Strong Family Communication Creates a Strong Family Office

The Herschend family has developed strong systems for family communication and connection through years of operating family entertainment company Herschend Enterprises. That communication has also helped Elmwood Management, the family office, better serve the family’s 60 members, who span four generations.

“We use the same muscles for regular communication that we have used for the operating business for decades,” says Chris Herschend, who along with his cousin Austin Herschend is managing director of Elmwood. These include regular family gatherings, for both business and social purposes, and up-to-date communication strategies in between those events.

“We use all the communication tools that are out there,” says Chris Herschend. “Over the years, we’ve moved to using newer and better tools: Secure chat is better than email is better than faxing. We have one chat channel for operating business issues, one for news updates like babies and deaths, and another channel on the same platform for our investment business.”

The family gatherings — including two family meetings, men’s and women’s retreats, next-gen events, and even cookie baking at Thanksgiving — are all critical to fostering communication, especially informal communication, which gets harder as the family grows and spreads out. Organizing the gatherings is a primary focus of the family office team and the family council.

- Advertisement -

“We invest a lot of energy and resources on just being together- that’s part of our stickiness,” says Austin Herschend.

Organizing these events takes a lot of effort. Almost half the family’s households are in the Ozark Mountains in northwest Arkansas or southwest Missouri, but the others live in five different time zones and half a dozen different states (plus Berlin, Germany).

“We are scheduling ninjas,” says Chris Herschend. “We have a dedicated team and partners that help us with events, and we use an enterprise-grade calendaring system.”

Keeping the family connected, both in person and virtually, is not just nice for the family members. It also creates a key competitive advantage for the family office.

“This level of communication is key to the service we are able to provide: We know them, we know their habits, we know what makes them laugh, we know that they’re interested in,” says Chris Herschend. “It goes to why we started to manage our own investments in the first place. It’s very hard to expect that support and service level from even the best vendor. They have turnover, a lot of clients. We have a small number of relationships with people we can get to know really well over decades. We think that’s a competitive advantage.”

Illustrations by Cassidy Reed.

About the Author

Margaret Steen

Margaret Steen is the editor of FO Pro, The Family Office Professional. Based in Silicon Valley, she has written for Family Business Magazine for more than 15 years.


Related Articles

FAMILY OFFICE + FAMILY BUSINESS

Sign up for FO PRO: The Family Office Professional. FO PRO connects family office leadership with the family.