Ryan Young, President and CEO, Young Electric Sign Company, Salt Lake City, Utah
Generation of family ownership: Fourth.
Company size: We have four manufacturing facilities and 36 sales and service offices located in the Western United States. In addition, we are a franchisor and have a network of 127 franchise sign and lighting maintenance offices east of the Rocky Mountains in Canada.
Number of employees: Between our YESCO Custom Signs, YESCO Sign and Lighting Service businesses, and YESCO Outdoor Media, there are 1,100 employees and our franchises have 900.
First job at this company: When I was 16, we were moving our headquarters and I was hired as a chief laborer. I helped pack up the old headquarters and move to the new one. But the first position I consider a real job here was working in our manufacturing facility at 18. It was great being on the floor and learning how to build signs. I have also worked in sales and managed YESCO’s Rocky Mountain region, and in 2021 became president and CEO.
Most memorable thing I learned from my father: I succeeded my uncle, but my father also works side by side with his brother in another executive capacity. I think they both would say the same thing: be honest and do what’s right, even if it’s going to cost the company.
Our greatest success: Even though we’re a 105-year-old company, we’re proud of our entrepreneurial success. A lot of companies have a hard time reinventing themselves, but we’ve had a streak of successful ventures going back decades. My great-grandfather was initially a sign painter, and following that, he acquired the license to manufacture and sell neon from its inventor, Georges Claude, for zoning and electrical codes and the like. Fortunately, in the 1960s, an employee suggested that since we could build the signs anyway, we should erect our own signs and start selling advertising on them. That has grown into a very successful offshoot of the sign business – outdoor advertising. The billboard company has more than 3,000 advertising faces. In the late 1990s, we started an LED display manufacturing company, which grew to be a substantial part of the company before we sold it to Samsung in 2015.
On my wall: A picture of my wife and four children. Nothing in my office means as much to me as them.
One of my greatest personal business accomplishments: Earlier in my career, I decided to go into sales. It was a brutally long year. It took me almost 11 months to make my first sale. But in years two through five, I was one of the top salespeople in the company. I’m proud that I stuck it out.
Advice for other family business leaders: There are huge advantages to being a private, family-owned business. One is the ability to make decisions and investments on a decade or multi-decade time horizon. But the key to being able to endure as a family business is stewardship. Personal motivation inspired just by one member or multiple members of the family trying to increase their wealth or their power is what kills family businesses.
On a day off I: I’m blessed to live in Utah. We don’t have a beach, but we’ve got beautiful mountains, so in the summer I’m riding my mountain bike, and in the winter I’m skiing. As long as I’m in the mountains, I’m happy on my days off.
Book I think every family business leader should read: When the fourth generation turned 18 or was finishing college, my uncle and my dad met with us and gave us a reading list. The first two books on the list were “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and “How to Win Friends & Influence People”. I love that they are concerned first with teaching you correct principles and to be people of character before getting complex lessons on anything else. That’s so fundamental.
Philanthropic causes our family supports: Over the years, we’ve been involved in a lot of local causes, but my favorite is our recent YESCO Cares Fund, which benefits employees and their families who are going through hardship. It’s been incredible watching people give to help others who have been in accidents or have lost their homes, for example.
Words I live by: A quote from “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”