Breaking taboos, preserving strengths: Strategies for business families in dealing with their history

Business families have been shaping the economy and society for generations. However, their work is not only characterised by successes, but sometimes also by repressed burdens from the past. Heiko Kleve's new WIFU practical guide "Legacy management in business families - continuing the right things, discarding the problematic" shows how both positive and problematic legacies can be systematically processed and dealt with.

The aim of the reference guide is to support business families in organising the transgenerational passing on of life, property and business management in a more conscious and constructive way. Because, according to Kleve: "The past doesn't just fade away - it often continues to have an unconscious effect, especially in multi-generational business families." Taboo subjects, such as entrepreneurial behaviour during dictatorships, can be a burden for generations if they are not reflected on and dealt with appropriately.

Using illustrative case studies, such as that of an 80-year-old entrepreneur, as well as scientific explanatory approaches, the practical guide shows how the past, present and future are interwoven in business families - and how both family cohesion and entrepreneurial resilience can be strengthened through targeted "legacy management".

The reference guide addresses three central strategic approaches:

1. Selective view of the past: Remembering, emotionally revisiting and consciously working through the past,
2. Preserving traditions while creating something new: Successful interaction between family and company,

3. Strengthening loyalty to the present: Loyalty within the active generation should take precedence over loyalty to previous generations.

    

Kleve comments: "Those business families who have the courage to look at the difficult chapters of their own history create the basis for real sustainability."

The reference guide, together with other publications from the WIFU Foundation, is available online free of charge at: www.wifu.de/bibliothek. For further information, please contact Dr Ruth Orenstrat at ruth.orenstrat@wifu-stiftung.de or +49 2302 8898303.

About the WIFU Foundation:

Established in 2009, the non-profit WIFU Foundation's mission is to promote research and teaching in the field of family entrepreneurship as well as the transfer of findings into practice. Its most important sponsors include around 80 family businesses from German-speaking countries. All of the WIFU Foundation's activities centre on acquiring, communicating and disseminating high-quality knowledge about family businesses and business families that is geared towards current issues.

The funding is primarily used to establish and maintain professorships, support research projects and award scholarships to junior researchers. One focus of the WIFU Foundation's research funding is on the Witten Institute for Family Businesses (WIFU) at Witten/Herdecke University with its three research and teaching areas of Management, Law and Psychology/Sociology. WIFU has been making a significant contribution to the trans-generational sustainability of family businesses in research and teaching for over 25 years.

Another focus of the WIFU Foundation's work is the organisation of congresses and other events on topics relating to family entrepreneurship. In working groups, training courses and other formats, practice-orientated knowledge and skills are also imparted to promote family succession in the management of family businesses. The WIFU Foundation's events are characterised by a protected environment in which a trusting, open exchange is possible. Comprehensive and active public relations work for research results in the field of family entrepreneurship rounds off the WIFU Foundation's range of tasks.