Centre for Family Business and Entrepreneurship (CFBE)

SPJIMR’s Centre for Family Business and Entrepreneurship (CFBE) provides family business leaders with the skills, ecosystem network, global outlook, and mindset required to pursue business growth while sustaining family values. CFBE offers a specialised Post Graduate Programme in Family Managed Business (offered since 1997 with more than 4000 graduates) and programmes in entrepreneurship and hosts varied networking and funding events. The Centre works with international researchers and publishes survey-based white papers on key issues facing Indian family businesses and micro, small and medium enterprises. 

Education

  • Modular Management Programmes

    PGPFMB

    Postgraduate Programme in Family Managed Business (PGPFMB) is our flagship programme. It is an 18-month modular programme designed to groom new entrants in family businesses.

    Start Your Business (SYB)

    Start Your Business Programme is for aspiring entrepreneurs and early-stage start-ups.  It aims to provide knowledge and skills and instil the right attitude to help its participants create a sustainable business venture.

    Graduate Certificate Programme in Entrepreneurship A Fast-Track Entrepreneurship Programme

    The Graduate Certification Programme in Entrepreneurship (GCPE) is designed especially for those with an entrepreneurial streak. It aims at fostering entrepreneurship that makes a difference among youth (undergraduates / fresh graduates of any discipline).

  • Management Development Programmes

    Advanced Management Programmes for Family Business Owners

    Advanced Management Programmes are for owners of family-managed businesses who are specifically seeking a short-term programme that covers a particular aspect of the business. It provides hands-on practical application to their problems in day-to-day business management and helps them plan for the future of their family and family businesses.

    Programme Modules

    • Rebuilding to Grow Again: Conducting Diagnosis and Finding Organisational Remedies 
    • Financial Strategy for Business – Reading beyond numbers
    • Digital Transformation for SMEs
    • Setting up for the Long Haul: Surviving and Thriving across generations
    • Theory Of Constraints

Events

  • April 8, 2023

    Viraasat: Celebrating Indian Family Businesses

    Viraasat was a celebration of family businesses in India, hosted by SPJIMR Centre for Family Business & Entrepreneurship (CFBE). It was graced by the Hon’ble Minister of Road Transport & Highways, Shri. Nitin Gadkari, and attended by dignitaries including Mr. Anant Singhania, Mr. Deepak Parekh, Mr. Jagdish Lakhani and Mr. Yogi Sriram. The event featured plenary sessions, panel discussions, a Tête-à-tête with Family Business Entrepreneurs, and the vRddhi Pitch Fest and concluded with a Fireside Chat with Startup Trailblazers.

  • February 18, 2023

    Beta Start 2023

    Beta Start is SPJIMR’s flagship Demo Day, where early-growth stage startups can pitch their business to a room of investors, experienced entrepreneurs, and corporate leaders. Pitch to and be evaluated by investors including 100X.VC, Ah! Ventures, TiE Pune, MSInS, LeadSquared, amongst others.

Initiatives

  • Beta Start

    Beta Start is CFBE’s flagship Pitch Day event, aimed at empowering and accelerating the growth of upcoming seed/pre-seed stage start-ups by providing them with a platform to showcase their innovative ideas to investors, industry experts and other stakeholders. The event not only promotes innovation but also fosters connections between start-ups and investors, opening doors to potential funding opportunities.

  • vRddhi

    vRddhi is a unique venture accelerator platform launched by the Centre for Family Business and Entrepreneurship

    The accelerator is based on the insight that while many family businesses (especially small and medium family enterprises) and startups lack funding as well as managerial inputs and insights, there are others who can step in to provide not just financial capital but also network capital, engagement capital and the Emotional Quotient capital required by the former.

    Know More

  • Association with Young Indians (YI) - An Integral Part of CII

    Young Indians (YI) is an excellent platform for young people in India to contribute to nation-building. It has been in existence for two decades now. It is a movement for Youth to converge, lead, co-create and influence India’s future. YUVA, one of the most active focus areas within YI, engages students from across the country in various initiatives conceptualised, planned and executed by the students. These industry-academia collaborations give students a strong foundation to learn and grow beyond formal education.

