The Family Managed Business (FMB) programme has a custom designed architecture reflecting the central theme of preparing the participant for leadership of his/her family business. The architecture adopted focuses on the objectives and pedagogy for fulfilling the theme.

The objectives are to:

• Equip young family business managers with management concepts and techniques for meeting the distinct challenges in managing a successful, growing family business.
  
• Prepare the family member for developing a strategic and general management understanding of the business backed up with a global perspective.
  
• Inculcate in the family member the attributes of continuous learning and reflection which would enable him/her to keep abreast of the future.
  
• Develop a keen business interest in the external world beyond the family and the business.
  Understand and synergise the dual role played by a family member, as a member of the owner family, and as a business manager.

The concept and design of the Programme for Family Managed Businesses follows from a certain philosophy of what learning, including managerial learning, is and how it is best facilitated in a formal MBA Programme.

Pedagogy

• First, we believe that true learning takes place through application, by actual experience in real life, no matter how well something is explained in the classroom. This is because, unlike with classroom exercises, no business problem is a standalone problem; it occurs in a certain historical context within the organization and it has ramifications that go well beyond any function, extending to the organization as a whole. The integrated approach to problem identification and problem solving is something that is not captured well in most classroom exercises. Our Programme accordingly attempts to focus on the workplace and on discussions of real life situations in participants' businesses. Participants will be required to constantly relate theoretical frameworks and concepts to actual business realities. This is why the Programme is designed so that participants are not required to leave their workplace for the full duration of the Programme.
  
  
• Secondly, learning is a matter of discovering through reflection and critical inquiry even while one is in the process of acting. The individual teaches himself from his problem or situation and asks: why are things not working out? What is going wrong here? The individual may use various theoretical concepts in dealing with his problem, but it is the thrill of discovery in real life that constitutes true learning, learning that the individual carries with him throughout his life. For this to happen, the individual must develop the capacity to learn by himself. Our Programme, accordingly, emphasizes self-learning.
  
  
• Thirdly, we think learning requires observation of the world around us and a willingness to learn from others, and that it is more effective when it is fun. Our Programme will, therefore, encourage and require group learning through the formation of peer groups. Learning will take place when people sit around in a spirit of camaraderie, share problems and invite solutions from peers and, quite possibly, from their elders.

Following from the above, the Programme uses the following pedagogic approaches:

• programmed self-learning and group learning
  
• well structured classroom sessions
  
• interaction with teaching faculty, face-to-face as well as through computer networking
  
• project work as application of concepts to real life situations
  
• experiential learning though visits and interaction at selected business "sites"
  
• An e-mail network that would allow interaction among participants and between participants and faculty.