The Weatherhead Center for Family Business

The Weatherhead Center for Family Business supports and assists multi-generational mid-market family businesses in navigating the complex intersection of family, business, and ownership. Established in 2023, the Center’s initiatives and activities are devoted exclusively to addressing the lifelong needs of all family business members —owners, senior leaders, rising leaders, family working and not working in the business, and non-family executives.

Research has shown that family businesses are more likely to successfully transition through the generations when they engage in education and planning and have clear governance structures in place. The Weatherhead Center for Family Business provides educational programs, peer forums, and networking opportunities specifically developed for multi-generational family businesses to support them in building and sustaining their family legacy. Programs cover topics such as succession, preparing rising leaders, communication, working together as family members, governance structures for the business and the family, strategic planning, and estate planning. In addition to topics specific to family business, the Center’s programs, are designed to encompass current topics navigating the fast pace of change in business today. Artificial Intelligence, data analytics, supply chain logistics, and DEI are affecting all businesses, and keeping up with this change can be overwhelming. The Weatherhead Center for Family Business speakers are thought leaders who provide tools and strategies for perpetuating your family business as well as working in today’s business environment.

The Weatherhead Center for Family Business members are part of a community of family business owners and leaders who are intentional about carrying on the legacy of their founders. They understand the benefits of education and planning for themselves, their businesses, and their families; and that those benefits contribute to the health of the enterprise now and into the future. Members make connections with other family businesses who they can learn from and with whom they share a common bond.

"The Center for Family Business is building the intellectual and networking hub for the Northern Ohio family business community.  Designed in partnership with family entrepreneurs throughout the region, the center proudly supports the bedrock of the regional economy – family businesses.  From family business-specific programs to peer forums to specific research, the center is dedicated to serving the needs of this critical community" Andrew Medvedev, Co-Dean of Weatherhead School of Management

How to get involved

Membership in the Weatherhead Center for Family Business is open to mid-market, multi-generational family businesses. Membership
benefits include:
• Educational Programs – Learning from family business experts on what to know and what to do on key topics such as preparing the next generation, managing family dynamics, establishing governance structures, and working together as family members
• CFB Forums – Developing relationships with a network of peers to share learnings and challenges on matters of mutual interest.
Professionally facilitated, confidential groups with other family business members meet every other month
• Networked Family Business Community – Engaging with other family business leaders, rising leaders, and key non-family business leaders  on a regular basis who understand the unique challenges and opportunities of running a family-owned or controlled business

• Access to World-Class Institution – Connecting with Weatherhead faculty and resources and the institution’s strengths in leadership  development, emotional intelligence, and transformational management “Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree long ago.” Warren Buffett

What family businesses do today makes a difference in positioning the next generation for a successful tomorrow.

To learn more about the Weatherhead Center for Family Business, please visit the website for The Center for Family Business or contact Laura Bonnet at 216-368-1701 or laura.bonnet@case.edu.

Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit

The Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit champions, through education and research, the power of business to create a sustainable world where business prospers, people thrive, and nature flourishes. We teach students the skills needed to create and strengthen social enterprise in a global context. We work with businesses to highlight their positive impact and connect them with like- minded organizations and talented students.
The Fowler Center was established in 2009, with the timely and generous gift of Chuck and Char Fowler. Originally named the Fowler Center for Sustainable Value, the donation launched the World Inquiry into Business as an Agent of World Benefit initiative, started in 2002, to a new level of priority, scale and scope as an interdisciplinary center of excellence.
The Fowler Center helps propel business success through the belief that business is one of the most powerful and positive forces for advancing a better world. The center challenges, at every turn, what might be called “the great trade-off illusion”—the myth that doing good is at odds with doing well. Peter Drucker, one of our first advisors, said that he loved the phrase “business as an agent of world benefit” because of its opportunity focus. He was clear that every business exists to create value and advance a better society. He declared that:
“Every social and global issue of our day is a business opportunity in disguise... just waiting for the pragmatism of good business, its capacity for radical innovation and entrepreneurship, and its management for results.”
We know from the best research available that “doing good and doing well” is the most promising pathway to organizational success and significance, especially when coupled with the increasingly high expectations of stakeholders and the inherent interdependence of economy and nature.
Business as an Agent of World Benefit is about accelerating, as the new normal, the kind of enterprise that’s about (1) people being inspired every day and bringing their best selves to work; (2) innovation arising from everywhere; and (3) realizing remarkable relationship value with
stakeholders – customers, employees, supply chain partners, communities, and the biosphere – to create unprecedented, enduring business advantage.
Companies embracing the notion of “business as an agent of world benefit” as part of their business strategy have seen huge benefits to their bottom line. These findings are reported in recent publications such as The Business of Building a Better World: The Leadership Revolution
that is Changing Everything (Cooperider, Selian, 2021), Quantum Leadership: New Consciousness in Business (Laszlo, Tsao, 2019), The Quest for a Flourishing Earth is the Most Significant OD Opportunity of the 21 st Century (Cooperrider, 2017), Dreammakers: Innovating
for the Greater Good (Hunt, 2017), and Flourishing Enterprise (Laszlo, Brown, et al., 2014).

