Family businesses are rarely short on advice. They often have strong support around legal matters, finance, governance and succession. Yet there is one critical function that is often missing from the table, particularly in times of transition and growth – strategic communications.
It is easy to assume that if the strategy is sound, the rest will follow. However, in reality, many important business decisions stall because the plan was not clearly consulted, communicated, or consistently understood by the people who matter most.
In family businesses, decisions are rarely contained to a single audience. They ripple across family members, leadership teams, staff, customers, suppliers and the broader market. A new growth direction, a leadership transition, an ownership change or a repositioning does not only require commercial thinking; it requires strategic communication design that is thoughtful, timely and fit for purpose.
For example, communication management is still seen as a support function that comes in near the end of a transition, however, it should sit much closer to the decision-making process. The earlier communication design is considered, the easier it becomes to identify risks, protect relationships and create the clarity people need to move with the business – and ultimately successfully deliver the strategy.
Where communication gaps show up
When strategic communications is left behind, the business pays for it. Momentum slows. Confidence drops. Speculation grows. Teams hesitate. Customers fill in the blanks themselves. Even a strong strategy can lose pace and relevant when the people responsible for bringing it to life are unclear on what is changing and why.
This is where family businesses can benefit from viewing strategic communications as an advisory discipline, not an afterthought. If any of these issues resonate with you – you need to up your strategic communications thinking:
- The strategy is clear in the boardroom or with consultants, but vague everywhere else
- You or the leaders have assumed your people understand the rationale for the change, but no one else can articulate it
- Staff are hearing mixed messages from different decision makers, or making it up themselves
- External stakeholders hear snippets of information, or get it too late or in the wrong tone
- The business hasn’t considered the reputational impacts of their strategies
- The leaders don’t think it is anyone else’s business to know!
Strategic communications is not simply about an announcement, producing a slide deck or refreshing the website once the decisions are final; it is about helping leaders work out what needs to be said, to whom, in what sequence and with what level of detail. It is the crafting of the overall story that helps – one that can be used and reused, often for years ahead.
Strategic communications also plays an important role in protecting trust. Family businesses are built on relationships, legacy and reputation. That means communication has to do more than inform; it has to reassure, align and create confidence that the next chapter is being handled well.
Questions worth asking now
- Who needs to understand our next move, beyond the immediate leadership group?
- What questions, concerns or assumptions are likely to arise?
- Are we being as deliberate with communication as we are with strategy, finance and governance?
The Family Business Conference theme, Next is Now, is a timely reminder that the future is not built only through decisions on paper. It is shaped through the conversations, messages and signals that surround those decisions every day – your strategic communications.
For family businesses preparing for what comes next, strategy matters. But strategy only delivers value when it is clearly communicated and understood.
Is your communication a priority?
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Written by Felicity Zadro, Managing Director, Zadro
Zadro is the public relations sponsor working with Family Business Association.
Zadro is a strategic brand and communications agency that knows that standing out amidst the noise requires more than a great product and service. Driving engagement with those that matter demands compelling stories, expertly crafted, and passionately shared.
