The Center of Family Businesses is headed by Prof. Dr. Claus Gerberich

Family businesses are the backbone of the economy. Programs should therefore be tailored precisely to this target group, or better yet, to the individual situation of each company.

Prof. Dr. Claus Gerberich

Director of the KOFA Competence Center for Family Businesses at the St. Gallen Business School

Senator at the EWIF European Economic Forum eV

Telephone: +41 71 225 40 80
E-Mail: claus.gerberich@sgbs.ch

Here is an example of tasks in which Prof. Gerberich and the team at the KOFA Competence Center for Family Businesses can advise, support and accompany you:

Running a family business

Running a family business is a special challenge. In our seminars we show what is important in order to harvest skillfully and sow sensibly.
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Utilizing special strengths

Family businesses have very special strengths. But only if they are used correctly. The seminar is for entrepreneurs from SMEs and medium-sized companies as well as for managing directors of family businesses.
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Ensuring growth

An old management rule says: “The better the company is doing today, the more at risk its future is.” Even if the statement is deliberately exaggerated, companies often achieve the best profitability when the decline has already begun. In stagnation. When too little is invested in the future. Due to a lack of options. Growing and developing successfully over the long term, even across generations, is an art, not something that can be taken for granted.
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Maintain and increase profitability

The normal life cycle: First you invest, then if you are successful you make a lot of money. The high profitability attracts imitators to enter the market. If this succeeds, the pressure of competition increases, and without constant renewal of customer benefits, profit margins decrease. The industry and your own business gradually become less profitable. What can you do? How can you maintain and increase profitability?
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Find, manage and promote employees

Of course, you never have the employees you need. Certainly not when you want to grow; when changes from outside require new skills; when you need more entrepreneurs and fewer administrators. Finding the right employees, managing them all properly and supporting them is a lifelong entrepreneurial task. What can you do?
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Ensuring financing and liquidity

The impact of the various business decisions on growth, innovation, internationalization, development of new markets, digitalization, expansion of capacities and more is often much greater than initially thought. Family businesses need a particularly high level of financial competence. Unlike listed companies, measures such as capital increases or “CEO leaving the company and ‘taking over’ responsibility” are not negotiable. What does far-sighted financial management mean?
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Securing family assets

Young entrepreneurs often have no choice: they have to put everything on the line, risk everything, even personal bankruptcy. Entrepreneurs who have been successful for many years or who have inherited a long-established company from their ancestors should avoid this if possible. Anyone who repeatedly puts everything they have acquired at risk through ever-increasing ‘deals’ is acting like a gambler, not an entrepreneur.
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Ensure succession early on

Illness or death should not be the starting point for a succession plan in medium-sized companies. This issue should be addressed very early on. Ideally when no one is expecting or demanding it. Once the company has reached a certain size, has a certain number of employees for whom you are responsible and certainly in order to avoid disputes among the heirs, the succession should be regulated, regardless of whether the entrepreneur is 40 or 60 years old.