The Fundación Jaume I-Empresa has inaugured today a new cycle of Business Breakfasts with a focus on family businesses as the central theme.

The FUE-UJI has the Càtedra Ciutat de Castelló, created in 2017 by the Universitat Jaume I and the Castelló City Council, to carry out this initiative that seeks to analyze the characteristics and peculiarities of family businesses, offer their own management models and boost your development and success.

The session was opened by Carmen Lázaro, vice-rector for Culture and Institutional Relations of the UJI; accompanied by Carlos Cabrera, executive president of the FUE-UJI; and Pilar Escuder, Deputy Mayor of the Castelló Town Council.

“According to data from the Family Business Institute, it is estimated that in Spain more than 1.1 million companies are family-owned, almost 90% of the total, and that they generate 6.5 million jobs. These figures support the suitability of establishing a forum for debate and reflection such as these work breakfasts and to do so from the rigor provided by university research. An investigation that offers diagnoses, that advances trends and also exposes good practices that can be incorporated as elements of innovation in business management ”, said the vice-chancellor Lázaro.

For his part, Carlos Cabrera has stressed that “the objective of these sessions is none other than to offer companies and entities of the FUE-UJI Board of Trustees and a group of outstanding companies, a space where they can discuss topics of interest and raise the concerns and needs of our economic and business sectors towards a better university-business interrelation. From FUE-UJI we work to get closer and closer to companies and the University, to develop ways of collaboration for mutual benefit ”.

Pilar Escuder has emphasized the importance of analyzing what are the challenges faced by the family business "These organizations face challenges derived from their origin, such as crisis management that may arise from family relationships and emotional conflicts ”.

Juan Ángel Lafuente, director of the Ciutat de Castelló Chair, has been in charge of presenting the Chair's lines of work and giving way to the speaker.

Remedios Hernández has addressed corporate entrepreneurship and innovation in family SMEs. Hernández is a Doctor from the University of Cantabria, a professor at the University of Extremadura and an expert in family business. She is a researcher with extensive experience in the fields of entrepreneurship, business strategy and business families. She is associate editor of the European Journal of Family Business. "We must work to recognize the importance and uniqueness of family businesses in the national economy," Hernández said. The business management specialist has given examples of intra-performance and innovative processes in family businesses in different sectors. “Family businesses are entrepreneurial and flexible. They react quickly thanks to the fact that decision-making is based on the family, in general, on a few people ”. "Right now, family SMEs face the added effort of laying the foundations for their recovery, after a crisis that has driven their modernization and digitization processes."

Gloria Serra, manager of FUE-UJI, has opened question time giving way to debate among the attendees.

The next session of the FUE-UJI Work Breakfasts will take place on Wednesday, November 24, with the participation of the expert in family SME management, Felipe Hernández. Karen Watkins will address succession planning in the family business on November 29.

ABOUT THE CÀTEDRA CIUTAT DE CASTELLÓ

The Ciutat de Castelló Chair, directed by Juan Ángel Lafuente, arises from an agreement between the Jaume I University and the Castelló de la Plana City Council signed in December 2017. The Chair's general objectives are the promotion of talent, training, research, the dissemination of knowledge and innovation in the geographical area of ​​Castelló de la Plana.

All the information about the FUE-UJI Business Breakfasts: The Family Business is available on the website of the Fundación Universitat Jaume I-Empresa: www.fue.uji.es