The Transformational Women in Family Business 2024 are 16 accomplished women who are propelling their family enterprises into the future.
THEEANNA STEVENS
Vice President, Dealer Principal | Stevens Management Company | Fresno, Calif.
TheeAnna Stevens doesn't recall ever encountering obstacles in career. Or, at least, she never viewed them that way.
“Everyone says, ‘Oh, there's a glass ceiling' and so forth, and I've always had an attitude that there is none, that you make your own,” she explains. “You can overcome just about anything if you set your mind to it. So, I can't say that over the years I've had obstacles.”
That attitude is part of what's made Stevens a trusted mainstay among central California business owners. It's also helped her automobile dealerships outlast several local competitors.
Stevens' auto dealership management career began in 1986 with the opening of Fresno Acura, where she served as general manager.
Today, Stevens is vice president and dealer principal of the company her father founded, Stevens Management Company (SMC), overseeing Stevens Dealership Group. At one point, the group included as many as 12 dealerships — “rooftops,” as Stevens calls them — but SMC has since sold the bulk of them.
The group now owns four rooftops — Fresno Acura, Marin Acura, Mercedes-Benz of Modesto and Modesto Subaru — all of which Stevens personally oversees. And those locations have grown considerably.
For example, Fresno Acura, where Stevens got her start, has expanded from 18 employees to more than 40 employees under her leadership, with minimal turnover.
Stevens prides herself on loyalty to her employees and to her customers. They've returned the favor: Some of those employees have worked for SMC for four-plus decades, and some of those customers have individually purchased upwards of 10 vehicles from the company's dealerships over the years.
Stevens was exposed to the business at a young age by her father.
She continued that tradition, bringing each of her three daughters to work with her almost immediately after they were born. One daughter came to the office when she was a week old, Stevens recalls.
“So, they've lived and breathed it,” she says.
All three of Stevens' daughters worked for SMC after college. While one of them is now a stay-at-home mom, the other two remain heavily involved in the business.
Not that they were always sold on the idea.
“After college they were both, ‘No, no, no, we're not going to go into the car business,' and here they are,” Stevens says, adding that she views her ability to successfully bring them into the fold as her greatest accomplishment.
Still, Stevens is concerned about the future of the auto industry, which she describes as being “very much in turmoil,” largely because of electric vehicles and the regulatory framework around them.
It's an issue she discusses with her daughters.
“We've talked about: Is this something that you want to do? Is it something that you want to carry forward?” Stevens says, adding, “Is there stability in this particular industry for the future? It's an unknown.”
And with the road ahead so unclear, Stevens often finds herself urging her daughters to heed the advice that has served her well in her career: Be patient.
Or, to put it in auto industry terms: Pump the brakes.
“I think if there's one thing I'd want to pass on to my kids, it would be: Take time. Don't rush into anything,” she says. “Look at all avenues, let things evolve and then make some decisions. Just don't rush in there, which I'm seeing that they want to do: ‘Oh, this is the way to do it, let's get it done, let's go.'”
That sentiment — don't make decisions until you have all the information — is one that has been passed down the generations in Stevens' family.
It's also one that applies to managing employees and serving customers as much as it does to formulating a business strategy.
“My grandfather told my father and my father told me, ‘God gave you one mouth and two ears. Use them wisely.'”