Part I: From Lascaux to Logan Roy
“If history were taught in the form of stories,” British novelist Rudyard Kipling once wrote, “it would never be forgotten.”
Kipling’s comment still rings true today. Storytelling has been a human preoccupation from the time our earliest ancestors painted pictures on the walls and ceilings of caverns. Since then, the natural urge to record events and tell stories drove the development of languages, writing, printing, publishing, radio, film, television, social media and more. Good stories are why we binge-watch “Yellowstone,” “Succession,” “Outlander,” “Downton Abbey” and other juicy serial sagas. (And why millions tuned in to “Dallas” on November 21, 1980, to find out who shot the era’s most famous television villain: J.R. Ewing.)
Until recently, history in the classroom was often presented as a list of facts and dates to memorize, plus a few heroic tales thrown in for good measure. Little wonder that history was considered “dry” and “boring”! Today—thanks in part to filmmaker Ken Burns—people have discovered that the past can be not only fascinating, but refreshingly relatable, when viewed through the eyes of ordinary people living in extraordinary times.
At first glance, business history might not seem a likely candidate for the “Ken Burns treatment.” Many company founders don’t see their business stories as anything more than a personal saga of hard work and good timing. Who would be interested? (The fictional Roy family of “Succession” being a notable recent exception.) But every successful business’s unique story contributes to a broader and deeper understanding of our economy, our culture, our society, ourselves. Entrepreneurs start businesses; businesses create industries; industries can change the world.
Whether or not your children or grandchildren are actively involved in running the business, younger generations can benefit from learning the true story of how the family enterprise began. For someone born long after a company’s founding, peeling back the years and imagining a grandparent or great-grandparent’s colossal struggles to get the business off the ground can be tough without a little help.
What can a well-told history do?
- Educate younger family members about their shared heritage.
- Convey the values and work ethic of the founding generation.
- Reinforce family philanthropic philosophy and stewardship.
- Help to onboard new family members who join by marriage.
- Acknowledge the critical role of risk-taking, missteps, luck, timing and persistence in any worthwhile endeavor.
- Underscore that the family’s financial blessings did not simply fall out of the sky; someone worked hard to create the wealth in the first place.
- Supply meaningful business and life lessons by separating fact from fiction, truth from legend.
- Reveal the human side of the generation that founded the business. The formidable great-grandfather staring down from an oil portrait in the boardroom was once a child who probably scraped his knees, almost burned down the family barn with his electrical experiments, loved fast cars and grew up to sport a straw boater, bowtie and hip flask during his bachelor dandy days in the Roaring ‘20s. (Take a fresh look at that boardroom portrait and you’ll swear great-grandfather is winking slyly!)
- Provide a sense of continuity and a source of pride for younger generations, including—or perhaps especially—those who have no hands-on connection to the family business, yet are benefiting materially from its success.
Construction Zone: Cozy Cabin or Oceanfront Mansion?
The process of creating a business history echoes the sequence of steps used to design and build a house. The final product can be as simple or fancy as you please, but certain components are necessary regardless of whether you’re building a cabin or a mansion. This two-part article focuses on the steps for putting together a print or digital book but can apply to videos as well.
Begin with a sturdy foundation. Among the earliest questions to think about:
- Who is the audience? Family only? Employees? Customers? General readership? A combination?
- What is the focus of the main story? The founder’s life? The business? A balance of both?
- Why is this story worth telling? What’s the mission?
- How should it be told? In the first-person, perhaps by the founder? In the neutral third person?
- Where will you find illustrations? Who will gather and choose the photos?
- When does the book need to be ready? Is there an occasion coming up? Or is the project open-ended?
Next, you need high-quality building materials—in this case, research.
Any serious history is based on serious research. Sources of historical material can range from corporate archives to online repositories, to boxes of photos and memorabilia tucked away in a storage closet or basement. The research phase provides the “invisible infrastructure” of a book—a strong, flowing storyline, backed by an army of facts and insights. It is, hands down, the longest and most labor-intensive stage of any book project.
Research provides not only vital facts and milestones, but also contributes historical color and context that make the story readable and relatable. A thorough research process will dig out unknown gems, long-forgotten incidents and tantalizing period details in old newspapers, industry journals, annual reports, letters and more.
Two “trails” combine to create the best research materials to ground any credible history:
- The paper trail: documents of every imaginable kind.
- The people trail: interviews with key people who can flesh out the meaning and importance of events and developments.
In Part Two of this series, we’ll look at these two important trails, plus the remaining nuts-and-bolts steps in the book “building” process, including missteps to avoid.
Done thoughtfully and with attention to accuracy, a family business history can be as much about the future as it is about the past. As business historian Alfred D. Chandler Jr. loved to challenge his Harvard Business School students and colleagues, “How can you know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been?”
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