When a non-family member leads the family business

In 2008, when the search firm helping IDEAL Industries find a non-family CEO suggested Jim James, third-generation leader Dave Juday balked. James was then working an hour and a half away from IDEAL’s Sycamore, Ill., headquarters as a group president at Illinois Tool Works.

“I said, ‘No way,’ ” recalls Juday, then chairman and CEO of IDEAL, which makes tools and supplies for the electrical and telecommunications industries. Juday didn’t think an executive accustomed to the corporate culture of a $14 billion company would be a good fit for his family business. He didn’t want a CEO who would try to apply a “prescribed model” to IDEAL.

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