SYRACUSE — The New York Family Business Center (FBC) seeks to connect local family businesses with one another using educational programs and peer groups. The FBC currently operates as part of the Keenan Center for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Creativity in Le Moyne College’s Madden School of Business. The organization offers generational peer groups and family-business […]
SYRACUSE — The New York Family Business Center (FBC) seeks to connect local family businesses with one another using educational programs and peer groups.
The FBC currently operates as part of the Keenan Center for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Creativity in Le Moyne College’s Madden School of Business.
The organization offers generational peer groups and family-business specific programs, such as succession planning, says Tracy Couto, executive director of the Family Business Center.
It also provides programs targeting general business functions.
“We’ve offered human-resources training. We’ve offered supervision training. We’ve offered all sorts of different programs [and] general business programs as well,” says Couto. She spoke to CNYBJ on April 19.
Besides her role as FBC executive director, Couto is also the associate director of the Global Jesuit Case Series at Le Moyne College.
The FBC views its emerging-generation peer group and a senior-generation peer group, both roundtable discussions, as the center’s “signature programs.”
“That’s an opportunity for members to just sit at the table with people in their same position. It doesn’t matter if the industry is the same,” says Couto.
The FBC finds that family businesses encounter the same problems and concerns, regardless of industry and company size, she adds.
The Family Business Center currently has 35 member businesses.
“Our membership fees are based on the [amount] of the revenue of the company, so they range from $600 to $2,000, depending on the size of the company. They can download an application on our website,” says Couto.
Founded in 2009, the Family Business Center (FBC) moved to Le Moyne in September 2013 after functioning as a stand-alone organization in the Syracuse Tech Garden.
Couto credits John Liddy, Le Moyne’s entrepreneur in residence, who has taken a “large role” in curriculum development for the FBC. Liddy is also treasurer on the FBC’s board of directors.
Couto also notes the work of Reneé Downey Hart, professor of practice at Le Moyne.
“She lends a really needed voice to the work that we do, so she does a lot of our curriculum development. She facilitates the senior peer group,” says Couto.
Couto is the daughter of Jack Webb, who retired as an executive VP with NBT Bank in 2015.
Webb was the former chairman and CEO of Alliance Financial Corp. (parent of Alliance Bank), before it was acquired by Norwich–based NBT Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: NBTB).
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
