Digital Openness and Digital Readiness

Die Publikation WIFU_compact_17: Digital Openness and Digital Readiness (2023) der WIFU-Stiftung analysiert die Rolle der Unternehmerfamilie als zentralen Einflussfaktor der digitalen Transformation im Familienunternehmen. Ausgangspunkt ist die These, dass digitale Veränderungen weniger an technologischen Fragen scheitern als an Haltungen, Kompetenzen und Entscheidungslogiken der Eigentümerfamilie. Digitale Offenheit wird dabei als kulturelle und wertebasierte Voraussetzung für erfolgreiche Transformationsprozesse herausgearbeitet.

The focus is on the distinction between digital openness – understood as open-mindedness, curiosity, and a willingness to experiment – and digital readiness, meaning the concrete ability to initiate, manage, and control digital projects from a professional standpoint. It is shown that generational differences within the family business can lead to tensions, but at the same time can also open up potential for a productive division of roles between the senior generation and the next generation. The publication emphasises the importance of intergenerational dialogue and the conscious involvement of the next generation in digital decision-making processes.

Furthermore, the WIFU integrates digital transformation into its typology of mental models of entrepreneurial families and derives four typical situations of digital readiness from this. For each of these constellations, practical governance and organisational solutions are described, such as the integration of external digital expertise, the development of family-internal competencies, or the establishment of advisory boards. The aim is not digitalisation for its own sake, but the long-term future viability of the family business in the interplay of family, ownership, and management.