We support family businesses and entrepreneurial families in a variety of ways to manage their companies responsibly and position them for the future. With the PETER MAY Family Business Academy, we offer knowledge transfer in seminars and workshops on owner-strategic topics - on request also individually as an in-house event. With flagship events and various networking events, we want to provide a platform for sharing experience. In addition, we regularly address current topics relevant to family entrepreneurs in our publications, articles and digital formats.

Owner strategy next level

Two-day workshop for the development of family constitutions and succession concepts: In a circle of entrepreneurs and family members from several owner families, we develop solutions for the core questions that owners ask themselves with regards to the future of the company and family - around family strategy, governance, succession and investment policy. We aim at providing you with a basic framework for your family constitution as well as enabling a valuable exchange of experiences among the participants.

Seminars for entrepreneurs

We focus on selected aspects of owner strategies in one-day seminars for entrepreneurs, e.g. on succession, advisory board, family office or external management.

Ownership obliges!

Only qualified shareholders can be good co-entrepreneurs and fulfil their role as shareholders responsibly! Family shareholders who are not working in the family business can educate themselves in our modular special programme.

In our special programme for shareholders, we address the following topis in two two-day seminars:

• Typical functions and dependencies in a family business
• Roles in the family business, conflicts of interest and and conflict prevention
• Rights and above all duties as a shareholder
• Reading and understanding balance sheets (between the lines), assessing key financial figures
• Maintaining family assets Asset strategy and asset investments from a risk/return point of view

In addition to the factual content, you will also benefit considerably from the direct interaction with the speakers and the exchange with the other participants.

Professional and value-creating advisory board work requires personal maturity, leadership experience in managing family businesses and technical knowledge. In our courses, you will learn how to assess and accompany corporate strategy and corporate financing from the perspective of the advisory board, analyse balance sheets and evaluate key figures as well as practical information on liability and compliance.

Our special programme for members of advisory boards, supervisory boards and boards of directors.

Most medium-sized and large family businesses today have an advisory board. And the professionalism of the boards is increasing, as our studies show. But advisory boards are only as good as their members. They only bring added value when suitable personalities come together on the board, when they complement each other in their personal qualities and professional skills, and when they are passionately committed.

Our courses provide you with the know-how you need as an advisory board member beyond your professional qualifications. Above all, they help you view strategy and corporate management from the perspective of a sparring partner and companion, to professionally scrutinise financing, balance sheets and key figures, and to know your rights and obligations as an advisory board member as well as the liability risks.

The participants in our courses are:

• Entrepreneurs who want to change from a management to an advisory board role, who need to change their perspective and who want to acquire the tools they need for strategy support and control.
• Shareholders who want to prepare for an advisory board role and learn the tools for good advisory board work.
• Managing directors and managers who would like to take on an advisory board role in a family business and familiarise themselves with the peculiarities and specifics of family businesses.

In addition to the top-quality of the content, you will also benefit considerably from the direct interaction with the speakers and the exchange with the other participants.

Best-practice | Building networks | Sharing experiences

Orientation programmes for younger Next Gens

Are you a member of an entrepreneurial family and still at the beginning of your career? You don't yet know what role you might eventually grow into in the family business? And you would like to take a closer look at the topic of family businesses in an exchange with like-minded people?

Then our three-day orientation workshop is just right for you. Here you will learn:

• Characteristics, correlations and different roles in the family business - and what that could mean for me.
• Work on your personal appearance in a relaxed and playful atmosphere
• Basic knowledge on the topic of "How to manage financial assets responsibly".

Qualification programmes for new leaders

Are you about to take on entrepreneurial responsibility in your parents' family business or have you just moved up to management? You want to initiate the digital transformation of your company, but you have to consolidate your own role in the company at the same time - e.g. at the side of or in succession to a strong predecessor personality? Are you looking for interactive ways to deepen your knowledge of business management, organisation and people management in a practical way for the responsibility ahead? And exchange ideas with new leaders in a similar situation? Then our special workshops are the right thing for you:

• Workshop “The strategic transformation of the company in implementation”.
• Workshop “Leadership in times of transformation and beyond”.
• Next Gen network meeting for 18 to approx. 28 year olds and for New Leaders

Our seminars and workshops for entrepreneurial families, other shareholders and Next Gen, as well as advisory and supervisory boards, are of course also available on request as tailor-made in-house programmes. We are happy to consider your individual constellation and objectives, your specific learning goals and milestones, your time constraints and other wishes.

Multipolar world disorder, de-globalisation, climate transformation society and an economic system unhinged by the energy war. The framework conditions for our family businesses have never been so unsorted. “Thinking with new variables”, the motto of our inaugural event in November 2022, continues to loom large and calls for continuation.

