New ideas from a new generation

Travis Klassen was a 25-year-old high school dropout working for his family’s Canadian trucking company, Valley Carriers, when he started studying business leadership and realized how little he knew about the family business. How was the company structured? What were its financials like? Was the company making enough money to provide jobs for him, his brother and his cousins that would support them as their families grew?

He decided it was a time for a family business meeting. So he called his father, his uncles, his brother and his cousins — the company was not yet using email for communication — and made his case. “Finally we got agreement that we could do it, as long as it was done after work,” Travis says. “It was very important to our uncles that none of us were getting paid to attend this meeting.”

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About the Author(s)

Margaret Steen

Margaret Steen is a freelance writer and frequent contributor to Family Business.


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