Program For Financial Studies Channel

John Seabrook's The Spinach King, a New York Times Notable Book of 2025 and New Yorker Best Book of the Year, traces four generations of his own family's frozen-vegetable empire. It is a story of succession, sibling dynamics, and legacy, told with humor, honesty, and the warmth of a reporter coming home.

As Columbia Business School deepens its institutional commitment to AI through its AI in Business Initiative and the upcoming "MBA Transformed: AI and Beyond" teaching symposium on June 1, 2026, family enterprises face a parallel question: is AI a threat to legacy, or a new way to coauthor it? A recent study in the Journal of Product Innovation Management, "AI Adoption in Family Firms: A Mixed-Methods Study on the Paradoxical Roles of Passive and Active Family Involvement," suggests AI adoption is as much a relationship and governance challenge as a technological one. Drawing on 125 interviews and survey data from 1,444 German firms, the authors find that passive family ownership may slow adoption, while active family management can accelerate it, particularly when paired with strong external ties to suppliers, customers, and even competitors. For enterprising families, the deeper insight is that legacy is not static; it is interpreted and renewed across generations. AI may become a voice of the next generation, offering younger family members a concrete way to contribute to continuity, if families are willing to turn legacy into a living conversation. Read the full article, Is AI a Threat to Legacy, or a New Way to Coauthor It?

Angela Buchdahl — the senior rabbi of Central Synagogue in New York City, the first woman to lead the congregation in its 185-year history, and the author of a new best-selling memoir, Heart of a Stranger — speaks on identity, faith, and the universal search for belonging.

Last week, we proudly watched the Class of 2026 graduate, and it feels like it is the right moment to ask a question that sits at the heart of both career development and family enterprise continuity: where can talent truly grow?

At Columbia Business School, students debate CAiSEY, an AI adversary, by voice or text. New research shows the way they interact with AI can dramatically shape how many ideas they generate.

As AI raises the bar for MBAs, Columbia Business School explores how students can build AI fluency and prepare for the roles that are still taking shape.

OpenAI Chief Economist Aaron “Ronnie” Chatterji discusses how AI transforms productivity, work, and decision-making in the global economy.