Massachusetts Family Business Magazine Premier Issue

Premiere Issue
Official magazine of the Family Business Association, Inc.
Getting
The Guarantee
Star Of
The Family
The 401(k)
Conundrum
Generation
XX
Handing The Family Business
To A Daughter’s Leadership
Plus:
Five Ways To Kick Start Family Business Revenue
A Supplement to Banker & Tradesman
®
Massachusetts Family Business
Official magazine of the
12
Generation XX
Handing The Family Business
To A Daughter’s Leadership
Increasingly, the next generation of family business leadership has
a different set of chromosomes from the preceeding one. See how a
handful of women are taking the reins – sometimes reluctantly – from
their fathers. Cover Photo: Gary Goodman
4
a new edition
Welcome to the newest offering from the Family Business
Association, Inc.
5
stand and be recognized
It’s not too late to be nominated for this fall’s biggest event,
the Massachusetts Family Business Awards
6
getting the guarantee
How to tactfully approach family members when the bank
wants everyone’s personal guarantee.
8
(re)building the business plan
In this troubled economy, family businesses need to take a
hard look at their business plan – if they can even find one.
10 6
8
9
10
16
18
the 401(k) conundrum
Don’t let the economy keep you down. Here are five ideas to
immediately bring some life back into your sales cycle.
11
family meetings
A collection of events of interest to family-owned businesses.
16 turning off auto-pilot
Family-owned car dealerships in Massachusetts are putting
on their thinking caps as they find new ways to keep their
companies on a profitable road.
18 star of the family
When it makes sense to showcase family executives – and
how to handle things when one member becomes the public
face of the firm.
letter from the
president
|
by edward tarlow
A New Edition To The Family
W
elcome to the inaugural issue
of Massachusetts Family Business, an official publication of
the Family Business Association, Inc.
The FBA is a non-profit, independent,
state-wide organization created for the
purpose of providing service to and recognizing the invaluable contribution of
family-owned and operated businesses.
We are very excited about the opportunities this quarterly publication
will provide to family business members,
their partners and employees, and their
trusted advisors.
Family businesses
are not creations of
our modern business
climate, but instead
date back to the
very first communal
enterprises. Still, it
E dward Ta r l ow
seems as if only recently that family businesses have begun
to truly receive the scope of recognition
approaching the level of importance they
have in our economy. Some say that as
many as 90 percent of businesses had
their beginnings as family businesses.
Companies such as Ford Motors, Comcast, and Zildjian Cymbals (a Massachusetts company with its origins going back
to the 17th century) had their origins as
family-operated businesses.
As most Americans work for familyrun organizations, the families that run
them are representative of what American self initiative and independence is
all about. Today, they are the key to our
returning economic stability and to ensuring that the great values that made
this country will continue. We believe
the FBA and this magazine will help to
secure these goals by supporting the economic viability and future continuation
of these businesses.
The Family Business Association will
use this publication as a vehicle to provide its readership with a spotlight into
certain family businesses, advice from
experts, practical guidance, interesting stories about situations to which all
family businesses can relate, and much
more.
With such an exciting new venture,
there are many people to thank. First of
all, thank you to my fellow FBA directors, who have worked with me over the
past years and have come together this
year to form the FBA. First of all my
law partner Al DeNapoli, Brian Nagle of
BNY Mellon, and Jeffrey Davis of Mage,
LLC. Furthermore, FBA Vice Presidents, Michael Lynch of Mage, LLC and
Cathy Watson, of Tarlow Breed Hart &
Rodgers, P.C., contributed invaluably.
I also wish to thank the Warren Group
and, in particular, our Editor, Vincent
Valvo, for creating this exciting new forum for family businesses.
The FBA is also very excited about the
Massachusetts Family Business Awards,
which will be held on October 15, 2009,
at the Royal Sonnesta Hotel, Cambridge.
Thank you, also, to the sponsors of these
Awards, many who have been with us for
three years, who recognize the value of
family businesses and the importance of
shining the spotlight on them through
the Award program.
Further information about the Massachusetts Family Business Awards may be
found on page 5 of this magazine.
Further, demonstrating the pervasiveness of family businesses many of our
Award sponsors had their beginnings as
family-owned businesses: The “Mellon”
portion of BNY Mellon was established
in 1869 by retired Judge Thomas Mellon
and sons as “T. Mellon & Sons Bank”;
Gray, Gray & Gray was founded in 1945
by Robert Gray, who was shortly joined
by his brothers, Milton and Mervin;
Bessemer Trust Co. has been owned and
operated by the Phipps family for over a
century; and Wolf & Company, P.C., established as Edwin L. Pride and Co., in
1911, was founded by Edwin Pride, who
was succeeded by his son E. Ober Pride.
Moreover, our publisher, The Warren
Group, is a fourth-generation familyowned business, going back to 1872.
I thank you for sharing our passion
for and pride in our family businesses,
and ask if you have any thoughts, suggestions, or comments about the magazine and/or family business in general to
please contact me directly.
