Mike McKee, President & CEO, McKee Foods Corporation, Collegedale, Tenn.
Generation of family ownership: Third.
Revenue: Approaching $2 billion.
Number of employees: It varies from month to month, but around 6,500.
First job at this company: When I turned 16, my dad asked me if I’d like to work part-time and earn money for gas and other things. After school, I’d work from about 3:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m., cleaning the office area ― vacuuming, polishing floors, picking up trash, cleaning the restrooms, whatever needed to be done. I have fond memories of that time. It was fun because I got to rub shoulders with some of the management. I’d enter an office to get the trash and have a conversation. It was a great entryway into the business.
Most memorable thing I learned from my father: On the business side, my dad was, and is, a productivity hawk. He was an industrial engineer by education. He came into the business and drove automation and supply chain efficiency. His productivity has been a big part of our success; he set the tone and the culture for that. On the leadership side, regardless of the situation or how tense or how big the crisis, my dad was always calm. I’ve never seen him get upset. He’s been a stabilizing influence in our family, but also in the business. Stress was not going to interfere with his judgment or his logic or anything else that was going on.
Our greatest success(es): First, growing our flagship brand, Little Debbie, over the last 60 years. It’s a powerhouse in our category. Second, relative to our shareholders, getting through a number of leadership and ownership transitions and third, working with four other family members in my generation. It takes a lot of work to keep a family together for two, three or four generations, and now we’ve got a big crop of fifth-generation family members in 20 or 30 years.
On my wall: I’m a bit nostalgic. I’ve got some small items from my grandfather in my office, like his letter opener. I’ve also got my dad’s slide rule and a stack of computer punch cards. I can remember him coming home from work, and he’d always have one stuck in his shirt pocket that he made his to-do list. I’ve got other little odds and ends that remind me of the company’s history and some of the people, and I have pictures of my family in my office as well.
One of my greatest accomplishments: I don’t like to brag, but I do feel I’ve had an eye for talent over the years, finding good leadership and strong talent and recruiting and nurturing that, and pulling that up through the ranks. Also, I believe I’ve brought a long-term view of the business to the table. I’ve gravitated towards our strategic planning process, and our leadership transition and ownership transition. The last few years, I’ve been the visible champion of a culture shift, which will pay off over time. So, I’ve been thinking and worrying about the things that are way out there and trusting other people to run the day-to- day business, which they do very well.
Advice for other family business leaders: No matter what’s going on in your business, assume you’re going to be successful — that someday the value of your business is going to be more than you could ever imagine — and be planning accordingly. That means estate planning, transition planning, liquidity planning, those kinds of things. If a successful family business does not plan for those, it’s going to come back and bite them. I’ve heard too many stories about that.
On a day off I: If we’re in town on a Sunday, I like to work the land around our house, clearing trails and cutting trails and fields. I’ve got ponds, and I like to raise bass and trout. I love being outdoors, and if we travel, my wife and I love to fly fish. She is super competitive.
Book I think every family business leader should read: “Barbarians to Bureaucrats” by Lawrence Miller. His thesis was that if you study the rise and fall of civilizations, you can see the same dynamics that play out in businesses. It’s an insightful book for family businesses because you can see the generational characteristics in this life cycle.
Philanthropic causes our family supports: One we rally around for both corporate and personal giving is the Outdoor Happiness Movement that basically supports greenways, parks, playgrounds and trail systems. We tend to invest in the communities we’re located in, but we’ve also done some things in states where we have no presence.
Words I live by: “What we do in life ripples in eternity,” by Marcus Aurelius.