Samuel T. Freeman & Co. of Philadelphia was founded in 1805 and is America’s oldest auction house. Columbia Restaurant, established 100 years later in Tampa’s historic Ybor City, is the oldest restaurant in Florida. Naturally, Freeman’s sixth- and seventh-generation owners and Columbia’s fourth- and fifth-generation leaders want to preserve company traditions. But these later-generation stewards must also adapt to today’s marketplace realities to ensure the preservation of their treasured family enterprises for the next century. To learn how these two business families have balanced innovation and tradition, read on.
One key to continued survival—especially in older companies, where managers too often are tempted to keep doing things the way they’ve always been done—is a readiness to capitalize on employees’ talents and experience. An offhand suggestion from a staffer can help boost your bottom line. On page 45, Alan Robinson and Dean Schroeder report on their study of how companies get ideas from their front-line staff.
Many family companies in the third generation and beyond face the challenges of integrating cousins into a cohesive ownership team. Unlike siblings, cousins grew up in different households, with divergent histories and traditions. The more family members, the more likely there will be shareholders who don’t work in the business but nonetheless want an opportunity to air their concerns. Jayne Pearl examines the finer points of running a cousin consortium on page 63.
In celebration of the summer vacation season, Bennett Voyles profiles the Wolff Company, a third-generation real estate business in Scottsdale, Ariz. Four years ago, the Wolffs decided to limit their work schedule to four days a week—with summers off, plus winter vacations. To learn how this arrangement worked out, see page 52.
Vacationers who are planning to visit North Carolina might want to check out the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, run by the fourth-generation descendants of George Vanderbilt. Sibling partners Bill Cecil and Dini Pickering take family business so seriously that they’ve hosted workshops for enterprising families at their Inn on Biltmore Estate. On page 42, Jonathan Poston reports on how the partners are honoring their ancestor’s vision. Like other wise successors, they’re blending the old and the new.