choosing to attend. Others are “tourists”, possibly drawn as much by the picturesque setting as by the programme, called Leading Your Family Business.
Stephanie de Wangen is not among them. A sixth-generation member of the Belgian Solvay family, she sits on the family council and enrolled to better understand her role within a sprawling shareholder base.
“When you have a family in the thousands across countries, it becomes hard to keep people engaged,” she says.
