Sasin’s team, B-Rabbit, was the winner of the Schlesinger Global – Family Enterprise Case Competition (SG-FECC) graduate league held in Vermont, USA, outperforming twenty-five student teams from 12 countries across five continents. The winning members include Sasin MBA 2023 students Sofia Ajami Arkomdhon and Chavaphon Lertnavasrichai, Sasin MBA 2021 student Proud Chanarat, and Sasin EMBA 2023 student Krit Vanapruks. The competition was a four-day event where they had to work on four different family business cases. They were given two laptops and four hours to prepare their final family business case presentation. The students said that a combination of their skills in technology, family business, and experience working in a non-profit sector gave them an advantage over other teams. The other factors that led them to victory were applying a “humancentric approach” and “empathy” to create a sound succession plan. Proud said that the SG-FECC brought to light the relationship-building and emotional aspects of the stakeholders, which involved understanding the family dynamics between family members. “It’s important to try to understand each other in a business family setting and to make the succession plan and governance plan out of empathy and shared values between the family members,” she said. Both contestants, Chavaphon and Krit, come from family business backgrounds. Chavaphon oversees a jewelry business, while Krit is involved in managing his family’s senior nursing home. Chavaphon found that dealing with the dynamics in family relationships and how families can smoothly transfer their businesses from one generation to the next is a challenge in family businesses. He realized it’s important to have clear rules about who takes over from the first generation and what experiences they need to have. Similarly, Krit added, “What I have learned going through the cases is that half or most of them don’t have a very good succession plan or successor training.”

“This competition has taught me a lot about empathy, that family business needs empathy. It’s important to try to understand each other in a family business setting and to make succession plans and governance plans out of empathy as well.”– Proud Chanarat, MBA 2023

Although Proud and Sofia haven’t worked in their family businesses, their participation in this competition has also provided them with valuable insights. Proud stressed the importance of fostering harmony within the family and integrating it with the family business as a crucial step toward overall family improvement. Additionally, she noted the prevalence of family businesses in Thailand and highlighted the potential for effective solutions by utilizing appropriate tools and frameworks tailored to the specific challenges faced. Similarly, Sofia learned a similar lesson, adding, “I think that the human part is quite useful in applying to future work regardless of whether it’s a family business or not. To be able to be human-centric in our approach in any projects moving forward will be very helpful.” The students credited Sasin’s courses, Digital Transformation and Financial Management, which gave them the knowledge to apply to the family business case competition. “The course at Sasin that allowed me to be very radical about coming up with the solution is Digital Transformation taught by Professor Alvin…The course allows me to have very good frameworks into applying on how the business should move forward and what kind of data that they could utilize to make sure that they [the family business] stay at the forefront of their competitive space,” said Sofia. Chavaphon added that a team member also remembered to apply what they learned in the Financial Management course to the family business case.

“This case competition is a very good learning experience for me to gain more knowledge and gain more experience and also develop my own presentation skills whenever I see my clients in the future or wherever I go.” – Chavaphon Lertnavasrichai, MBA 2023

They also were grateful to their coach, Tanachote “Champ” Vongsurbchart, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Sasin School of Management and Sasin’s alumnus (MBA 2015), for guiding them and giving them tips on the competition. Tanachote organized the Family Enterprise Case Competition – Asia Pacific (FECC-AP) where team B-Rabbit and the National Taiwan University team emerged as winners and secured a spot at the SG-FECC. Chavaphon highly recommended students participate in the Family Enterprise Case Competition. “One of my plans is to get into consulting after Sasin. This case competition is a very good learning experience for me to gain more knowledge and develop my presentation skills when I see my clients or wherever I go,” he said. Proud also agreed, “It’s definitely for people who want to step out of their comfort zone to do something intense, something that requires a lot of brainpower, empathy, teamwork skills, and presentation skills.” The competition, which brought together teams from around the world, showcased the exceptional skills and strategic thinking of Sasin’s students. Through their innovative approach and human-centric perspective, they not only secured victory but also gained invaluable insights into the dynamics of family businesses.