PGP MFAB curriculum
PGP MFAB
Curriculum
Overview
The PGP MFAB offers a meticulously crafted curriculum designed specifically for family business transformation. Through our strategically engineered 15-month modular structure, you will experience one intensive week of on-campus learning every four to six weeks, allowing immediate application of concepts to your enterprise between sessions.
This specialised programme, developed in collaboration with global thought leaders, addresses the unique intersection of family dynamics and business strategy. You will acquire sophisticated tools, positioning you to bridge heritage with innovation while navigating complex succession challenges.
Your journey begins with preparatory coursework, advances through case studies, simulations and expert dialogues, blended with the international immersion at a leading global B-School. This comprehensive approach ensures seamless integration of theory and practice throughout your leadership transformation.
Your transformation at PGP MFAB unfolds through a precise curriculum built around four integral themes. This carefully sequenced learning blueprint addresses the unique challenges at the family-business intersection, systematically developing your capabilities to preserve legacy while driving innovation. Each module builds upon the previous, creating a cohesive leadership development experience, unlike any conventional business programme.
Understand the dynamics and possibilities of business ecosystems that the family enterprise must navigate for sustainable growth and value.
Government, Society and Business
This course reveals the critical interplay between public policy and family enterprise. Participants master frameworks for navigating regulatory landscapes, analysing governmental impacts on markets, and transforming compliance requirements into competitive advantages—preparing leaders to engage effectively with policymakers while advancing both business and societal interests.
Management of Organisations
This course equips future leaders with powerful behavioural frameworks to drive organisational effectiveness. Participants develop sophisticated tools for understanding interpersonal dynamics, optimising team performance, and orchestrating change. The course delivers transformative insights into leadership behaviours that align individual capabilities with organisational priorities—creating the foundation for sustained enterprise success.
Communication and Negotiation
This course transforms family business leaders into masterful negotiators through rigorous experiential learning. Participants engage in immersive negotiation simulations that reveal critical insights about influence and persuasion. The course systematically develops the analytical frameworks and practical techniques essential for navigating high-stakes discussions—creating value while strengthening both business relationships and family bonds.
Gain an understanding of best practices in family wealth management, explore applications of modern financial strategies, and build a toolkit for analysing a range of investment opportunities.
Accounting Information and Analysis
This foundational course develops the financial acumen essential for family business leadership. Participants master the language of accounting and cultivate the analytical capabilities to interpret complex financial information. The course focuses on transforming financial data into strategic insights, enabling leaders to evaluate performance, communicate with stakeholders, and make evidence-based decisions that drive enterprise value across generations.
Economics for Small and Medium Enterprises
This course delivers the analytical toolset that drives strategic decision-making in small and medium family enterprises. Participants develop sophisticated economic modelling capabilities that cut through complexity to identify core business drivers. The course cultivates rigorous analytical thinking through controlled thought experiments that challenge conventional wisdom, equipping leaders to make incisive resource allocation decisions that maximise competitive advantage in dynamic market environments.
Financial Capital Management
This foundational course enables participants to master essential financial principles and their practical application to value-creation opportunities. Moving beyond institutional conventions, the course develops analytical precision in capital allocation, investment evaluation, and risk management, providing leaders with the quantitative discipline to make consequential financial decisions that drive multi-generational wealth preservation and growth.
Evolve the strategy, organisation and leadership approaches to innovate, grow the business, and establish a foundation for long-term business success.
Marketing Management
This course establishes customer value creation as the cornerstone of sustainable competitive advantage. Participants develop sophisticated tools for determining what value to provide, how to deliver it effectively, and how to capture returns profitably. The course integrates cutting-edge research with proven methodologies to build actionable customer-centric strategies that drive enterprise performance.
Data Analytics
This course develops the analytical capabilities essential for evidence-based marketing leadership. Participants master quantitative tools that transform raw data into predictive insights and competitive advantage. The curriculum builds progressive competency in analytical methods, predictive modelling, and decision frameworks—enabling leaders to make consequential marketing decisions with analytical precision and strategic foresight.
Business Strategy
This course positions participants as strategic architects of enterprise competitiveness. Through rigorous case analysis, future leaders develop frameworks for creating and sustaining advantage across diverse market conditions. The curriculum cultivates sophisticated decision-making around business scope, resource allocation, and competitive positioning, equipping leaders to drive strategic coherence across their family enterprise portfolio.
Operations Management
This course develops the operational capabilities that transform strategy into execution excellence. Participants master both quantitative and qualitative approaches to designing, planning and optimising complex operational systems. The curriculum builds integrated competencies across capacity management, inventory optimisation, and supply chain management—creating the operational foundation for sustainable competitive advantage.
Human Capital Management
This course develops the leadership capabilities to transform human capital into a strategic advantage within family enterprises. Participants master sophisticated methodologies for talent acquisition, performance optimisation, and employee engagement. The curriculum builds practical competencies in conducting effective interviews and delivering performance feedback—critical skills for building high-performing organisations across generations.
Logistics and Supply Chain Management
This course positions supply chain excellence as a strategic driver of enterprise performance. Participants develop an integrated general management perspective on logistical decisions and their cross-functional impact. The curriculum cultivates a nuanced understanding of supply chain architecture, enabling leaders to align operational capabilities with strategic priorities across their family enterprise.
Entrepreneurship and Growth Strategies for the Digital Economy
This course develops the strategic capabilities to harness technological disruption for competitive advantage. Participants examine transformation across high-tech pioneers and traditional industries navigating digital disruption. The curriculum builds a sophisticated understanding of network economics and platform business models, equipping family business leaders to drive innovation and capture value in an increasingly connected marketplace.
