Family businesses are not just commercial entities — they are living systems. Shaped by people, history, community, economy, and place, they often defy a simple definition. So instead of asking what a family business is, more generative questions might be: Where are its edges? Or What sustains its vitality?

Is the edge the founding family? The wider team? The community and customers it has served for generations? Or perhaps it’s found in its buildings, craft, or culture. When we see family businesses as living systems, strategy becomes something to tend and evolve — not something to fix or contain.

Meeting Today’s Complexity

In a time of polycrisis — ecological, social, technological — family businesses are being asked to adapt in ways that go beyond business-as-usual. Responding well requires more than structural shifts; it asks for curiosity, playfulness, flexibility and the ability to act even when the outcome isn’t guaranteed.

This isn’t about reacting to threats — it’s about strengthening the collective capacity of the business to navigate change together.

Living Strategy: A Different Approach

At Fraendi, we support family businesses to shape Living Strategies — strategies that are dynamic, relational, and responsive to both external shifts and internal realities.

Rather than apply generic models, we work with you to:

  • Clarify what strategies are still vital — and which need to be let go
  • Understand and respond to complexity without becoming overwhelmed
  • Develop leadership thinking and capability across generations
  • Keep the business connected to the broader systems it’s part of

Many family businesses already think in long arcs — imagining generations forward, not just quarters ahead. Living Strategy builds on this instinct and helps it become shared, clear, and actionable.

Strategy as a Shared Practice

There is no single right way — each family business lives in its own complexity. But what matters is that strategy remains alive: something lived and felt across the business, not locked in a static plan.

If you’re curious about Fraendi’s Living Strategy work for family businesses, or how we guide these deeply contextual conversations, we’d love to speak with you.

📩 hema@fraendi.com