El Consejo de Familia

Five family-council meetings of 2027 at a fictional third-generation vegetable canner in Calahorra, La Rioja, Spain, two months after its family protocol was signed: the learner is the council first chair, a third-generation family member who does not work in the company, and after each of the first four meetings decides how the council works from the next one.

Block 1 (the council architecture, from March): the agenda (whatever anyone raises, three forums with every item sorted into family, ownership or business and sent to the council, the shareholders or the board, or a confidential agenda set by the chair), who sits (all 19 adults, the three branch heads, or 6 members elected by the branches with staggered terms, a seat for someone under 35 and a non-family secretary), and the non-family chief executive (at every meeting taking questions, the board chair and an independent director reporting twice a year with the chief executive at the annual assembly only, or never meeting the family).

Block 2 (conflict inside the structure, from June): the honorary president youngest son asking to be marketing director now (leave it, ask the chief executive to create the post, or apply the protocol entry rules of five years outside and a real vacancy with a mentor), a branch dispute about company cars and a company flat (let it run in the family chat, prepare it with each branch and an external facilitator and send the facts to the board audit committee, or vote it), and the decision rule (unanimity, a two-thirds majority with a cooling-off period and a named mediator, or votes weighted by shares).

Block 3 (ownership and money, from September): a 600,000 euro loan at 1 percent from the company to a director son (refuse it, back it and have his mother take it to the chief executive, or refer it to the board related-party procedure at market terms with the director abstaining under Spain Capital Companies Act arts.

228-231 and propose a liquidity window), the dividend (say nothing, ask for a written 30-40 percent policy approved by the shareholders, or vote a demand for 60 percent), and how decisions reach the family (minutes for members, each branch tells its own, or a two-page summary with reasons to all adults).

Block 4 (making decisions hold, December): the honorary president phoning the chief executive to overrule the council (let it stand, confront him and offer to resign, or talk to him first and hold the decision until the protocol review procedure changes it), the fourth generation (nothing, a programme with observer seats, or a vote now), and the chair from 2028 (indefinite, the honorary president, or a two-year rotating term with self-evaluation).

The model is deterministic: each of 12 items a meeting lands in its forum or leaks into another, items in the family forum become decisions at a rate set by who sits and the rule, and each decision is still standing at year end at a rate set by legitimacy, the rule, the handling of conflict and communication.

The score combines the quality of each choice with decisions standing, management hours drained by the family, management trust, family cohesion and governance, and is capped when the council backs the loan outside the board procedure. Spanish (primary, Spain) and English.

An intermediate simulation for participants who already know the core concepts of the subject, designed for master's and MBA programmes.