Sales Management
This course establishes sales force effectiveness as a critical driver of enterprise performance. Participants develop data-driven approaches to territory design, incentive systems, and sales force optimisation. The curriculum builds sophisticated analytical wireframes for sales leadership, equipping future executives with essential capabilities for driving revenue growth and managing complex distribution channels with analytical precision.
Financing Entrepreneurial Ventures
This course develops capital-raising capabilities for entrepreneurial leaders. Participants master financing strategies across the business lifecycle, with special emphasis on family enterprise contexts. The curriculum builds competency across private equity, venture capital, and public markets, equipping leaders with the financial acumen to fund innovation while preserving family control.
Learn how to develop leaders in the family-business-ownership system while balancing owners' expectations with the realities of the business.
Management, Family and the Board - Managing Paradoxes
This foundational course addresses the uniqueness of family businesses arising from the dynamic overlap of ownership, management, and family responsibilities. Participants develop strategies for managing succession, ethical decision-making, and board governance as enterprises grow and transform. The course cultivates leadership capabilities to navigate complex family relationships, communicate effectively, and establish governance mechanisms that sustain multi-generational success.
Professionalisation of Family Business
This essential course examines the transformation process that family enterprises must undergo as they grow. Participants develop frameworks to distinguish between family and organisational roles while implementing professional governance structures. The course addresses challenges of agency and stewardship dynamics, organisational architecture design, and board development, equipping leaders to navigate the complex transition from informal to formal systems while maintaining family values and strategic alignment.
Corporate Governance and Business Law
This comprehensive course examines modern corporate governance frameworks essential for family enterprise leadership. Participants develop capabilities to evaluate board composition, navigate related party transactions, and ensure financial reporting integrity. The course addresses unique governance challenges of family-controlled corporations, balancing the separation of ownership from management, succession planning, and regulatory compliance while establishing structures that enhance transparency and shareholder value.
The Indian School of Business (ISB) cultivates you as a next-generation family business leader who can navigate legacy stewardship and transformation. As a family business successor, you must master multi-generational leadership by moving beyond established theory into the dynamic arena of enterprise continuity and growth. The School has strategically enhanced the PGP MFAB curriculum to create your immersive learning journey, enabling you to honour heritage whilst pioneering sustainable growth across generations. This evolution delivers three powerful experiential components designed to bridge the gap between your understanding of family business principles and your implementation of transformative solutions within your enterprise ecosystem.
The Managing Growth Practicum brings learning to life by applying classroom concepts directly to your family business. This hands-on module begins with a structured assessment across strategic, operational, financial, and marketing areas, identifying key opportunities for growth. The Practicum helps put concepts, frameworks, and principles learnt in the classroom into practice. Leveraging conceptual understanding to real-world settings, you hone analytical, managerial, and leadership skills to become effective contributors in your family business. Get to develop innovative solutions under expert faculty mentorship, culminating in stakeholder presentations for sustained growth.
Broaden your global business perspective with an enriching immersion at a leading global B-School, which extends beyond the classroom. Gain insights from world-class faculty, connect with industry leaders, and explore international best practices to drive growth and success in your family business, transcending geographical boundaries.
*International Immersion is subject to change based on evolving programme needs.
A real-world learning sprint, 'Action Week' brings you face-to-face with live challenges from family-run businesses outside your own. Throughout the week, you get to work in teams to identify pressing business challenges, gather real-time data, and apply core classroom concepts to develop actionable solutions. Guided by ISB faculty, this module sharpens problem-solving skills, encourages cross-sector exposure, and builds the ability to communicate and collaborate effectively with diverse stakeholders.
*Action Week is subject to change based on evolving programme needs.
Graduate Degree Requirements
The PGP MFAB delivers comprehensive education through strategic curriculum combining online preparatory coursework with 23 courses. Your learning journey commences with pre-term modules that build essential foundations and remain accessible through Term 3 for continuous skill reinforcement.
You must attempt 24 credits distributed across two key components:
Core Curriculum:
22 credits from content that builds expertise through varied assessments-case analyses, projects, examinations, class participation, etc.-with evaluation criteria determined by faculty according to ISB standards.
Action Learning Project:
2 credits through the "Managing Growth Practicum" action learning project, bridging theory with real-world application.
Graduation requires 24 attempted credits with a minimum of 23 successful credits and a minimum CGPA of 2.50 at the end of the programme. The instructional hours ensure thorough preparation for family business leadership.
Our distinctive pedagogical approach integrates theory with real-world application, preparing you to lead your family enterprise with confidence.
Transform theory into impact through the Managing Growth Practicum, Action Week, and Global Immersion at a leading B-School - immersive experiences that develop your leadership capabilities while addressing real enterprise challenges with immediate, measurable results.
Gain insights from distinguished family business leaders who share their journeys and challenges, complementing classroom theory with practical perspectives from diverse industries.
Sharpen analytical thinking through immersion in real business dilemmas faced by global organisations, developing the critical reasoning capabilities and judgment essential for leadership in ambiguous, high-stakes situations.
Develop strategic agility required for family business leadership through sophisticated software replicating real business environments. Applying classroom concepts to complex scenarios strengthens your decision-making capabilities in high-stakes situations.
Diverse evaluation methods measure both theoretical understanding and practical application, reinforcing key concepts essential for transforming your family enterprise.