We are looking forward to sharing
these and many other exciting opportunities with you. n
E dward Ta r l ow is president of the Family Business Association, Inc .
4
Massachusetts
FamilyBusiness
Official magazine of the Family Business Association. Inc.
101 Huntington Ave., Suite 500
Boston, MA 02119
www.massfamilybusiness.com
President
Edward D. Tarlow, Tarlow, Breed, Hart & Rodgers, P.C.
Directors
Jeffrey S. Davis, Mage, LLC
Al DeNapoli, Tarlow, Breed, Hart & Rodgers, P.C.
Brian Nagle, Bank of New York Mellon
Vice Presidents
Michael Lynch, Mage, LLC
Catherine Watson, Tarlow, Breed, Hart & Rodgers, P.C.
A Family-Owned Business Since 1872
Vincent Michael Valvo
Group Publisher and Editor-in-Chief
280 Summer Street, Boston, MA 02210
Phone 617-428-5100 Fax 617-428-5119 www.thewarrengroup.com
Timothy M. Warren
Chairman Timothy M. Warren Jr.
CEO & Publisher
David B. Lovins
President
Finance & Administration
Jeffrey E. Lewis
Controller / Director of Operations
Creative Services
John Bottini
Creative Director
Scott Ellison
Senior Graphic Designer
Advertising & Circulation George Chateauneuf
Publications Group Sales Manager Jason Long
Account Manager
Lisa Wright
Account Manager
Emily Torres
Advertising Coordinator
Katie Drowney
Circulation & Marketing Coordinator
©2009 The Warren Group Inc. All rights reserved. The Warren Group
is a trademark of The Warren Group Inc. No part of this publication may
be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.
When you are managing a growing business, you need a bank that represents a sound inves
Boston Private Bank & Trust Company. At each of our offices, we offer a full range of persona
management and trust services with the individual attention that makes private banking with u
mortgages to cash management and direct deposit accounts, to commercial, industrial and real
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a
The Family Business Association, Inc. (FBA), a non-profit created to honor the
achievements of multigenerational family businesses in Massachusetts, is hosting its
annual statewide awards program on October 15, 2009 at the Royal Sonesta Hotel
in Cambridge, Mass. As the only independent statewide awards program, the 2009
Massachusetts Family Business Awards program will recognize excellence in and
celebrate the success of Massachusetts family businesses. The 2009 Massachusetts
Family Business Awards will honor five finalists in three categories based on size,
as well as one company excelling in community involvement and one that has successfully overcome a recent adverse situation.
Any multi-generational, family-owned business based in Massachusetts that has
transitioned ownership from one generation to another and whose business prac-
tices have had a positive impact on business and the community is eligible. All
applications are confidential and will be judged independently by a panel of academic, business and management experts. Previous award winners include some
of the state’s most recognizable family businesses, including New England Cof-
fee, Bernie & Phyl’s and the Zildjian Cymbal Company. To apply for the awards
or nominate a company, please visit www.massfamilybusiness.com.
About FBA, Inc. The Family Business Association, Inc. is an independent, non-prof-
it organization designed to promote family businesses and family business achieve-
ments in Massachusetts. Its goal is to promote the development of creative ideas,
services, products and expertise to family-owned businesses. The annual awards
program honors excellence in business management, growth, community service
and business transition within family businesses. For more information, please visit
www.massfamilybusiness.com.
Media Sponsors
Please contact Mark Thompson, CEO & President, at (617) 912-1919
or mark.thompson@bostonprivatebank.com
www.bostonprivatebank.com
Member of Boston Private Wealth Management Group
hands on
|
advice and news for running your family business
Getting The Guarantee
How To Ask Family Members To Sign On For A Company Loan
The most important thing is this:
keep family members informed.
Family businesses have been the backbone of our economy
for generations. Yet for the owners of family businesses,
a number of issues can arise when there is an obvious
distinction between the members who are directly involved
with the day-to-day operations of the company and those
who clearly are not. One such challenge becomes evident
when the issue is financing.
Let’s presume, for example, that you are the successful CEO of a family-owned business and have dedicated
your career to ensuring the profitability and growth of
the company. After making the decision to apply for a
loan, you submit the company’s business plan, financial
statements and loan application to your financial institution. Soon, the lender says that
the loan will in fact be approved
subject to the personal guarantee
of your silent partner, who is coincidentally your only brother.
When it comes to requesting
business loan guarantees from
family members, even the most
Su sh il K. Tu li
successful CEO will often need to
ponder the most effective approach.
Though individual situations should always be taken
into account, there are two important factors to take
into consideration when asking family members to
support a loan on a family-owned business, the first of
which is quite simply family discussion. The sharing of
a vision or detailed idea can often be enough to open the
Su sh il K. Tu li is president of Leader Bank in Arlington.
