Grupo Proeza: How to Attract, Retain, and Motivate the Third Generation?

This case features the efforts of a multigenerational family enterprise to attract, retain, and develop third-generation members as high-impact employees and governance leaders. By early 2019, the Monterrey, Mexico-based Grupo Proeza (the Group) was a $3 billion corporation with multiple business lines. Metalsa, the largest, supplied automotive chassis and other products to global customers. Founded in 1956 by Guillermo Zambrano, the Group now employed all four of Guillermo's sons. As the company prepares for the third generation, only three of 39 cousins hold full-time positions in the enterprise. Students take the perspective of current Proeza owners and executives in identifying barriers and approaches to next-generation development and engagement. These include the family's strict employment requirements--focusing on allowing entry only to those members qualified for future senior leadership positions--and little representation by female third-generation members (who represent 24 of the cousins) in full-time roles, partly because of traditional Mexican gender norms. The teaching note provides a set of probing questions to ask students, suggestions for what to expect in answers, and key learning points.