Post Congress Workshops

The Rationale:

The larger a business-owning family becomes, the more complex and diverse it becomes; and developing the skills required to forge a common agenda and resolve differences among family shareholders involves greater challenges. Creating effective and transparent governance –for both the family and the business - enables discussion and resolution of the complicated and often emotional family, ownership and business issues that confront mature family companies. In addition, implementing effective and transparent governance has proven to positively impact family businesses through easier and cheaper access to capital, improved stakeholder’s relations and long term sustainability. Family members and family firms’ management will benefit from this workshop by reflecting on and devising strategies that help them to approach the business in a unified way, and learning to communicate and share their thinking about the critical issues the family and the business must face up to.

Learning Outcomes And Benefits: By the end of the workshop participants will understand:

• Family & corporate governance’s purpose, core concepts and importance
• The business case for corporate governance
• The recent trends and evolutions in corporate governance
• Corporate governance disputes – what they are, how they affect family firms and their stakeholders
• Dealing with corporate governance opportunities and challenges in family firms through case studies and role play exercises
• The importance of becoming an advocate for family & corporate governance in the family firm

Who Should Attend:

Workshop Leader:

Caroline Fattal Fakhoury
Managing Partner, Praesta Middle East, UAE

Caroline has held senior management roles in Europe, Latin America and the Middle East both within Unilever and for her family’s century-old business: Fattal Holding of Lebanon where she continues to serve on the board. Today, Caroline combines 16 years of corporate business experience with the skills of a certified professional business coach. Caroline’s experience as a Board Member of both Unilever and Fattal Holding makes her aware of governance challenges, and the complex and powerful relationship dynamics facing shareowners, chairmen, CEOs, independent directors and top management teams.

Farooq Nazir
Executive Coach, Praesta Middle East, UAE

Farooq worked at PriceWaterHouse and Ernst & Young before joining Unilever in Pakistan in 1984. He has had the privilege of working in three continents for Unilever, including varied roles and assignments in Unilever House in London, Unilever Levant before culminating his Unilever career as Finance Director of Unilever Canada. From 2005 till 2007, he joined Tetley GB in London to represent them on their Joint Venture Board in Karachi, Pakistan. For the last many years Farooq has been successively working on and with the Boards of family businesses working with Chairmen for putting together structures and processes for a seamless transition to the next generation.

The Rationale:

One of the great dilemmas facing organizations around the world is how to effect a change in behaviour. Huge sums are invested in designing and developing the “new world”, but getting people to accept it and make it a reality is very difficult. The problem is pervasive and ranges from changes in simple processes and procedures, to more complex change in areas such as corporate values, structure, vision, or corporate governance, which often embraces several of these elements.

Learning Outcomes And Benefits:

In this workshop you will examine how to improve the impact of your Governance (or Change) programme by developing an understanding of:

• The dynamics of change: Barriers, key success factors, stasis, momentum, and tipping points
• The personal dynamics in governance: Position and power, structure and hierarchy, systems and processes
• The human dynamic in effective communication: Why people can’t hear and how to be heard
• Converting knowledge into action: Why understanding is easy, but changing behavior is hard
• Measurement and Assessment: Diagnosis – where are you? Future visioning – where do you want to be? Planning – how to get there
• The roles of: The Board, senior executives, middle management, thought leaders, role models and team leaders
• Developing a multi-layer communications strategy: Multiple messages – multiple package, tool and channel selection, timing and frequency

Who Should Attend:

You should attend this workshop if you:

• have an important message or programme that needs to be well understood
• want to understand how to build a communication programme that is effective
• involved in change of strategy, structure or organisational values

Workshop Leader:

Mike Lotzof
Principal - Strategic Change and Former Global Head of Compliance Technique, ING Group, France