The leadership of family businesses follows its own logic: it combines strategic alignment, responsible decision-making, and the unique dynamics of ownership, family, and business. This combination makes the Business management unique in the context of family businesses – and at the same time demanding.
The WIFU Foundation provides a scientifically founded classification of these interrelationships and prepares them in a practice-oriented manner. This gives family businesses, executives and advisory boards orientation, knowledge and decision-making tools that are specifically tailored to their needs.
Unternehmensführung umfasst die strategische Gestaltung und operative Steuerung eines Unternehmens über die Zeit. In Familienunternehmen kommen jedoch besondere Anforderungen hinzu: Entscheidungen betreffen nicht nur das Unternehmen selbst, sondern wirken gleichzeitig in die Unternehmerfamilie und den Gesellschafterkreis hinein. Dadurch entsteht eine zusätzliche Komplexität, die in nicht-familiären Unternehmen so nicht existiert.
From the WIFU Foundation's perspective, the distinctiveness of family businesses arises from the interplay of three independent social systems, each with its own logic:
In family businesses, corporate management does not only pursue the classic goal of economic competitiveness. The focus is primarily on transgenerationality – the long-term, reciprocal safeguarding of the entrepreneurial family and the company across multiple generations.
For this to succeed, economic objectives and the preservation of family identity („familiness“) must be brought into a permanently sustainable balance. It is precisely this balance that makes the management of family businesses so challenging.
Implication of families in companies Strategic Business Management consistently the goal of long-term future viability. From the WIFU Foundation's perspective, it encompasses three central capabilities:
Long-standing family businesses therefore do not focus their strategy on short-term profit maximisation, but on Survival and development assurance. A central guiding principle is the Single capability – intergenerational thinking and acting.
Closely linked to this is the Value-based management. The owner family's values serve as a compass for strategic decisions and significantly shape the organisational culture. WIFU research shows that in particular the social „legacy“ – i.e. the transmission of values and norms across generations – contributes crucially to future viability. Market requirements and the family of entrepreneurs' values must be harmonised. This is achieved primarily through leaders who are both professionally competent and culturally suitable.
More on the specifics of family businesses in our Practical Guide: „The Ten Witten Theses“.
In many family businesses, management is strongly personality-driven: strategic decisions, values, and company direction are often tied to one or a few key individuals. This can be advantageous: personality-driven management allows for short decision-making paths, a high level of identification with the company, and clear responsibilities.
However, risks also arise at the same time if leadership knowledge, relationships or decision-making logic are too closely tied to individuals. Particularly during phases of growth, internationalisation or a change in leadership within a company, it is crucial to design roles, responsibilities and decision-making paths in such a way that orientation is created and complexity remains manageable.
Culture-oriented leadership starts precisely here: it makes values, roles, and decision-making logic explicit, so that the company remains capable of action beyond individual personalities and can be developed sustainably.
Professionalisation in family businesses by no means means „de-familisation“, but rather the conscious design of roles, responsibilities and decision-making processes. Many family businesses therefore supplement their leadership with external managers or temporarily transfer operational management entirely to a professional management team. For this collaboration to succeed, expectations between the owner family, company management and the leadership team must be clearly and transparently aligned.
Advisory boards play a central role in this. They support strategic direction, strengthen governance through advice and control, and create important spaces for reflection on key decisions. As sparring partners for management, they contribute to improving the quality of decisions and promoting strategic orientations.
Especially in transformation phases in Company or with a Change of leadership A professionally appointed advisory board can play a crucial role in ensuring smooth transitions, fostering learning processes, and thereby securing the future viability of a family business.
Sustainable Corporate Management means two things in family businesses: responsible decisions for long-term economic, social, and ecological stability, as well as the ability to flexibly adapt the company to changing conditions – without losing the inner cohesion of the entrepreneurial family. At its heart, it's about transgenerationality: clear strategic direction, robust management systems, a learning organisation, and an ownership logic that can bear investments and risks in the long term.
Practical examples – particularly from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – show how pronounced the specific Challenges of sustainable Business management being able to. Limited resources, a high dependence on key individuals, and a lack of structures for systematic strategy work often characterise the situation. Family-influenced SMEs also have to integrate value and relationship levels that influence decisions.
Typical hurdles include a strong dependence on key individuals, a lack of time and resources for strategy development, unclear decision-making processes, and missing committees or governance structures.
In family-run businesses, another layer is added: values and relationships that shape decisions and must be consciously integrated into leadership.
Leadership can be learned and developed – especially when the next generation is given insights, responsibility, and opportunities for reflection early on. Qualification and exchange formats support understanding leadership not just as a role, but as the ability to shape complex social and organisational systems.
Corporate governance encompasses the long-term steering and strategic orientation of the company. What's special about family businesses: decisions have not only a business impact, but also affect the owner family and the ownership structure at the same time. Effective governance therefore considers the interplay between business, ownership, and family, and ensures that decisions are economically viable and legitimate within the family.
The focus is on the future and viability: securing competitiveness, maintaining stability, managing risks responsibly, and continuously developing the organisation. In addition, there is the intergenerational perspective (sustainability for future generations) – the company is to be managed in such a way that its capacity for action, values, and identity are preserved across generations.
Values and norms form the basis for the entrepreneurial family's collaboration as the company's owner. They shape how responsibility is understood, decisions are made, and different interests are negotiated. Thus, they provide guidance for dealing with conflicts, shaping the family strategy, and the joint exercise of ownership.
A stable core of values can strengthen the resilience of a family business – particularly during succession phases, leadership changes, or in crisis situations, where trust, reliability, and decision-making ability are especially important.
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