The Fowler Center advances extraordinary business innovation and social entrepreneurship by turning the social and global issues of our day into business opportunities, much as Peter F. Drucker envisioned. The Fowler Center practices, researches, teaches, and supports initiatives
based on whole-system design for advancing the ‘how-to’ of business as an agent of world benefit, and works with students, businesses, organizations, industries, and economic regions to discover the power of business as an innovation engine for doing good and doing well. Our purpose is clear: 

A world where business can excel, human beings can thrive, and nature can flourish. 

Portfolio of activities
The Fowler Center conducts research, teaching, service, and applied work to accelerate a better world. Our strategic portfolio includes:

1. Powerful Learning Environments for Students: High-impact, experiential learning programs for student leadership advancement and entrepreneurship including, AIM2Flourish, Think Impact, and the Impact Investing Competition

2. Applied Business as an Agent of World Benefit: Appreciative Inquiry summits and student-led consulting projects with organizations through our Business for World Benefit Clinic

3. Strategic Convening and Knowledge Alliances: Our Global Forum series and continued relationship with the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) organization

4. Research and Pioneering Scholarship

The research activities of the Fowler Center include teaching cases and PhD research, as well as books, book chapters, and journal articles on appreciative inquiry, sustainable value, design, and flourishing enterprise. To carry out its agenda, the Fowler Center relies in part on its Fowler Center Doctor of Business Administration Fellows, graduate student Fowler Family Fellowship recipients, and other students of Case Western Reserve University. The leadership of the Fowler Center is built on the vision and work of David Cooperrider, Ron Fry, Chris Laszlo, and other faculty at the Weatherhead School of Management, working in close collaboration with the Fowler Center’s advisory board members and other leaders in the Case Western Reserve University community.
To learn more or find out how you or your organization can get involved, visit the Fowler Center website or contact the Fowler Center at 216.368.2160.

The Coaching Research Lab (CRL)

The Coaching Research Lab (CRL) is a joint initiative between scholars and leading organizations to develop a more comprehensive understanding of coaching through empirical research. Leveraging the latest research from the scholarship of coaching and leadership development, woven together with real-life experiences of business leaders committed to realizing its many benefits, we seek to inspire coaches and coachees alike to pursue their passions, realize their dreams and contribute compassionately to the establishment of effective coaching relationships and practices within their organizations.

The purpose of the Coaching Research Laboratory is to stimulate, advance, and support research on the process and effectiveness of coaching as a resource for talent and leader development.  Specifically, the mission of the CRL is to conduct, fund, and disseminate research on coaching and related helping relationships. 

xLab

xLab fosters partnerships between worldwide companies and their next-generation customers to explore the responsible use of new and innovative technologies. Multidisciplinary teams of students work with faculty from across the university to guide these companies in comprehending, embracing, and executing responsible digital innovations while also gaining insights about the next-generation market.

Projects range from research-focused initiatives to hands-on involvement in conceptualizing and constructing technology solutions for its partners. Students leverage emerging technologies, such as decentralized blockchain technology, personal data servers, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Completed project deliverables include prototype applications, AI/ML models, product development strategic plans and research, digital design, and more, but exclude the hardware or physical component.

xLab’s extensive portfolio spans diverse industries such as transportation, insurance, software, government, electronics, and data sharing. When companies partner with xLab, they not only gain access to cutting-edge solutions for their business concerns but also receive invaluable insights on how to better connect with the Gen Z or next-generation audience. 

To learn more or to find out how you or your organization can get involved, visit the xLab website or contact Celeste Blau, Associate Director of Research Administration at 216.368.0456.