Publications

29 Jun 2022

MSME financing challenges still remain

Tulsi Jayakumar View More
19 Apr 2022

Government support a must for the poor and MSMEs

Tulsi Jayakumar View More
6 Apr 2022

MSMEs need innovative solutions as inflation kicks in

Tulsi Jayakumar View More

In the News

  • January 23, 2023

    INDIA: State of the Family Business Report

  • March 3, 2022

    Family firm ownership and its impact on performance: evidence from an emerging market

  • February 19, 2022

    Let us raise a toast to family entrepreneurship in India

  • January 20, 2022

    Family Business Management

  • January 18, 2022

    Funding for family-run businesses - Survive and thrive in the new age economy'

  • April 24, 2020

    Small Units in distress as pandemic drives away business

Podcasts

  • Play your game as if there is room for only one

    How did a talented cricketer, coached by none other than Ramakant Achrekar, start his entrepreneurial journey at the age of 23 and go on to become one of India’s most successful bankers?

Team

  • People

    • Key Leadership

      • Tulsi Jayakumar

        Tulsi Jayakumar is the Executive Director of the Centre for Family Business and Entrepreneurship (CFBE). A Professor of Economics with 30 years of rich academic experience, she has received the Certificate for Family Business Advising (CFBA) and the Certificate for Family Wealth Advising (CFWA) from the Family Firm Institute, Boston. Dr. Jayakumar writes extensively in the media and is a thought leader in her chosen areas. Her articles in peer-reviewed journals and her cases are globally acclaimed  as ‘Global Best-Selling’ and ‘Most Popular’ cases and are available on global case repositories – Harvard and Ivey. She has co-authored two books: “How TCS built an Industry for India”, released in Feb 2020,  and “How Uday Kotak built a valuable Indian bank”, released in March 2021. 

    • Mentor in Residence

      • Ganga Chitnis

        Ganga Chitnis is a Mentor in Residence at SPJIMR CFBE & Sine IIT B. She has been associated for over 30 years with entrepreneurs, founders and promoters of startups as well as small and medium enterprises in various roles, including being an SME banker with India’s largest private bank, educator, mentor and facilitator. In addition, she mentors incubatees/startups with other leading incubators in the country. She is associated as a consultant for Indian Step & Business Incubator Association and is a resource person for the CII startup council. Her blend of corporate experience along with academic orientation helps her connect with the entrepreneur and startup community seamlessly.

    • Clinical Faculty

      • Amit Sharma (Khandelwal)

        Amit Sharma (Khandelwal) is the Co-founder & CEO of two startups, McareSpareParts.com (India’s fastest emerging online store for mobile spare parts, tools and smart gadgets) and Sault.in (Airplugs and Smartfits).

      • Ravindra Dey

        Founder and member of the Enneagram Academy of India, Ravindra is a fellow and management graduate in the area of Human Resources with over 25 years of rich experience in teaching and corporate management roles.

      • Ajay Dang

        An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA), Ajay has over 27 years of work experience in sales, marketing and business assignments with a diverse set of challenges and business drivers.

      • Farzan Ghadially

        Farzan Ghadially is Senator India, The World Business Angel Forum (WBAF), and an affiliated partner of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI). As a Senator, his role includes helping the start-up / early-stage companies along with SMEs to rise to a global scale leveraging the WBAF network across 111 countries around the globe.

    • Key Administrators

      • Dhanashri Gokhale

        Dhanashri Gokhale is a Programme Coordinator at the CFBE. She holds a master’s degree in Law from Mumbai University and has over sixteen years of experience in academic administration and coordination. 

        Email: dhanashri.gokhale@spjimr.org 

        Call: 022-61454322

      • Shilpa Mehta

        Shilpa Mehta is the external relations and admissions outreach associate at CFBE, SPJIMR. She has an overall work experience of over 15+ years in the hospitality industry, teaching and non-teaching roles in the education field.

