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I am just coming back from Chicago, where I spent five days with Family members of businesses all around the world at the 21^st Family Business Network International Summit http://www.fbn-i.org/summit/representing a Family Business myself. It had been 25 years, since I hadn’t returned to Chicago where I had spent some time on the campus on an exchange program between the Business School of the University of Chicago and the French Business School ESSEC. Besides a whole set of new towers downtown and coming from Hyde Park, the taste of Chicago hasn’t change to me. The wonderful buildings are still there. The Mayor Richard M. Daley has planted many trees and flowers that make Chicagoans proud of their new park called “Millennium”. And being able to see the impressionists and the oriental collections at the great Gala that took place in the new modern wing of The Art Institute was a real treat.
 
I think it was important to be at this FBN Conference to measure and learn from how family businesses are doing whatever country they come from, and also see if the emerging countries face different challenges. It was a clear confirmation that Europe and the States are struggling for market shares and constant renewal of technologies while Latin American, Indians and Singaporians are flourishing in fantastic new markets they contribute to build. It is more than a coincidence that The Brazilian Odebrecht Organization won the Family Business Award, neither that the two speakers on Women in leadership came from India, with Sangita Reddy, Executive Director, Apollo Hospitals Group and Latin America. “Leadership is when you help others in their growth and their development” said Mary Alice Carvajal Crump, I seek to be “a nurturer of champions”.
 
The presentation of the story of Motorola told by Chris Galvin, the former Chairman, showed the incredible ups and downs that this American family had to face in order to reinvent their models constantly. The summit ended nevertheless on an optimistic note for Europe with the presentation of the 34 years old John Elkann, Chairman of Fiat and EXOR. This young man joined the board of Directors at 21 years old, and said repeatedly that what he kept from his grandfather Agnelli was that he should never feel afraid. If I don’t know he said, then I ask questions. No show off or over self-affirmation. A message of hope to charismatic Family Business leaders that think that it would be impossible to have a successor.