I always return from our highly successful Transitions conferences elated, energized and enlightened, but this past spring, I also came away with a renewed appreciation for the next generation. One of our panels, entitled "Leveraging the Family Brand, Legacy and Human Capital," featured, along with two other dynamic family business members, a very impressive young man named Kyle York.
While Kyle is currently the chief revenue officer at an Internet technology firm, he also is part of a 65-year-old family business based in New Hampshire, Indian Head Athletics. Kyle is one of five boys representing the third generation. All of them were raised with "a family-first attitude, closely followed by a spirit of giving back to the community," he recently wrote on his blog.
In outlining the history of the family enterprise, Kyle spoke admiringly of his parents, who built the brick-and-mortar sporting goods company. He is grateful that they did not force their sons to go into the family business. What they did encourage was education, an entrepreneurial spirit and a strong work ethic.
The five York brothers recently assessed the company's robust history and decided to reinvent and reinvigorate its legacy brand. They realized that all five of them wanted to capitalize on the values that their family and company represented: integrity, hard work, high quality and community.
Bringing together their individual talents in strategy, management, marketing, technology, e-commerce and access to influential people, the brothers garnered seed money and have moved forward in their desire to transform the family company into a new-age business that integrates technology with accessible and recognizable brands.
Kyle never really gave the company brand legacy much of a thought until he went on eBay to look for memorabilia. He and his brothers were surprised at what they found—Peggy Fleming's skates and cleats worn by Johnny Unitas and O.J. Simpson. Now Kyle's basement is adorned with items representing the history of the brand.
Inspired by Kyle's passion and energy, I eagerly anticipate what my own two sons and daughters-in-law will do. They are members of an innovative, creative and entrepreneurial generation to learn from, even if they have to explain things to us several times! Kyle's purpose in presenting at our conference was to make our audience "think deeply about how to ensure they were relevant and sustainable for the next generation." What a fantastic lesson to bring home from Family Business Magazine's Transitions conference! And good luck to those York brothers, who are well on their way.
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