        Email : shilpa.mehta@spjimr.org

        Call : 022-62134442

         

      • Mayuri Karkera is the programme manager for PGPFMB at CFBE. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and has completed Postgraduate Diploma in Planning and Management from IIPM, Mumbai. She has over 12 years of experience in the education industry, which includes product development, business development as well as overall operations.

        Email: mayuri.karkera@spjimr.org

        Call: 022-61454307

    • International Research Affiliates

      • Tanja Leppäaho

        Tanja Leppäaho is Professor in Growth entrepreneurship, Akatemiatutkija / Academy Research Fellow, LUT University, Finland  and Vice Director for LBM Doctoral School, LUT University, Finland. She was recognised as the leading scholar and expert in the area of family SME internationalisation on a global scale by Pukàll and Calabro (2014). Previously she held a tenure track in International Business and Entrepreneurship at the University of Jyväskylä and was a Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh Business School, UK. In her current IBE project “Building Theory on the family business internationalization process” core areas of focus are the internationalisation process of firms through times, networking and family ownership. She has been published in various journals including Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, British Journal of Management, Family Business Review, Journal of Small Business Management, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, British Journal of Management, and International Business Review. She was awarded the best paper award by the leading conference in entrepreneurship, Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference for her work co-authored by Professor Sarah Jack.  Her areas of interest are international entrepreneurship, networking, process, family entrepreneurship, sustainable entrepreneurship and qualitative methodology.  

      • Andrea Calabrò

        Andrea Calabrò is Director of the IPAG Entrepreneurship & Family Business Center and Professor of Family Business & Entrepreneurship at IPAG Business School, France. He is the Global Academic Director of the STEP (Successful Transgenerational Entrepreneurship Practices) Project Global Consortium www.thestepproject.org). He has published journal articles on family firms, internationalisation, and corporate governance in leading international journals such as Strategic Management Journal, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of International Business Studies, Family Business Review, Harvard Business Review, and Journal of Business Ethics. His latest book, “A Research Agenda for Family Business: A Way Ahead for the Field”, has been published with Edward Elgar Publishing and sets the stage for a shift in the family business debate. His research has appeared in several practitioner-oriented outlets such as The Wall Street Journal. He is the author of several practice-oriented family business reports. He serves as an advisor to family businesses and coaches next-generation members.

Partners

  • Key Partners

    STEP Project

    SPJIMR is an affiliate of the internationally recognised Stichting STEP Project Global Consortium (SPGC). It is a global applied research initiative that explores business practices within family-managed businesses to generate solutions that have immediate application for family business leaders. The research insights are specifically relevant to developing new theoretical insights that can offer novel and valuable best practice recommendations to the business stakeholders and the practice community at large.

SPJIMR is also an affiliate of the STEP Project. The STEP Project Global Consortium is a global applied research initiative that explores family and business practices within business families and generates solutions that have immediate application for family business leaders. The STEP Project Global Consortium is a leading global family business research project with an international reputation. The research insights are specifically relevant to developing new theoretical insights that can offer novel and valuable best practice recommendations to the business stakeholders and the practice community at large.

Reports

India: State of Family Business Report 2023

The 2023 edition of the SPJIMR CFBE report provides a detailed exploration of the core attributes of Indian family businesses, with particular emphasis on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This comprehensive report offers invaluable insights into the intricacies of family businesses in India, shedding light on their challenges, successes, and evolving strategies.

Know More

India: State of Family Business Report 2022

CFBE recently released the “India: State of the Family Business Report” that finds small and medium family businesses are relatively unscathed from the business front. Instead, family issues may prove to be the proverbial Achilles’ heel for such businesses. The study involved a survey of 350 family businesses across India from May-October 2022, conducted by Hansa Research. It found that most small and medium family enterprises have reported either stable or increasing trends across various parameters such as sales, market share, profitability, number of people employed, and profit margin on sales in FY 2021-22.

Know More

Contact Us

Centre for Family Business and Entrepreneurship (CFBE)

+91-22 – 6145 4306

+91-22 – 6213 4474

dhanashri.gokhale@spjimr.org

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