IDR Program to Focus on Risk, Conflict, Mediation for Privately Held and Family Businesses

‘Managing Risk That Leads to Conflict: Can Mediation Help?’

NJCU School of Business Institute for Dispute Resolution Presents Program on 11/9 with Focus on Privately Held and Family Businesses

New Jersey City University (NJCU) School of Business Institute for Dispute Resolution will host a scholastic conference that will consider the topic How Do Privately Held and Family Businesses Navigate Challenges Leading to Conflict: The Owner’s Perspective on November 9, 6:00 – 8:30 p.m., at the NJCU School of Business, 200 Hudson Street, in Harborside Plaza 2, Jersey City, NJ 07311.

The program is sponsored by The Justice Marie L. Garibaldi American Inn of Court for Alternative Dispute Resolution, New Jersey State Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution, and Hudson County Chamber of Commerce. The Justice Marie L. Garibaldi American Inn of Court for Alternative Dispute Resolution will provide 1.5 Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits.

Moderator of the program’s panel discussion will be Timur Pakay, executive director of the Rothman Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Fairleigh Dickenson University’s Silberman College of Business.

Participants in the panel discussion will be three CEOs of privately held and family businesses and one business dispute attorney: Adenah Bayoh, founder of Adenah Bayoh & Companies; Jeanne Cretella, president of Landmark Hospitality; Chris Schaeffer, president and general manager of Control Instruments Corporation; and Richard Lambert, Esq., managing partner, Dunn Lambert, LLC.

The family business owners will discuss the ways in which they run their operations and will share valuable insight into the ways in which they manage risk and mitigate conflict. The discussion will explore the ways in which mediation can assist and provide value to this process. These concepts will be reflected in the family business owner’s personal stories addressing their own unique risk and conflict assessment processes, as well as management narratives through the lenses of the operators of family-run companies. 

A panel discussion will ensue to examine if mediation can serve to advance the business life cycle, a subject often overlooked and not part of the family business literature. Among the questions to be explored: Can preventive facilitation of discussions and dispute resolution mechanisms reduce the potential for conflict? Can such pathways help manage risk for family businesses to reduce pre-escalation conflicts and act as a mechanism for post conflict interaction?

Panelists will discuss specific family business issues, including:

·         Family conflict perpetration into business including sibling rivalry;

·         Strategic inflexibility;

·         Nepotism/ insufficient human resource development;

·         Lack of transparency/ lack of control/control concentrated in hands of the senior family members;

·         Succession planning;

·         Operational changes to innovation disruptions;

·         Ethical issues to bringing third-party neutrals into the process to help manage risk and conflict when families are participating in the process.

Mr. Lambert, the business attorney on the panel, has extensive experience assisting family businesses both as counsel and trusted advisor. He will share his experience in utilizing the mediation process to resolve family business disputes.

For more information about the program visit https://www.njcu.edu/managingrisks, email IDR@njcu.edu, or call 917-856-0437.