Some believe that work and family don't mix, but certain family-run businesses manage to make it happen, and many do so with the help of university training programmes designed specifically for the unique challenges that these companies may face.
Family-run companies that are working to gain more of a competitive edge in the business world, and enrolments in courses that offer family business training are on the rise.
Judi Cunningham, executive director of the Business Families Centre at Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia in Canada, said that every year more than 1,000 people attended the family business training courses and events that the school arranged.
Even Sauder's regular executive education programmes are seeing an increase in students who come from family-run businesses, at times up to 15 per cent of the programme enrolments.
This trend appears to be reflected in other regions, with the Instituto de Empresa (IE) in Spain reporting that 20 per cent of the students participating in the Advanced Management Programme and Senior Management Programme come from family-run businesses.
The reason for this growing trend seems to be due to the acknowledgement that family businesses are faced with a unique set of challenges that other businesses are not exposed to. Stephen Charters, professor of champagne management at Reims Management School in France, said: 'Family businesses have to focus on personal relationships and internal family dynamics in a way that most companies ... do not have to.'