Tell Us Your Story and Celebrate your Family Firm's History! UConn's Family Business Program Now Accepting Applications & Nominations for the 2010 Connecticut Family Business of the Year Award

Storrs, CT - May 25, 2010

It’s that time of year again!  A time to reflect on the achievements of your family firm as well as those of your peers – and to show all that, once again, family businesses are the “go-to” engines of growth and innovation that sustains our state and livelihood. This is your year and your time to shine.

We invite you to apply for the 2010 Connecticut Family Business of the Year Award, submit an application on behalf of a family firm that you feel deserves to be recognized, or nominate a firm that you feel merits this honor.  Finalists are chosen by a panel of outside judges and peers - and evaluated based on proven business success, positive family and business linkage, multi-generational involvement, contributions to community/industry, and innovative business practices/strategies.  The application process can be extremely rewarding as customers, employees, family, and firm members reflect on their organization’s history and achievements throughout the years.  It can also be fun to unearth some long-forgotten stories! 

Click to find out more about the 2010 Connecticut Family Business of the Year Awards

UConn Family Business Program Sponsor, John Koliani of
Kostin, Ruffkess & Co., LLC, discusses the 2009 Connecticut
Family Business Survey - and Holes In Financial Planning

Farmington, CT - May 24, 2010
Source: Hartford Business Journal

There’s a lot of talk these days about sustainability and how a company’s processes impact the environment. Yet for family businesses, perhaps equally as important as the size of their carbon footprint is how they can sustain a transfer of leadership due to a death, retirement or family crisis.

This past year, Kostin, Ruffkess & Co., CBIA and the University of Connecticut Family Business Program sponsored the UConn Family Business Survey. The results indicated that most family-owned companies are simply unprepared for any type of an emergency or a planned transition. Of the 500 Connecticut family-owned businesses surveyed, 51 percent had CEOs who were over 55 years old. Only 13 percent had a succession plan
and 35 percent of them said they didn’t expect to develop one soon. These results are troubling for the future of family businesses.

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UConn Family Business Program Facilitator, Dr. Alan Lovins,
talks about Succession and Family Ties

New Haven, CT - May 12, 2010
Source: New Haven Register

Many businesses in Connecticut and throughout the country are family-owned, and, while it can be extremely gratifying for company founders to eventually pass them on to the next generation, it also can be very challenging and expose complex family dynamics.

While many companies are run by families, with parents aiming to one day hand the reigns over to their children, studies have shown that most don’t have succession plans in place, which can make the process of transferring power much more difficult, according to the partners at The Lovins Group, a New Haven firm that helps family businesses navigate succession. The biggest, and most common, mistake companies can make is when “there’s no plan,” said Alan Lovins, noting uncertainty about the future can breed unease. “As the tension grows, it becomes less likely that the parents and children are going to talk.”

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UConn's Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation (CCEI) and Family Business Program Team with Continuing Studies and TechnoServe-Kenya to Develop Global Entrepreneurs

Storrs, CT - April 21, 2010

The Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation (CCEI) and its Family Business Program at the University of Connecticut School of Business has partnered with the Global Training and Development Institute (GTDI) at UConn’s Continuing Studies Program to teach entrepreneurship and innovation to young Kenyan Entrepreneurs.  The Kenyan Young Entrepreneur Program – facilitated through TechnoServe-Kenya and funded by a US State Department grant – aims to reduce poverty and increase economic development in impoverished areas around the world.  Fourteen Kenyan delegates have arrived at UConn and are currently undergoing business study and job shadowing at various firms around the state.

“The CCEI is proud to reach out in assisting young entrepreneurs around the world to build businesses, create jobs, break the cycle of poverty, and realize dreams.  By focusing our efforts on teaching about how to think entrepreneurially, leverage technology, identify value drivers, strategize, manage finances, build brand awareness, and incorporate socially responsible business practices in their business culture,  the CCEI can work to further the University's emphasis on entrepreneurial education, research, and business partnering” notes Rich Dino, PhD,  Executive Director of the CCEI.

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