We are proud to have created a new platform with the SYMPOWNIUM - The Family Business Summit, which provides orientation for the multi-layered challenges in these times of upheaval.

Experience outstanding entrepreneurs unvarnished, who are usually not seen on stage. Strong personalities, strong opinions. Tradition and transformation. Inspiration and exchange. Encounters among like-minded people.

We look forward to seeing you (again) at the SYMPOWNIUM - The Family Business Summit on 25 June 2025 in Hamburg.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Die Familienstiftung – Ein Instrument der Zukunftssicherung von Familienunternehmen

by Peter May, Jörn Block, André Betzer and Dr. Dominik von Au | 2020 | Springer Gabler

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Lexikon Der Deutschen Familienunternehmen

by Peter May and Florian Langenscheidt | 2020 | Tempus Corporate

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Gelingendes Leben – Aphorismen für Lebens-Unternehmer

by Peter May | 2019 |Murmann

f.cube – So sichern sie die Zukunft Ihres Familienunternehmens

by Peter May, Peter Bartels and Dominik von Au | 2019 |Murmann / Haufe

Familienunternehmen Gestern – Heute – Morgen

Festschrift für Peter May

by Karin Ebel, Karin May, Sabine Rau and Reinhard Zinkann (Hrsg.) | 2018 | Murmann Verlag

Die Inhaberstrategie

by Peter May | 2017 | Murmann Verlag

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Governance im Familienunternehmen

by Peter May and Peter Bartels (Hrsg.) | 2017 | Bundesanzeiger Verlag

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Nachfolge im Familienunternehmen

by Peter May and Peter Bartels (Hrsg.) | 2015 | Bundesanzeiger Verlag

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Lexikon der deutschen Familienunternehmen

by Florian Langenscheidt and Peter May (Hrsg.) | 2014 | Deutsche Standards

Der Beirat im Familienunternehmen

by Peter May and Peter Bartels (Hrsg.) | 2014 | Bundesanzeiger Verlag

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Vorbilder für Deutschland – Die erfolgreiche Welt der Familienunternehmen

by Peter May and Nikolaus Förster (Hrsg.) | 2013 | Murmann-Verlag

Erfolgsmodell Familienunternehmen

by Peter May | 2012 | Murmann Verlag

Das INTES-Handbuch Familienunternehmen

by Peter May (Hrsg.) | 2008 | INTES Akademie für Familienunternehmen

Der Unternehmer als Chef, Manager und Privatperson

by Peter May | 2006 | Campus Verlag

Lernen von den Champions

by Peter May | 2004 | INTES Akademie für Familienunternehmen

f.cube – How to secure the Future of your Family Business

by Peter May, Peter Bartels and Dominik von Au | 2020 |Murmann

Strategie Właścicielskie – Skuteczne Rodziny Biznesowe

by Peter May and Adrianna Lewandowska | 2019 | Instytut Biznesu Rodzinnego

The Owner Strategy

by Peter May | 2017 | Murmann Verlag

Le Aziende Familiari

by Peter May and Thomas Ingelfinger | 2015 | Hoepli

Stawka Wieksza Niz Biznes

by Peter May and Adrianna Lewandowska | 2014 | Wolters Kluwer

Le Aziende Familiari

by Peter May and Thomas Ingelfinger | 2015 | Hoepli

Gedanken zum Familienunternehmen
2020/2021

published by PETER MAY Family Business Consulting | 2020

Gedanken zum Familienunternehmen
2019/2020

published by PETER MAY Family Business Consulting | 2019

Dr. Dominik von Au

Dominik von Au is considered one of the leading experts on family businesses and the “top advisor to the succession generation in our country” (Manager Magazin 10/20). For more than fifteen years, he has assisted entrepreneurial families in drafting family constitutions and succession paths, among other things, as well as in advising on strategic issues from the shareholder perspective. In addition, he often ensures implementation as an active member of the advisory board in family businesses and family offices and is a sought-after sparring partner for the “NextGen” of family entrepreneurs.

Gerold Rieder

Gerold Rieder has been working with and for family entrepreneurs for over 20 years. As co-founder and managing director of the INTES Academy for Family Businesses, he has built up the most successful platform for training, education and networking for entrepreneurial families in Germany. His passion lies in supporting entrepreneurial families in filling their advisory and supervisory boards, for which he can draw on his qualified, personally shaped advisory board network. He has been Managing Director of PETER MAY Board Services since January 2022.

Sabine Strick

Sabine Strick supports family businesses in the conception, establishment and staffing of their advisory boards, supervisory boards or boards of directors. In addition, she designs workshops and training formats for entrepreneurs, shareholders, NextGens and advisory board members. She contributes her experience from over 15 years of journalistic and conceptual work with entrepreneurial families and family businesses.

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