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This week veteran car maker Ford celebrates its 100th anniversary. The company that revolutionized manufacturing with the introduction of the moving assembly line and became the first to produce "a car for the great multitude" is also one of the few multinationals that has remained in the hands of its founding family. Four generations of Fords have built a business empire that each year sells an average of 3.5 million cars of 10 different makes throughout the world. And yet, this apparently smooth progress has never been plain sailing: the company has had its crises, some of them marked by shake-ups at the top.
IESE's Chair of Family-Owned Business has been investigating these issues for many years. Now, its researcher Ercilia García Alvarez analyzes the models of socialization of successors in family-owned firms and the reasons for their success or failure. Also in this edition of IESE Insight, new studies on adversity management, and ethics and Internet use at work.
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Corporate Governance |
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I did it my way. Now you do it yours |
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| Ercilia García Álvarez, Jordi López Sintas, Pilar Saldaña |
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Years ago, as a young entrepreneur, you set up your own business. By dint of hard work and determination, taking risks and seizing opportunities, you built your company into what it is today: it's your "baby". But now it's time to let go and hand over to someone else. What better solution than to hand over to someone who also was once your baby and so keep the business in the family? Ercilia García Alvarez of IESE Family Business Chair and others discuss the process of succession in family companies, pointing out that the keys to a successful transition often lie in the past. 
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Economics |
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European banks stay at home |
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| Jordi Gual |
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| Due to the nature of the banking industry, the integration of retail banking in the European Union is a highly complex matter. Given the difficulties of adapting to local practices, the differences in national regulations and, most of all, the importance of preserving their good name, financial institutions seem more interested in building a strong position at home than in getting into a competitive fight abroad. In his paper "The Integration of EU Banking Markets", Jordi Gual, Professor of Economics at IESE, assesses the effectiveness of the policies adopted to create a single market for banking services in Europe.
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Business Ethics |
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From Principles to Ethical Management |
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| Antonio Argandoña |
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| How can companies promote and maintain ethical behaviour? According to IESE Professor Antonio Argandoña, there are three types of solutions to the problems deriving from companies' ethical, social and environmental responsibilities: authority-based, market-based, and management based. However, for ethics to have any effect within the company, it must be based on a body of internal rules that set standards and mould behaviour. This paper offers some ideas on how to define ethical management systems.
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Organizations and People |
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Personnel selection discriminates against motherhood |
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| Mª Nuria Chinchilla, Ignasi Martí, Steven Poelmans |
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| Although women are now fully part of the labour force, they are still discriminated against at work. Lower pay, slower promotion and other injustices have been regularly denounced by unions and professional associations. Yet discrimination begins with personnel selection. In their paper "Criterios de decisión en los procesos de selección en España: ¿se discrimina a la mujer?" Professors Steven Poelmans and Nuria Chinchilla of IESE and Doctoral Candidate Ignasi Martí reveal that, given candidates with equal experience and abilities, the factor that determines the hiring decision is not whether the candidate is a man or a woman but whether she is, or is likely to become, a mother.
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Leadership, Strategy and Change |
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Leadership, a Matter of Character |
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| Santiago Alvarez de Mon |
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| What is it that gives a person the ability to deal with hardship, make clear-headed decisions and act accordingly? What can one expect of a leader in such circumstances? In his book "Desde la adversidad. Liderazgo, cuestión de carácter" (Through Hardship. Leadership: A Matter of Character), IESE Professor Santiago Alvarez de Mon answers these questions through an analysis of the lives of Nelson Mandela, José Carreras, Lance Armstrong, Christopher Reeve, Helen Keller, Andrea Bocelli, and others who confronted failure, disease, solitude or loss of freedom.
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E-Business |
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Use and abuse of the Internet in the Spanish companies |
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| Roberto García, Juan Fontrodona |
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| Unauthorized use of the Internet and e-mail while at work is becoming a common reason for dismissal. Because it is such a recent phenomenon, however, and because many companies have no written policy on Internet use, the resulting disputes often end up in the courts. To what extent are employees entitled to use company resources such as Internet access and e-mail for their own personal benefit? Should companies be allowed to monitor their employees' Internet use and e-mails? This study looks at the situation in large Spanish companies and seeks to clarify the ethical issues involved.
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