The Fundation Universitat Jaume I-Business has hosted the last session of the FUE-UJI Business Breakfasts: Family Business, organized by the Càtedra Ciutat de Castelló in which Karen Watkins, professor at the International University of La Rioja, director of GEMFM Global Network, researcher and specialist in family business management, has intervened with her presentation on succession planning in family businesses.

Carlos Cabrera, executive president of the FUE-UJI, welcomed all the attendees, representatives of about twenty family businesses from Castellón. Pilar Escuder, Councilor for Tourism of the Castellón City Council; Javier Ordóñez, representative of the Ciutat de Castelló Chair; and Gloria Serra, manager of the FUE-UJI, accompanied Cabrera at the opening of the session.

«Succession in the family business is not an event, it is a process and we can and must plan it. You have to face that moment; If the succession is not planned, serious conflicts arise. ' Karen Watkins has indicated. "It is vital to carry out a calm and orderly generational transition to ensure the continuity of the family project," she added.

Watkins has explained that there is a high mortality of family businesses, which, in general, do not usually exceed the third generation. In addition, he has advised drawing up a family protocol "which is a common agreement, they are the rules of the game, a framework agreement that regulates the business family and indicates, among other matters, the roles of each family member and stipulates their obligations and rights."

Karen Watkins has stressed the “importance of designing in advance a succession plan that stipulates the retirement age, the criteria for the selection of the successor or successors in a transparent way and based on merit. In Spain, 70% of family businesses do not have a succession plan”.

Today's session closes a cycle of three sessions organized by the Ciutat de Castelló Chair, created in 2017 by the Jaume I University and the Castelló City Council.

Carlos Cabrera, executive president of the FUE-UJI, closed the meeting by recalling that “these Work Breakfasts, in addition to serving as a dissemination forum, have played an important role as a networking space between representatives of companies of different profiles, entities and staff of this University».