Family IN Business

Meghan Juday is among the fourth generation of leaders in her family enterprise, IDEAL INDUSTRIES, an electrical and electronic manufacturing company. Currently the Chairman of the Board, she has faced challenges on a wide spectrum from the isolation of being a lone female Chairman to mitigating the shortage of trades professionals. She has proactively tackled these problems and more while contemplating the legacy of her leadership and of her family enterprise.

Listen as Meghan discusses stewardship, “emotional returns,” and the negative aspects of legacy. Guest experts Jennifer Pendergast and Dave Whorton also lend their takes on sustainability, purpose, and the long view.

Herschend Family Entertainment has a trademark: “Creating Memories Worth Repeating.” As the largest family-owned themed-entertainment company in the United States, you might think running the business is all fun and games. But as Chris Herschend explains, working cooperatively and productively with family can be difficult. 

Is it worth it? Absolutely. Chris, his siblings, and his cousins have been able to define a shared family purpose: to live, love, and serve together. Listen as he shares his lessons learned—and points to what we are “wired to do.” We are also joined by expert Jennifer Pendergast with thoughts on the relationship between individual freedom and shared purpose.

Leaders from five different industries share how Professor Emeritus John Ward influenced them and their family enterprises during their time at Kellogg and beyond. These five different impacts provide lessons that all family business leaders can leverage.

Which is better, securing financial stability or building something in the world? For those with the entrepreneurial gene, the answer is always ‘building something.’ Good thing Andreas Kuster inherited this gene when he needed to revitalize Europe’s oldest cookie manufacturing company, Jakob's Basler Leckerly.

Anne Eiting Klamar had not been groomed to succeed her father in the family business. In fact, she embarked on an entirely different career. But when it turned out she needed to run the family business, she stepped into her father’s shoes. And she quickly found out they didn’t fit her.

Through SEED Beauty, the Nelson family has disrupted both the traditional cosmetics company model and the notion of what it means to be a family in business.

It’s extremely rare for a fifth-generation family business to still be in the same industry they started out in. So, how did an 88-year-old family business Schurz Communications leave the traditional communications industry without leaving any of their family members behind?

They have to pivot, but as they did so, how did they make sure none of the family members get left behind? Todd Schurz of Schurz Communications describes his family’s successful transition to a new industry.

No matter how often we hear the phrase “unprecedented times” in reference to the coronavirus, fourth-generation family business Pella Corporation knows that they have seen times like these before. Chairman Adam Farver has dozens of examples of difficult situations and market downturns. Family businesses will lead the way through this not-unprecedented crisis.

Reviewers described Radio Flyer as “Americana on four wheels,” but just because it was beloved didn’t mean it would last forever.

Soon after joining his multi-generational family owned business, Robert Pasin learned the company was in trouble. Though the company hadn’t changed, consumer preferences had. How could they gain a competitive advantage without losing everything that made Radio Flyer an iconic part of Americans’ childhood memories?

Coming June 14 2020 from Kellogg's Center for Family Enterprises and Esther Choy at Leadership Story Lab, Family IN Business features stories of leaders, their families, and the family enterprises they transformed.

Storytelling is a great way to learn and be inspired. The stories you will hear from Family IN Business are the ones you can relate to, they might be battles you’re already fighting. These stories contain practical wisdom so that you don’t have to learn everything alone or the hard way.