Family Business Magazine E-Newsletter
April 3, 2007
Contents
1.
Busch scion faces challenges in CEO post.
2.
Succession issues prompt sale of M.A.B. Paints.
3.
Fortune cites S.C. Johnson for
'environmental stewardship.'
4.
Put the family back in your family business.
5.
How to succeed as owner-investors.
1. Busch
scion faces challenges in CEO post. August A. Busch IV,
who became CEO of Anheuser-Busch Cos. last September, faces daunting
marketing challenges, according to a recent profile in Forbes. The beer company's
flagship brand, Budweiser, has lost a third of its market share since
1996, and young consumers are abandoning Anheuser-Busch products in
favor of imported beer and cocktails. Some industry analysts are
questioning Busch's ability to engineer a turnaround, noting that he
has been involved in company decisions since the firm's problems began
to emerge. Yet the Forbes article
speculated that Busch "didn't want to risk ticking off his dad and
jeopardizing his own shot at heading the company." Though Busch and his
father speak to each other several times a day, the article said, "the
talks are all business." (Source: Forbes, March 12, 2007.)
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2.
Succession issues prompt sale of M.A.B. Paints. M.A.
Bruder & Sons Inc., a 108-year-old family business known for its
M.A.B. paint stores, is being purchased by the Sherwin-Williams Co. of
Cleveland, the Philadelphia Inquirer
recently reported. M.A.B., based in Broomall, Pa., has 35% to 40% of
the Philadelphia paint market and significant sales in Florida, St.
Louis and Indianapolis. The company operates 132 stores nationwide;
annual sales are $146 million. M.A.B. general manager Jim Renshaw told
the Inquirer that the three
Bruder brothers are in their mid-60s to early 70s and no one in the
family was being groomed for succession. Renshaw said that other
business and environmental issues were factors in the decision, but
succession was the major consideration. The Inquirer noted that the sale of the
company will probably be scrutinized by federal antitrust regulators
because Sherwin-Williams is one of M.A.B.'s largest competitors in the
Philadelphia area. (Source: Philadelphia
Inquirer, March 20, 2007.)
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3. Fortune cites S.C. Johnson for
'environmental stewardship.' S.C. Johnson & Son was
named by Fortune magazine as
one of ten "green giants," large companies that have "gone beyond what
the law requires to operate in an environmentally responsible way." The
magazine noted that H.F. Johnson Jr. traveled to Brazil in 1935 to find
a sustainable source for the company's first product, Johnson Wax. The
current CEO, Fisk Johnson, has continued the legacy via innovations
such as its Greenlist process, which evaluates the impact of raw
materials on human and environmental health, according to the report.
S.C. Johnson, which licenses Greenlist royalty-free to other companies,
has cut back on coal-fired power by building its own power plant that
runs on natural gas and methane, the magazine reported. (Source: Fortune, April 2, 2007).
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4. Put the
family back in your family business. "Unfortunately in
family businesses, family relationships often take second place,"
writes family business adviser Ivan Lansberg in The Family Business Leadership Handbook. "The
work of the business is viewed as being real and concrete, requiring
careful planning and the investment of effort and material resources,
while the work of the family is assumed to somehow take care of
itself." It's essential to recognize, Lansberg notes, that "without a
supportive and nurturing family, there can be no family business." An
essential step in "elevating the family to the status it deserves," he
writes, is the creation of a family council, which provides a forum for
discussion of difficult issues such as continuity and succession, the
hiring and firing of relatives, and the preservation and communication
of the family's core values.
For more advice on effectively leading the business and the family, see
The Family Business Leadership
Handbook. Learn more about the book and see the table of
contents here.
All ten handbooks in the Family Business Handbook Series are
on sale -- more than 25% off -- for a limited time only. Further
discounts are offered for quantity orders. See our Bookstore Order Form for
sale price information.
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5. How to
succeed as owner-investors. The just-published Spring 2007
issue of Family Business
Magazine profiles Dynamic Resource Group, a Berne, Ind., publisher of
magazines, books and catalogs for needlecrafters and other hobbyists.
The Muselman family has owned the company for more than 80 years. But
since the late 1990s, the business has been managed by non-family
executives. Its third-generation co-owners, cousins Roger and Tom
Muselman, have redefined their role as owner-investors rather than
owner-operators. Family business adviser Leslie Dashew, who counseled
the Muselmans, notes that a family should consider four factors when
transitioning into the owner-investor role:
- Family Vision: The family
needs a shared vision for the role the business plays in their lives.
- Asset Attitude: The
business should be regarded as an economic asset like any other to be
bought, sold, invested in, grown or preserved.
- Outside Directors: Effective
directors provide oversight to ensure the business is being run
properly.
- Communication Link: If
you don't have structures to make sure communication happens, you risk
a lot of problems.
To read the whole article, see " 'Noses in, fingers off' " by Dave
Donelson in the Spring 2007 issue of Family Business Magazine. Visit our
website for subscription information.
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