Speakers

  • Ben Grossman ’06, Co-President, Grossman Marketing Group
  • Daniel Korschun, Marketing Department Head and Associate Professor, Drexel University's LeBow College of Business
  • Patricia Riberas ’18, Transformation and Organization Director, Gestamp

Moderator

  • Lauren Rosenberg ’22, Co-President, Family Business Club 

About this session

Panelists discussed new challenges, from “cancel culture” to personal privacy, which businesses, and their people, must navigate in an inescapably interconnected world.

Values and the Family Business

In this session, panelists discussed how values within a family business take on a strong presence throughout the company. Patricia Riberas explained that a family’s values spread to the business and impact the employees and business’s key stakeholders.  Riberas explained that it’s critical to focus on human values rather than political circumstances. This is a challenge for any business with operations in multiple countries.

Ben Grossman explained that his family business is open and honest with their values but that the family and leadership team make it very clear to employees and stakeholders that they do not need to hold the same values as the family. However, Grossman believes that when taking a stance, businesses should be genuine in their approach. “People want to work for, buy from, and invest in companies that have a stance on social responsibility,” said Grossman. He spoke about how sustainability, and providing sustainability efforts, is key to stakeholder trust. “A commitment to sustainability needs to be genuine. You can’t just stick a green label on something to make a difference. You need to back those words up with real actions that address the underlying environmental issues.”

Daniel Korschun described some of his research on whether the best companies speak about values openly and honestly. “The expectation of companies having a stance of social impact is higher than ever and will continue to keep growing,” said Korschun. He explained that consumers do not look at these things in isolation. Consumers are looking to see what kind of company they want to work at or buy from or they are sizing up a company.