Family business programs at Harvard, Kellogg and IMD

Harvard, Kellogg and IMD each run short, well-regarded programs for business-owning families. They cover ownership, governance, succession, family dynamics and strategy, taught through cases and discussion with peers from other family enterprises. What they do not cover is one successor’s own board, team and parent, rehearsed over months. They give the family a shared map, not individual practice in the rooms that matter.

That is not a criticism. A program of four or five days is designed to do something different, and it does that well. The useful question for a parent is which need a given program meets, and which need it leaves for something else.

The descriptions below come only from each school’s official program page, as published on 12 November 2026. Dates, fees and content change, so check the page before deciding.

Harvard Business School: Rising Generation in the Family Enterprise

Rising Generation in the Family Enterprise is written for the next generation of business-owning families, including descendants and in-laws, whether or not they currently work in the business, the family office or the foundation. The page says it is not intended for long-serving CEOs or CFOs of family businesses.

Format. In person, on the HBS campus.
Length. Four days, listed for 16 to 19 June 2027, plus 12 to 15 hours of pre-program work.
Published fee. $13,500, which the page says covers tuition, program materials, accommodation and most meals.
What it covers. The responsibilities that come with a business legacy and significant wealth, family business fundamentals and owner roles, difficult conversations with family members including elders, managing family wealth, balancing family control with professionalisation and growth, and civic responsibility.

Of the three, this is the program aimed most directly at the successor’s generation. It is a strong choice for a young family member who needs to understand the whole system they are joining, and to meet others in the same position.

Kellogg School of Management: Governing Family Enterprises

Kellogg’s Family Enterprise Suite groups several programs for “established, new and aspiring family business leaders”, run by the John L. Ward Center for Family Enterprises. The one with full published details today is Governing Family Enterprises.

Who it is for. Directors, CEOs, board chairs, trustees and family shareholders of family-controlled firms that are third generation or beyond, with at least $100 million in annual revenue. First- and second-generation families are directed to a separate program, Forming Family Enterprise Governance.
Format. Blended: pre-program profiles, a half-day live virtual session, then an in-person week. Up to five participants from one family enterprise can attend together.
Length and dates. Two sessions are listed for 2027: March, with the in-person days in Miami, and September to October, in Evanston.
Published fee. $12,000 for the March session, without accommodation; $13,500 for the autumn session, with accommodation.
What it covers. A theory of family business governance, how shareholder families evolve, the roles of owners, family councils, boards and management, and how to improve board decision-making.

This is a governance program first. It suits a family that is redesigning how it owns and oversees the business, and wants several members to learn the same language at the same time.

IMD: Leading your Family Business

Leading your Family Business at IMD in Lausanne is designed for members of the same family to attend together. The page recommends coming as a team: several generations, siblings, cousins or key non-family managers.

Format. On campus in Lausanne.
Length and dates. Five days, with sessions listed for 15 to 19 March 2027 and 30 August to 3 September 2027.
Published fee. CHF 11,900. The admission page says tuition, teaching materials and lunch are included, and that the fifth participant from the same family business attends free of charge.
What it covers. What makes a family business successful, the forces acting on it, growth, governance, succession and culture, and how to keep the business adaptable for future generations.

Its particular strength is the shared experience. A family that sits through the same five days comes home with a common vocabulary, which makes later conversations easier.

What these programs do well

All three have real value, and it goes well beyond the certificate.

Frameworks. Ownership, governance and succession are hard to think about clearly from inside one family. A good framework gives everyone the same terms.
Peers. Meeting other families with the same tensions is often the most useful part. It makes problems feel normal and solutions feel possible.
Faculty. These schools have spent decades studying family enterprise. The case material is serious.
A neutral setting. Hard topics are sometimes easier to raise in a classroom than at the kitchen table.
A visible signal. Attending tells the family and the company that preparation is being taken seriously.

What they are not designed to cover

The limits follow from the format, not from the quality of teaching.

Your successor’s real calendar. A week on campus cannot rehearse next month’s board meeting or the first company address.
How the successor actually comes across. There is no recording of them presenting to your board, and no confidential interviews with your senior team.
Change over time. Authority in the room is built through repetition and feedback over months. A short program can start that, but it cannot follow it.
Your specific family conversation. Cases about other families are useful. They are not the conversation between this parent and this successor about which decisions move, and when.
Individual delivery. How the successor speaks under pressure, holds disagreement and states a decision is rarely the focus of a family enterprise program.

The same pattern appears with degrees and with banks’ offerings: knowledge transfers well in a group, authority in a specific room does not. Is an MBA enough to prepare a successor? covers the degree side, and what a bank’s next-generation program covers covers the private banking side.

How to choose between them

A few questions sort most families quickly.

Who needs to learn? If it is mainly the successor, the HBS program is built for them. If it is several family members together, IMD and Kellogg are designed for teams.
What is the main problem? If it is governance and ownership, Kellogg’s suite is the most specific. If it is the business and the family more broadly, IMD and HBS cast a wider net.
What generation is the business? Kellogg’s Governing Family Enterprises is for third generation and beyond. Check eligibility before planning around it.
What happens afterwards? Decide in advance how the ideas will be used at home, or they tend to stay in the binder.

How Second Chair™ fits alongside them

Second Chair™ is not a classroom program and does not replace one. It is a six-month, one-to-one engagement for one successor, built around their real board meetings, company addresses and family conversations, with a private diagnostic at the start and a facilitated handover session at the end. Many families will reasonably want both: a program for the shared map, and individual work for the rooms the successor has to lead. On cost, the published fees above are lower than a six-month private engagement because they buy a different thing; how much successor coaching costs sets out that comparison.

In short

Harvard’s Rising Generation program is aimed at the next generation; Kellogg’s Governing Family Enterprises at governance in larger, older families; IMD’s Leading your Family Business at families attending as a team.
Each offers frameworks, faculty, peers and a neutral setting, and each is worth considering on its own merits.
None is designed to rehearse one successor’s real meetings over months or to settle a specific handover between parent and successor.
Check the official page for current dates, fees and eligibility before deciding.

How the one-to-one work runs, phase by phase, is described on the Second Chair™ method page.