The Wendel Family: "Affectio Societatis" (B) - CGIP: The Family as "Shareholder Entrepreneur" (1977 - 1996)

The Wendel and CGIP cases tell the story of a business family, the Wendel, over a period of nearly three centuries. The CGIP case (B) shows how Ernest-Antoine Seillière, succeeded in building a strong holding company out of the family’s non-core businesses, left after the steel nationalisation. The case describes several key business decisions and deals, including with other family firms. It illustrates the governance structure and processes with the decision to sell a stake in packaging to purchase a stake in a automobile contractor, Valeo.

The case is written for use in classes on Family Firms with MBA students. Its main objective is to illustrate the role of a family in the development and perpetuation of a business and to identify the differences between a family business and a publicly-owned business. The CGIP case illustrates how a family can decide to stay in business together without staying in the same business; how the family can support the manager’s decisions; governance structures and processes; how a family can have a privileged access to deals with other family firms.