Anahat Newsletter - 09

Dear Reader, 

When Janaki and I look back on our consulting experiences with family and non-family businesses, many differences stand out for us. The one that I would like to focus on is that family businesses seem to offer, naturally, what other organisations often struggle to cultivate. 

Non-family organisations try hard to engineer cultures that are ‘entrepreneurial’, ‘inclusive’ and ‘trusting’. There are vision statements, offsites, values workshops. And yet for many, these intentions remain performative. But in family businesses, culture is more inherited than it is manufactured. It’s lived. Passed through dinner table stories and boardroom decisions. 

So what can consultants, senior leaders, and HR managers in professional firms learn from family businesses? 

First, recognise that family firms don’t rely solely on governance to drive behaviour. They rely on shared purpose and proximity. Decision-making is fast because trust is deep. Innovation flourishes because risk is personal and rewards are communal. 

Second, understand that the support systems in family firms are both emotional and economic. P.M. Kumar, our speaker for the upcoming webinar wrote: “Opportunities to nurture an entrepreneurial climate in the family abound - family capital and resourcefulness, social networks, access to financial markets, emotional commitment, trusting relationships and a supportive safety net. This ‘socio-economic wealth’ has tremendous power.” 

The opportunity for non-family firms lies in decoding and embedding these dynamics, consciously. It means building genuine psychological safety. It means extending the circle of trust beyond the core team. And it means designing systems that reflect shared values alongside those shared KPIs. 

The future of organisational culture may very well rest on how well we learn from the unspoken codes of families in business. Imitating the mechanics misses the point; it’s the mindset and the heart-beat that needs translating.