This is the quintessential problem being faced by first generation entrepreneurs and owner-managers today. While on one hand there is a dearth of research on what happens after entrepreneurs establish successful businesses and keep it growing by their sheer risk taking ability and spurred on by innovative ideas until they reach the ‘Tipping Point’ so aptly described by Malcolm Gladwell in his recent bestselling book of the same title. On the other hand research on Family businesses has been singularly focused on succession planning and family dynamics at the expense of a larger gamut of issues that plagues today’s business owners.

Unlike in the West where there has been extensive research and studies carried out on both Entrepreneurship and Family Business Management, research and affirmative action in India has been largely restricted to the Entrepreneurship arena with almost little or no importance being paid to the study and research of family businesses despite the fact that for over a century, family-run business empires have held sway in India, so much so that Indian business families control 18 of the 30 firms on the benchmark BSE index, and a significant component of Indian GDP (in the range of 60 – 70%) is generated by family-run companies.

There is a real dearth of research into Family Businesses, and the host of issues faced by them, for instance, reasons as to why a large majority of family firms don’t survive the first generation or a larger number still don’t survive upto the 3rd generation; why are there generational issues in technology investments and change management; reasons for successful cousin consortiums; or why some businesses survive multiple generations and still hold majority stake in their organisations?

Keeping these facets in mind, AIFB is being developed as a research centric institution dedicated to the cause of advocacy and education in the ‘Family Business’ and Entrepreneurship sphere, focused on enabling the entrepreneurial growth of family firms and fostering a deep understanding of unique challenges and opportunities being faced by family run businesses, more so in the SME sector and by new start-ups.

Again on the Family Business related management education front it has been observed that most programs though marketed as Family Business related programs are seen to be generic management programs with small flavours of family businesses thrown in, with little or no research to back the content of the program.

AIFB will, as part of its inherent design, be working extremely closely with its foreign associates like the Family Firm Institute, Boston, USA; Family Business Institute, North Carolina, USA; The Lyles Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, California, USA, etc to offer not only specialised and research based Family Business oriented management programs but would also, based on global research and latest findings from the foreign associates conduct workshops, seminars, specialist clinics etc in the areas of family business management.

The pedagogic framework, being developed exclusively to address the needs of Family Business education, envisages using a comparative analysis framework based on research of family firms operating in different regions, countries, sectors, communities and so on, while engaging with ‘entrepreneurs/family business professionals’ in innovative and in distinctly different ways, to help them not only understand their businesses but help them take it to the next level. The curriculum for the programs and workshops would help family business firms, among other things help to address changing market conditions, responding to competition, institute processes and policies, etc. More importantly the curriculum for AIFB programs apart from being developed to promote ‘hands-on’ learning, where individuals are exposed to the nuances of running their own businesses or interpreting data from their own businesses, are exposed to research and data of both similar and dissimilar firms of varied sizes to help businesses in various stages of their lifecycle – embryonic to growth to maturity - to share their experiential learning backed by research driven data that provides veracity, fortifies and concretises entrepreneurs/family business professionals intuitive mental models and decision making strategies.