Strategic Strabismus and Family Governance in Business
- Salvatore Tomaselli

- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
In the context of a family business, business management is not limited to its economic and productive dimensions. Rather, it involves governing a complex system in which family relationships, identity-based values, and intergenerational perspectives interact continuously. From this standpoint, concepts such as holistic vision, strategic strabismus, and family citizenship take on not only theoretical significance but also practical value.
A holistic vision entails understanding the family business as an interconnected ecosystem in which family, business, and wealth mutually influence one another. Consequently, every strategic or operational decision must be considered not in isolation, but in light of its systemic impact on relationships, organizational identity, and long-term continuity.

Strategic strabismus represents a crucial capability: the ability to combine effective management of the present with a forward-looking orientation toward the future. In a context characterized by rapid market transformation and accelerating technological change, this approach requires family businesses to integrate innovation into their business models and proactively adapt to digital evolution and emerging production paradigms. Business evolution, in this sense, cannot be separated from technological evolution. The ability to adopt, interpret, and govern emerging technologies becomes a key factor in maintaining competitiveness and resilience over time.
Family citizenship, finally, represents one of the primary mechanisms of internal cohesion. It is founded on the development of shared awareness, mutual trust, and a sense of responsibility among members of the entrepreneurial family. These elements provide the basis for balanced governance capable of supporting the business through generational transitions and periods of strategic change.
Family businesses are therefore distinguished by their inherently multidimensional nature, where decisions are never exclusively economic but also incorporate emotional, relational, and generational dimensions. Within this framework, the primary challenge is not simply to run a business, but to maintain a dynamic balance between the family system and the business system, fostering conscious, sustainable evolution that remains technologically aligned with contemporary transformations.

