DCU-ASU: Transforming Lives Together

Schlesinger Global Family Enterprise Case Competition (SG-FECC)

In January 2023, DCU and Arizona State University (ASU) entered a joint-undergraduate team to compete at the Schlesinger Global Family Enterprise Case Competition (SG-FECC) at the University of Vermont’s Grossman School of Business, USA. The annual global case competition prepares students to understand the critical issues that are unique to family enterprise by applying the knowledge and expertise they have developed in the classroom towards solving complex family business cases.

Photo L-R: Connor Breheny (UVM), Thomas Lynch (DCU), Grace Mollaghan (DCU), Alexandra Barbosa (ASU), Eva Vazquez Ortiz (ASU), and Catherine Faherty (DCU).

Our undergraduate team consisted of two final-year Business Studies students—Grace Mollaghan and Thomas Lynch—along with two ASU students. Since early November, our DCU National Centre for Family Business faculty, Dr Catherine Faherty and Dr Eric Clinton, had been preparing the students for the competition through regular case resolution workshops and family business dynamics training sessions.

More than 200 students from 12 countries across four continents participated at 2023 SG-FECC. Across three tough rounds, our students applied the knowledge and expertise developed in their training sessions, enabling them to solve the complex dynamics at play within the cases in front of a distinguished panel of international judges, which included CEOs of leading international family firms.

This was DCU’s first time entering a team at SG-FECC, and our students did the DCU-ASU partnership proud, showcasing their team-working, problem-solving, and communication skills on a global stage.

The strong DCU-ASU partnership was evidenced at the SG-FECC Awards Ceremony when team coaches Dr Catherine Faherty (DCU) and Eva Vazquez-Ortiz (ASU) received the 2023 SG-FECC Undergraduate Joint Team Coach Award in recognition of their “commitment to offering constructive, helpful and insightful feedback.”