He is the founder of the International Institute for Family Enterprises, of Witten/Herdecke University. He’ll also be taking part in the German- Arab Family Business Summit 2009 in BahrainDW-TV: For more I'm joined by Timm Tiller, co-founder of the International Institute for Family Enterprises at the Witten/Herdecke University. And, as I understand, it's the first such institute in the world. It was founded about two years ago. Why? What prompted it? Timm Tiller: I mean, there is no academic institution worldwide dealing with Arab family enterprises, although the family enterprises in the region have a huge impact on the economy — they are the driving force there. So you have deal with them, you have to talk to them.   DW-TV: But you also deal with German family companies, I understand, in order to get the connection. Timm Tiller: Exactly. So our university, Witten/Herdecke, is very famous for dealing with German or let's say European family enterprises. So we are used to the topic. DW-TV: Okay. Now your institute is actually organizing a summit -- the Arab-German Family Business Summit in Bahrain this year. Just briefly, what is the summit about? Timm Tiller: It's a two-day event in Bahrain, as you said. And we are inviting exclusively on the owner's level 250 top family enterprises from all over the region and German-speaking Europe, and what we do there is we are establishing a very personal and elite network among family enterprises just to enable an exchange of ideas and experiences, and of course we want to learn from one another. And a very important issue is business opportunities -- so just to offer face-to-face business talks and to see whether there are opportunities or not. DW-TV: Well there seem to be quite some familiarities between the Arab world and Germany when it comes to family business. The Minister of Industry and Commerce of the Kingdom of Bahrain says that family businesses have been "the cornerstone of ...