Follett Family Enterprise Learning
Welcome to Follett Family Enterprise Learning.
Here you will find engaging and interactive, real-world cases ideal for family enterprise courses and management courses that include family enterprise topics. The cases and associated materials are targeted for undergraduate and MBA students and use the case method of learning and are based on actual problems that leaders in family enterprises – all members of Loyola’ Family Business Center - have faced. Case questions ask students to determine a course of action and have learning outcomes related to aspects of family enterprises learning: the nexus of business, ownership and management, and the family.
Mission
Follett Family Enterprise Learning at Loyola University Chicago, Quinlan School of Business, Family Business Center is funded by a grant from members of the Follett Family. In 2022, after 150 years solely in the hands of the Follett family, the family sold Follett Corporation, its higher education, K-12 library software and learning materials and public library software businesses.
To continue the legacy of the company’s founder, D.W. Follett, and to continue the family’s legacy at the forefront of education and technology, members of the family donated the funds for Follett Family Enterprise Learning. FFEL provides excellent course content at the cutting edge of technology to allow for wider access to education about family enterprise, allowing the Follett family to continue its leadership role in delivering transformational learning materials.
What we offer
Learning Resources
Storytelling
FFEL offers cases and teaching notes supported by storytelling assets hosted at this site. Videos of interviews of key family members in the cases allow learners to delve into the complexities of making decisions in a family business. Cases cover topics essential to family enterprises, including:
- Governance and Leadership: Best practices for effective governance, leadership development, and succession planning.
- Family Dynamics: Strategies for managing family relationships, conflict resolution, and fostering a positive family culture.
- Business Strategy: Insights on strategic planning, innovation, and growth tailored to the unique needs of family businesses.
- Financial Management: Guidance on financial planning, wealth management, and sustaining financial health across generations.
Learning Outcomes
Learning outcomes of FFEL content are specific to the concerns of family enterprises.
- Succession Planning: Understand how successful family enterprises handle leadership transitions and prepare the next generation.
- Conflict Resolution: Evaluate strategies used by family businesses to navigate internal conflicts and maintain harmony.
- Growth and Innovation: Apply course concepts to analyzing examples of how family enterprises innovate and grow while staying true to their values and legacy.
- Governance Models: Differentiate approaches to governance that have helped family businesses sustain and flourish.
- Sustainability: Analyze how family leaders made decisions for the long-term that contribute to the wellbeing of the business, the family, the community, and the ecology in which the family does business.
- Discernment: Learn how family members overcame challenges, implemented best practices, and achieved long-term success. Students reflect on the ways that they can apply these tactics to their family enterprise contexts.
Meet our Lead Scholar
Katherine Sredl
Dr. Sredl's work has significantly impacted gender studies within marketing by theorizing and demonstrating how macro-level changes such as globalization and digitization impact and are impacted by consumers in their everyday life through everyday rituals. She uses her Croatian and American identities to integrate, challenge, and embrace data and theory in her ethnographic research. Her three most cited publications ask how portrayals of gender roles in media impacts consumption, how women respond to globalization in daily rituals, and how consumers in post-conflict markets respond to peace treaties in daily life (Dayton Accord). As an instructor, her greatest accomplishment is sending lifelong learners into marketing jobs with the knowledge, skills, and emotional intelligence to succeed in the industry and light the world on fire. Writing cases for the Follett Fellowship has given Sredl, who grew up in a family business, an opportunity to unite that experience with her academic and consulting background in multimedia storytelling.
Faculty BioHere you will find engaging and interactive, real-world cases ideal for family enterprise courses and management courses that include family enterprise topics. The cases and associated materials are targeted for undergraduate and MBA students and use the case method of learning and are based on actual problems that leaders in family enterprises – all members of Loyola’ Family Business Center - have faced. Case questions ask students to determine a course of action and have learning outcomes related to aspects of family enterprises learning: the nexus of business, ownership and management, and the family.
Mission
Follett Family Enterprise Learning at Loyola University Chicago, Quinlan School of Business, Family Business Center is funded by a grant from members of the Follett Family. In 2022, after 150 years solely in the hands of the Follett family, the family sold Follett Corporation, its higher education, K-12 library software and learning materials and public library software businesses.
To continue the legacy of the company’s founder, D.W. Follett, and to continue the family’s legacy at the forefront of education and technology, members of the family donated the funds for Follett Family Enterprise Learning. FFEL provides excellent course content at the cutting edge of technology to allow for wider access to education about family enterprise, allowing the Follett family to continue its leadership role in delivering transformational learning materials.