Learning by Doing: CAFE Returns to Italy for Spring Break 2026

At Columbia Business School, we recognize that truly understanding what it takes to be a great advisor goes beyond theory and technical expertise. It requires an appreciation of the nuanced relational aspects of advising, something best learned through experience. That's why, in collaboration with the Jerome A. Chazen Institute for Global Business, we brought Consulting and Advising Family Enterprises (CAFE) to Italy once again this spring break.

This year, 19 second-year MBA students traveled with our faculty director through five cities: Milan, Parma, Rimini, Ravenna, and Florence, immersing themselves in the world of multigenerational Italian family enterprises. The group visited ten organizations spanning a remarkable range of industries, including Nuova Energia Holding, Vibram, Ascoli Bottoni, Barilla, Focchi, PIR (Petrolifera Italo Rumena), Ferragamo, Castello di Monsanto, and Famiglia Cecchi, as well as a visit to Bocconi University. Each stop offered students direct access to the families and leaders behind these enterprises, a rare opportunity to witness firsthand the governance, succession dynamics, and deeply relational decision-making that traditional research often struggles to capture.

Italian culture, with its profound emphasis on trust, relationships, and authenticity, once again proved to be the ideal setting for this learning experience. By stepping into these businesses, students didn't just study family enterprise advising; they experienced it. The genuine openness of the families we visited allowed for candid conversations about the complexity of balancing tradition with innovation, navigating ownership transitions, and sustaining legacy across generations. These are the kinds of insights that can only come from being in the room.

This transformative journey gave students not just a deeper understanding of family enterprise advising, but also a renewed perspective on their own roles, whether as future external advisors or as the next generation of family business leaders themselves.

Haerin Kang ’26

Haerin Kang ’26

The company visits were exceptionally well curated, offering a rare window into Italy’s rich cultural heritage and the way it shapes both business and everyday life. The diversity of industries and the multigenerational nature of the family businesses we visited made the experience even more valuable and full of learning. Being able to experience this firsthand made the trip incredibly meaningful and pushed me to grow both personally and professionally.

I am grateful to the companies we visited for their openness and generosity, to our professor for thoughtfully organizing every detail, and to my fellow MBA students whose insightful questions made our discussions richer and more impactful.

Dennis Yang ’26

Dennis Yang ’26

The value I gained from this trek can be summarized into three key points.
First, I gained vivid, unforgettable experiences.
Second, I internalized a wide range of perspectives as knowledge I can react to instinctively.
Third, I witnessed the courage and beauty of people who choose to engage in family businesses despite their challenges.

Through direct interactions with multiple family businesses, I developed a level of understanding that cannot be obtained through case studies alone. Each company welcomed us warmly, and some were generous enough to openly share personal challenges within their families. This allowed me to go beyond surface-level success and gain deeper insights into the structural issues they face.

In addition, by combining pre-trip lectures with an intensive on-site schedule, I was able to move beyond “searchable knowledge” and absorb what I learned as something I can apply instinctively in real situations. This level of learning would not have been possible in a classroom setting alone.

Most importantly, I was deeply struck by the individuals who, despite facing various conflicts and constraints, have chosen to remain involved in their family businesses. By sensing their struggles and convictions, I gained both courage and confidence as someone who may be involved in a family business in the future.

This trek stands out as one of the most memorable learning experiences during my time at CBS.

Laura Ribas’26

Laura Ribas’26

After visiting several successful family-owned businesses, I left feeling very hopeful. We hear a lot about the conflicts and challenges in family enterprises, but this week in Italy showed the opposite. It felt like a strong conclusion to the CBS Global Family Enterprise program, actually seeing how the concepts and frameworks we talked about in class play out in real life. When things are done intentionally, family can be a real competitive advantage.

Antonia Klabin ’26

Antonia Klabin ’26

The CAFE Italy trip was an invaluable opportunity to engage directly with family enterprises, and it provided me with a new lens for thinking about advising that only comes from being in the room. Seeing frameworks we'd studied in the classroom play out in real family systems, each with their own history, culture, and tensions, made the learning stick differently. What struck me most was the openness of the families we met; leaders who were willing to share not just their successes but their real dilemmas made the experience feel genuinely rare. The trip changed how I think about the advisory role entirely: it became clear that trust, judgment, and connection are just as central to that work as any technical skill. I left with a deeper appreciation for the complexity of these relationships, and a stronger sense of the curiosity and humility the advisory role requires.

Nicholas Wetzel ’26

Nicholas Wetzel ’26

What struck me most about the CAFÉ trip was how vividly it illustrated the tension at the heart of every family enterprise: the pull between preserving what makes a business distinctly theirs and adapting to thrive in the next generation. Visiting PIR Group and Ascoli Bottoni, I kept coming back to how much of what makes these businesses resilient is invisible on a balance sheet — the relationships, the identity, the shared sense of purpose that binds family to firm. As someone who works with family businesses in my own practice, I came home with a renewed appreciation for how much trust-building precedes any meaningful advising, and how important it is to listen before you ever offer a recommendation.