Practice Insight

Practice insights are articles submitted by practitioners, such as entrepreneurs, consultants, managers, and venture investors. These articles undergo editorial review but are not peer reviewed. 


Involve Next-Gens in Developing Your Social Media Policy

Family businesses should consider a social media policy as a relatively “low-hanging fruit” to introduce the next generation to governance work. Does your business family have a social media Read More...

Category: Practice Insight

Authors: Claudia Binz Astrachan , Tom Rüsen and Rebecca DeYarman

Storytelling Vividly Illustrates Your Family Business Values

Values can form a strong foundation for a family business. Through shared values, we feel united and form a bond of culture, history, and pride. This bond can motivate each member of the family to Read More...

Category: Practice Insight

Author: Eva Fischer Hansen

A False Sense of Urgency Helps Neither Family Nor Business

Many of us are (or at least we believe ourselves to be!) natural-born problem solvers: Once we recognize a problem, we want to resolve it as expediently as possible. As a result, we fall into Read More...

Category: Practice Insight

Authors: Joseph Astrachan and Claudia Binz Astrachan

8 Things to Consider When Planning Your Business Budget

  As we showed in part 1 of this discussion , trying to use budgets as both a planning tool and an expectations setting tool can be destructive, because the self-interests of different factions Read More...

Category: Practice Insight

Author: Joseph Astrachan

Family Business Budget Planning: 7 Things to Consider

Part 2 of a two-part series As we showed in part 1 of this discussion , trying to use budgets as both a planning tool and an expectations setting tool can be destructive, because the self-interests Read More...

Category: Practice Insight

Author: Joseph Astrachan

Self-Interest Can Skew Budgets at Family Businesses

Part 1 of a two-part series Are you familiar with any of the following scenarios? “My business unit leaders never set realistic budgets, I have to push them and prod them to get growth—did I hire Read More...

Category: Practice Insight

Author: Joseph Astrachan

The Paradox of Choice: Wealth's Impact on Family Potential

The book The Paradox of Choice , written by Barry Schwartz and first published in 2004, posits that people, in general, suffer a loss of happiness because we have too much choice in everything we Read More...

Category: Practice Insight

Author: Doug Baumoel

Digital Transformation: Can Your Business Keep Up?

Digital transformation is adapting an established business so it can continue to grow in the digital era. What does that really take? It turns out -- much to the surprise of many -- the most Read More...

Category: Practice Insight

Author: David Rogers

Assessments Can Help Develop Family Business Leaders

Assessments, tests, and evaluations are being used more routinely in businesses, and new tools are coming on the market designed specifically for family firms. In our consulting work with families Read More...

Category: Practice Insight

Author: Doug Gray, PhD

Seven Things to Consider Before Selling the Family Firm

  The University of St. Thomas (Minneapolis)  Family Business Center  in February 2023 put together a panel discussion for family firms, focusing on lessons learned from families who Read More...

Category: Practice Insight

Author: Jon Keimig