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Family businesses aren't known for their longevity. In fact,only about 10 percent make it into the third generation. So whenthey reach 25, 50, even 75 years old, it's cause forcelebration. But milestone anniversaries are more than just a goodreason to party. They have a positive, cohesive effect on employeesand family members. And they provide unparalleled opportunity toreflect on the past, take stock of the present and look toward thefuture.
Milestone anniversaries are moments of extreme satisfactioninternally. "When I hear family business owners discussingthese anniversaries, they most often talk about what it means toemployees," says Kelin Gersick, senior partner at Lansberg,Gersick & Associates, a New Haven, Connecticut, research andconsulting firm specializing in family business. The way theorganization celebrates often reflects the family's desire toshare the satisfaction of having "made it" with its"family" of employees. Fernley & Fernley Inc., aPhiladelphia-based firm providing management services to nationalindustry associations and professional societies, celebrated its110th year by holding a dinner-dance for employees and theirspouses or significant others. "It was a gloriousevening," says president G.A. Taylor Fernley.
Last year, when the Furman family celebrated its 75th yearpacking Furman Foods Inc.'s Italian and tomato products inNorthumberland, Pennsylvania, it expanded the term"associates" to all those involved with the company."We invited our suppliers, bankers, lawyers, researchcollaborators at Penn State University, state legislators andregulators, retired employees, families of employees, and thecommunity to join us in a country fair-type celebration," sayspresident David Geise. "The employees, especially, werethrilled that so many people were interested in touring the plant.And for the 60 or so family members who attended--the largestnumber of family members we've ever gotten together for anyevent--it was a source of great pride."
Past, Present And Future
Milestone anniversaries give family businesses a chance toreconnect to the founding, recall the company's highlights, andreflect on what should endure and what should change--"allvital for family businesses over the long haul," saysGersick.
- Honoring the past: "Celebrations of familybusinesses can take many forms, but rarely does one slip by withouta retelling of the legacies and myths of how a great-grandfather[or whoever started the company] rolled up his sleeves and laboredaround the clock," says Gersick. The Furmans asked members ofthe second generation of family members, now between 70 and 91years old, "to tell assembled guests what it was like when thecompany started. After all, they were the ones who canned tomatoesalongside my grandparents," says third-generation presidentGeise.
Michael G. Koelzer, co-owner of Kay Pharmacy in Grand Rapids,Michigan, had a flier inserted in the local paper that, instead ofpromoting a sale, highlighted the pharmacy's continuingcommitment to neighborhood families by telling how "GrandpaFrank and Grandma Katherine Koelzer began helping people findsolutions to their problems rather than just selling health-careproducts" 50 years ago, and reprinting their original missionstatement.
- Coinciding with a present change: Anniversaries givefamily businesses the impetus to chart new courses. A majorexpansion of Kay Pharmacy coincided with its anniversary; Fernley& Fernley used the milestone to set in motion an aggressivemarketing plan. Other businesses mark the anniversary by handingthe baton of leadership from one generation to another orintroducing a new product line.
Even if the anniversary doesn't signal a change, it providesthe family a time to reflect and appreciate the enormity of itsaccomplishment. Oak Brook, Illinois-based Deutsch Luggage'spresident, Howard Deutsch, whose grandparents started sellingluggage 75 years ago, muses, "It's amazing that we'veendured so many challenging times and are still going strong.It's amazing that walking through the door each morning isstill an emotional experience. It's also amazing that eventhough [the business is] 75 years old, we still have to work ashard as when [it was] 10."
- Hope for the future: The celebration allows the familyto muse on the question 50-year-olds often ponder: "What am Igoing to be when I grow up?" Says Gersick, "Familybusinesses follow life cycles, much like people."
When a family business celebrates a 75th birthday, for example,the world knows it has survived a series of life cycles and hasgone through periodic rebirths. "On our 75th, there was a lotof talk about celebrating the 100th," recalls Geise.
Geise also saw the celebration in terms of his own family'sinvolvement in the business. "I have three sons--17, 16 and 13years old--and all of them really enjoyed helping out at thefair," he says. "In fact, that day was the only footballpractice one of my sons ever missed. That made me feel good. Iwould love the boys to come into the business. But I would neverforce them, and it won't be given as a handout. They can onlycome in because they want to."
An anniversary celebration helps set the stage for theenthusiastic entrance of the next generation into the business.Linking the past through the present to the future is what givesfamily business anniversary celebrations their richness.
Contact Sources
Deutsch Luggage, (630) 954-2935, fax: (630) 954-2812;
Fernley & Fernley Inc., (215) 564-3484, fax: (215)564-2175;
Furman Foods Inc., (717) 473-3516, fax: (717)473-7367;
Kay Pharmacy, 2178 Plainfield N.E., Grand Rapids, MI49505, fax: (616) 361-0707;
Lansberg, Gersick & Associates, 100 Whitney Ave., NewHaven, CT 06510, (203) 497-8855.
Patricia Schiff Estess publishes the newsletter WorkingFamilies and is the author of two new books, Managing AlternativeWork Arrangements (Crisp Publications) and Money Advice for YourSuccessful Remarriage (Betterway Press).
