The module was an offshoot of eight week training and 3-day boot camp on about 17 participating members of families in Davao City organized by the  Philippines-Australia Human Resource Development Facility (PAHRDF) in coordination with the John Gokongwei School of Management-Center for Family Enterprise Development Center.

Davao chamber president Simeon P. Marfori II said there’s a need to develop a module to factor in the conditions of businesses in Davao City, which are categorized as small and medium as against the variables used by Gokongwei center which are mostly geared for big corporations.

“We’re going to develop our own version, not entirely copy their module but tweak it to make it applicable to smaller businesses,” he said, adding that in the chamber alone about 80% are easily categorize as small with a capitalization between P3-5 million and less than 10 workers.

The chamber commissioned two private consultants and two from the University of Mindanao and the University of Southeastern Philippines to draft the module. “We target it in the next quarter, we can already pilot the training,” he said.

Marfori said the chamber requested the Australian facility for the training after noticing how a number of old businesses and institutions in Davao City have petered because of the lack of interest, insufficient knowhow of the children that were entrusted to run the business, and the failure of the parents to hand down the intricacies of the company.

The 2006 GEM Global report, the entrepreneurial activity of the Philippines’ established businesses is 7.6% higher than in China and 2.1% more frequent than in Indonesia. The legacy, the report added,s also being passed from generation to generation.

Participants were taught the fundamentals of building family enterprises, the unique skills essential to success, the framework for the next generation of managers, and the necessity to make a constitution for the business to follow.

Milalin S. Javellana, PAHRDF facility director, said the participants underwent several counseling sessions to patch up relationships between family members which inevitably spills over to how the business is run.

She said one of the more common issues is the hierarchy in the family is also being applied in the business, which means the eldest is expected to manage the company even if another sibling has the better capacity. Favoritism also plays a role in choosing who will be the next generation of managers.

“The project expect them to have a reentry action plan for the implementation of what they learned from the training,” she said.

Aside from the owners of the family businesses, business schools and Small and Medium Resource Network (SMERN) Consultants also participated in the said training to develop their skills in handling family enterprises or as a public offering when they conduct trainings on Family Enterprise Management.