8 November 2025 · ALU-RES-2026-01
Succession without a Sibling War: Family Enterprise Governance in the GCC and the Digital MBA Classroom
Dr. Layla Al-Harthy · Arab Leadership University — School of Business
Gulf family firms are transferring operating control while founders are still present. This paper studies 54 second-generation managers in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and Oman who completed Arab Leadership University MBA capstones inside their own groups. Capstones that produced a written family charter, a non-family CFO role description, and a dividend policy were more likely to be adopted by the board than capstones that produced a generic strategy deck. Arabic-language family interviews, conducted with consent, surfaced disputes that English-only surveys missed: honour, maternal-line influence, and the status of in-laws in operating companies. ALU should keep family-business MBAs bilingual in practice, even when the award is assessed in English or Arabic. The university’s duty is to teach governance that a majlis can recognise, not a case from another continent’s industrial house.