The search is on for Connecticut's most outstanding family firms to be honored at the 2009 Connecticut Family Business of the Year Awards!

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 in the state have faced down adversity to emerge alive and well.  For 14 years, the University of Connecticut Family Business Program has been honoring family firms that have bettered our communities, our prospects for jobs, our prospects for security, and our prospects for wellbeing.  And while this past year has been among the  most challenging of recent memory, it is more important than ever to recognize those outstanding firms that have weathered these distressing conditions while also doing all they can to lift their suppliers, customers, community, and industry in its wake. 

Family businesses play a crucial role in Connecticut’s economy and society, a role too frequently overlooked as the public's eye is directed to public corporations. To emphasize the tremendous and positive contributions provided by family firms, large and small, the UConn Family Business Program holds the annual Connecticut Family Business of the Year Awards ceremony - a prestigious way to recognize and honor those family businesses that embody core family values and the best of American free enterprise.

To date, the UConn Family Business Program, through the annual Connecticut Family Business of the Year Awards ceremony, has honored 143 outstanding firms from across the state – creating jobs, investing in new technologies, supporting philanthropic causes, fostering innovation, and serving as champions of their industry and community.   It comes as little surprise that family businesses continue to prove themselves as the backbone of Connecticut’s economy, and the central nervous system of American free enterprise – and so it is important to recognize them and congratulate them on all they do and all they are.

We invite you to apply for the 2009 Connecticut Family Business of the Year Award, or to nominate those family firms that you feel deserve such an honor.  Finalists are chosen by a panel of outside judges 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 firm members reflect on their organization’s history and achievements throughout the years – a tremendous morale boost for all! 

For more information on the awards, and to download an application, please click here: http://www.business.uconn.edu/familybusiness/awards.asp

UConn’s Family Business Program joins efforts with CBIA
to survey Connecticut's Family Business Community

Storrs, CT - August 17, 2009

Together, we at CBIA and the University of Connecticut Family Business Program, continue our efforts to understand the most compelling issues facing Connecticut's family firms and deliver programming and content that is relevant and timely. We are proud, once again, to submit the 2009 Connecticut Family Business Survey – and we are asking for your participation!

The 2009 Family Business Survey, developed jointly by CBIA and the UConn Family Business Program and sponsored by Kostin, Ruffkess & Co.,  is an important assessment in understanding the economic and strategic status of Connecticut's family firms. The survey is an effort to provide opportunities for family firms to benchmark their business in relationship to businesses of similar size and scope while providing UConn and CBIA valuable information by which to coordinate efforts on behalf of Connecticut’s family business community.

The survey should take approximately 10 - 15 minutes to complete and will be collected through Monday, August 31.  Findings will be released and discussed on December 3rd at the 2009 Connecticut Family Business of the Year Awards Ceremony – an annual celebration honoring Connecticut’s most outstanding family firms.  For more information about the Family Business Awards, click here: http://www.business.uconn.edu/familybusiness/awards.asp.