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BUSINESS Thursday 19 July 2018
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Next generation: Business owners mentor their heirs apparent

By JOYCE M. ROSENBERG to retire within the next 10
Associated Press years.
NEW YORK (AP) — The plan Jason, who began work-
was for Greg Goodman ing at the company when
to sell his auto supply store he was 13, is on the board
and retire about the time and participates in Rita’s
he turned 60. Then Plan meetings, key phone calls
B came along — his son and negotiations. When
Chandler decided to join the company’s Somerset,
and eventually take over New Jersey, factory need-
the family business instead ed extensive renovations
of becoming an architect. last year, Jason evaluated
Goodman, now 54, is fo- contractors’ bids. When his
cusing on building his Alta mother had surgery recent-
Mere franchise in Oklaho- ly, he took on some of her
ma City rather than getting responsibilities. “He doesn’t
it ready for sale. He’s also just do the grunt work,” she
mentoring his son, although says.
Chandler won’t graduate Ultimately, though, owners
from college for another and their children also need
two years. to be prepared for the pos-
“I make sure he’s involved sibility that the planned
in every aspect of this busi- In this July 10, 2018, photo, Greg Goodman and his son Chandler Goodman, pose for a photo at handoff might not work
ness moving forward,” the counter in their Alta Mere franchise in Oklahoma City. out, Union says. Children
Greg Goodman says. “I let Associated Press need to have the room to
him in on everything and ready have a business hire, says David Lassman, doing it too slowly or not say, “I don’t know if this is
every decision I make.” background and need to a management professor at all — and that process going to work for me. I may
As small business owners adapt what they know to at Carnegie Mellon Univer- varies from family to family need an off-ramp,” Union
contemplate retirement, the specifics of the fam- sity’s Heinz College. and business to business,” says. If the son or daugh-
many are thrilled to have ily company. Alison Tocci, “If you bring someone in she says. ter takes over a company
the chance to teach their 61, has been working with from the outside, you’d Rita Tabatchnick expects and is unmotivated, it can
children or other relatives her nephew, Bryan Saw- say, ‘Here’s our business, her son Jason to be more be hard for the business to
how to run their companies. yer, so he’ll be ready to what are our challenges, than her shadow or stand- survive.
There’s plenty of opportuni- take over the family Bull where should we go?’” in as he becomes increas- Kathleen Kuhn is realistic
ty for that to happen — the Run restaurant when she Lassman says. He also sug- ingly involved in the family’s about the possibility that
government estimates that retires. Sawyer left his job at gests that owners who tend soup business, Tabatchnick her son Ryan might de-
nearly a fifth of U.S. compa- an accounting firm in 2010 to be domineering in family Fine Foods. cide against taking over
nies are family owned. At to help Tocci turn around situations tone that down, She is looking for him to put her HouseMaster inspec-
some businesses, especially the then-struggling restau- or their children won’t be his own imprint on the busi- tion company. Ryan is do-
those that have been in a rant in Shirley, Massachu- able to think for themselves ness. ing home inspections, get-
family for generations, chil- setts, that she had recently or take risks as business “The new generation ting hands-on experience,
dren start learning some of bought from a relative. owners. comes up with new desires, and “little by little we’re
the basics while on vaca- Bull Run, founded in 1946 by A successful transition can new foods, new technol- exposing him to things,”
tion from school. Tocci’s father, has quadru- require an owner to let ogy, and you have to lis- says Kuhn, 57. She hopes
But owners looking to pass pled its revenue since she the child make significant ten to their ideas,” says. he’ll be ready in four or five
a company to their chil- took it over, and she wants changes to the company’s Tabatchnick, 63, who plans years.q
dren or other younger rela- Sawyer to keep it on its tra- business model, even sell-
tives find themselves doing jectory. So while he takes ing off parts of it, says Lauri
much more intensive train- part in day-to-day opera- Union, a professor of en-
ing, including their heirs tions and weekly meetings, trepreneurship at Babson
apparent in key decisions Tocci stresses to him that College. While products,
and entrusting them with informal and off-the-cuff services or whole divisions
major projects. The savviest meetings with employees, may go, what does remain
owners learn some things other restaurateurs, consul- is what Union calls the fami-
themselves — they listen tants and others can help ly’s entrepreneurial legacy.
to and embrace the differ- with innovation. Union says parents need to,
ent ideas and perspectives In a successful transition as she puts it, “let go.”
their children bring. from one generation to the “There is a process for let-
Sometimes members of next, a parent treats a child ting go — doing it too
the next generation al- as they would any new quickly can be as bad as