Upcoming Seminar: Industrial Adventures of the School of Paris

The École de Paris du management is pleased to invite you to the September session of the “Aventures industrielles” seminar, organized with the support of the UIMM and La Fabrique de l’industrie:

Emotion and Reason in the Governance
of Family Businesses familiales
by
Gérard HIRIGOYEN
Professor Emeritus, University of Bordeaux

Tuesday, September 22, 2026
from 5:30 p.m. (sharp) to 7:30 p.m.
à Mines Paris – 60, boulevard Saint-Michel, 75006 Paris
Registration

(remote participation is possible)

Brief introduction :
To assert their distinctiveness, SMEs and mid-sized companies need long-term governance, but this is no easy task when they depend on funds whose horizon is limited to five or seven years: choices must be explained to them in often quantified terms, whereas long-term projects are more akin to a bet that is difficult to quantify in terms of probability. This is why family businesses have an advantage: they naturally take a long-term view because the future of the company is also the future of generations to come. The emotional dimension of family relationships and the rational dimension of management combine to enable remarkable ventures. But the emotional can go astray: disagreements, or even jealousies, can become serious handicaps. Gérard Hirigoyen, whose work on family businesses is widely referenced, will illustrate the virtues and pitfalls of the relationship between the rational and the emotional, and how family charters can help mitigate these risks.

To learn about the other sessions of the École de Paris, you can consult the general agenda on our website.: www.ecole.org/fr/agenda