Courage News: Outlook and Guiding Questions for Recovery of Family Businesses published

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To assist Family Businesses in the recovery process in the late stages of the Covid-19 crisis, the Courage Center of Global Family Business at Munich Business School has combined the best research in the fields of recovery and innovation of Family Businesses, and interviewed Family Businesses in Europe, Asia and Latin America, to develop an outlook and guiding questions.

The report covers phases 3 and 4 of the Four Phases of Family Business Leadership through the Crisis.
Phase 3, called “Realistic Return”, covers a return to operations as COVID-19 cases continue to drop but still exist. Operations will ramp-up gradually, under tight control and still without a return to full capacity. Phase 4, called the “Reimagination” of the Family Business, covers reviewing the business model and competitive context as new mechanisms have been established and many business realities have changed during the crisis. And, consumer behaviors have changed too. Therefore, any business model will need a profound review and many will potentially need a new focus.

The report details the best practices in Focus, Communication, Financial Management and Strategy & Adaptation for the phases 3 and 4 of the Covid-19 crisis.

The full report can be requested here and will be sent to each recipient individually.
In addition to the report, the pro bono “HelpLine” of the Courage Center continues to assist Family Businesses in thinking through the best measures for every single situation. Free-of-charge Zoom conferences with the experts of the Center can be requested via email at: helpline@courage.sg.

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About Prof. Dr. Marc-Michael Bergfeld 24 Articles
Marc-Michael H. Bergfeld holds the professorship in Global Family Firms at Munich Business School and is director of studies of the MBA General Management. Prior to joining Munich Business School, Bergfeld gathered international experience in management consulting and in large family enterprises, for example in Latin America, the U.K., India and China. In 2007, he founded Courage Partners Group, a boutique advisory practice, helping business families and their firms in strategy, innovation & investment, including the Courage Center at Munich Business School as think tank and executive education institute. He continues to run Courage Partners Group as Managing Director and teaches “Corporate Strategy, Innovation & Change” as well as “International Family Firms” in the Master and MBS classes at MBS. Lecturer Profile at MBS
Alexander F. Bergfeld
About Alexander F. Bergfeld
Alexander F. Bergfeld, PhD cand. (University of Antwerp), MBA (Munich Business School), B.Sc. (University of Manchester) is General Manager at Courage. Prior to joining the firm, he was advisor and consultant for corporate business acceleration programs in Europe and project manager for highly innovative clean-tech projects in Arabia. He is also a Member of the Expert Evaluator Group for Horizon 2020 at the European Commission and author of the book “Business Acceleration 2.0”. He is pursuing a PhD on transgenerational entrepreneurship in family firms at the University of Antwerp.
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About Johannes Ritz 6 Articles
Johannes Ritz, M.A. (Munich Business School), MIB (Florida International University) is Director Latin America at Courage and runs the executive education modules at the Courage Center. Prior to joining the firm, he was Marketing Director at the private university “Universidad Internacional del Ecuador”, after working on several consulting projects in different industries in Europe and Latin America. Johannes studied International Business in Munich, Miami, Qingdao and San José (CR) gaining a deep understanding of cultural differences and their effects on business. He is pursuing his PhD on internationalization of family firms at University of Antwerp in a joint research project with the Courage Center.