Digitisation can often be cited as one of the more common challenges within a family owned business.

In this blog post I cover some of the points from my recording with Edouard Janssen and Edouard Thijssen from Trusted Family, a digital governance platform for family businesses and family offices.

What is Digitisation?

According to WorkingMouse.com.au, “Digitisation is the process of con­vert­ing in­for­ma­tion from a phys­i­cal for­mat into a dig­i­tal one”. This differs from Digitalisation which “is the process of lever­ag­ing digi­ti­sa­tion to im­prove busi­ness processes.”

For the purposes of this post and the show, we cover both elements of this and how Ed and Ed’s experience in this area has helped them to shape Trusted Family and the work that they do with family owned enterprises.

In my own work with families I am seeing that more and more of the processes and efficiencies in business are being delivered via digital technology.

This can also lead to more efficient and securer communication too and one area that we speak about in the show is that of “Governance”

Governance and Digitisation

There is an entire series dedicated to family business governance and so I won’t cover all elements here, however one of the more common areas of my own work with families is in introducing more formalised or professionalised processes, with a particular focus on how you as a business owning family communicate.

As your family business grows the number of family members involved may increase, this may bring different people with different roles (ownership or management) together in an environment they aren’t used to and so having the right governance structures in place to help you deal with this is a natural consequence of the increased complexity in your business.

Trusted Family was created out of a need to ensure that there was a way to keep multiple generations of the same family informed of what was happening. 

It allowed for each individual to have access to the information they needed in order to perform whatever role they had within the family or the business. 

This works well when there are ‘passive’ and ‘active’ owners within a business and when you consider the amount that public firms spend on shareholder relations, you can perhaps view this through a different lens. 

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Listen to the show: 

How to get started with Digitisation

Getting started with digitisation can seem overwhelming and intimidating. The tip shared in this episode is to start small and then build momentum from there. 

Is there are particular area within the family or the business that would benefit from digitisation? If so, start there. 

If this is new to you as a family, starting small but being deliberate about it will help you to learn for future experiences. 

Who is in charge of your Digital Transformation?

As with most major projects or undertakings it is sensible to appoint somebody to be in charge of delivering what you as a family want to be delivered. This is also true of digital transformation within your family business. 

Appointing someone creates accountability and ensures that a plan can be put in place to achieve longer term success. 

Building on the point above on how to get started, once you have got started having someone who can help create and deliver the longer term strategy will be an invaluable role.