6
minds of family members who do not have daily interaction with the operations of the company. Explaining, for
example, how the loan will be used and what it will accomplish will provide a level of comfort and reassurance
that could perhaps not otherwise be attained.
Step Two
However, a vision alone (no matter how theatrical
and promising it might be) should not take the place
of providing hard evidence that the company is in a financial position to accept the terms of the loan. It is
important that all members who have a financial stake in
the family business recognize the actual condition of the
business before they take personal responsibility for a
new loan. As the successful CEO of your family-owned
business, for example, you might effortlessly receive the
personal guarantee of your brother by presenting to him
the same required financial documentation that enabled
the business to qualify for the loan in the first place.
The most important thing is this: keep family members informed. Keep them informed of your goals for
the company, the ideas of upper management who
assist you in day-to-day operations, and the financial
strength and economic standing of the business that
can be used as evidence of stability. To do this, set up
regular meetings where family members can be kept
updated on the status of the company. Making access
to information readily available will drastically increase the chances of overall success for the company
and will assist in avoiding situations where requesting loan guarantees from family members requires an
overabundance of contemplation. n
7
Plan Of Attack
Why Your Family Firm Needs To Get Back To Its Business Plan
by michael ferraro
We often turn to our family in difficult times for support,
guidance, and comfort. The depth and length of the current
recession certainly qualify these as difficult times for many.
However, family businesses face additional challenges.
Members of a family business do not enjoy the ability to
separate their professional and personal lives as most of us
do. In particular, family business leaders are managing their
businesses in uncertain times while struggling to nurture
the relationships that are at the core of every family.
To overcome this weak economy, family business
managers and owners need to write new business
plans and act upon them. Revisiting your current
business plan or developing a new one will help
you identify new ways to beat the challenges of the
day.
Family business managers and owners seek to
maximize the wealth of shareholders; however, they also
strive to create sustainable businesses that will provide for the
family in good times and bad.
So, prior to developing a
new business plan, remember
that the following elements are
often key to developing and
Michael Ferraro
maintaining a sustainable business. Sustainable companies are:
Purposeful. Your company’s purpose should easily
fit on the back of a business card.
Focused. Customers will buy a product or service
when it provides clear value to them.
Agile. Companies with stealth and speed will win
over their larger competitors.
Frugal. Spending only on what’s critical to the success of the business will maximize the wealth of the
family.
With the above in mind, you are ready to write
your business plan. In your business plan, present
as much information in as few words as possible.
By using this discipline, you will enhance your and
your organization’s ability to execute upon your
plan.
The first thing to do is to look at your firm’s relationship to its external environment. You need
to understand your firm and its potential by completing a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,
and threats (SWOT) analysis. Follow this by de-
scribing the market, including size as a factor, in
which your firm operates. You should outline your
firm’s financial strength, profitability, and its ability to grow. Then assess the attractiveness of the
markets, including size as a factor, in which your
firm may operate. List your company’s current and
potential competitors, including their competitive
advantages.
Next, you need to clearly illustrate your company’s purpose. Define the business in a single
declarative sentence using the results of the above
analysis.
You need to understand what will drive potential
customers to buy from you. So the next step is to
describe the current and potential needs of your
customers. Outline how your current or potential
customers address their needs today.
Demonstrate your company’s value proposition
to make the customer’s life better.
Describe your product or services. Include information on their form, functionality, and features.
Then define recent trends that make your solution
possible or sustainable.
Identify any significant intellectual property that
enhances the value of your product or service offering.
Business Model
You’re not going to be able to drive your firm to
success if you don’t know how to make the pedals
work. Describe the firm’s revenue model. Articulate your pricing policy and strategy. Describe your
business development and distribution model. This
will help you focus on the important elements you
need to keep at top of mind.
Similarly you should evaluate the ownership and
management structure of the firm. The idea is to
create a shared future vision of the firm for its various stakeholders.
Part of knowing where you’re going is knowing where you’ve come from. That means that you
should analyze your firm’s historical financial statements to understand the key drivers of historical
profitability and growth. You’ll need that to develop projections that reflect the various elements of
the business plan.
Once you have finished your plan, have confidence in it and carry it out with determination.
Update it when your or your family’s conditions
change. The business planning and the initial execution stages are some of the most exciting times
when running a business. n
Michael Ferraro is Vice President at C aturano and C o. P.C . in Boston.
8
5
2
513 4
Ways To Perk Up Revenue |
The
Fast
For many family businesses, generating revenue is
more dependent on the relationships you have built
than simply the products or services you offer. Yet
even some of these relationships have been strained
as competitors begin offering
their products or services at
much lower costs and tempting
your customers to change. At
that same time, your customers
are probably spending less than
usual, therefore each sale is immensely important. So how do
CHR IS D iCE NSO
you combat these economic
and competitive challenges? Here are some simple
yet effective recommendations.
by christopher dicenso
priced sales, often of “older” product, but the concept works.
Complement the Sale: When customers are buying one of your products or services, do you offer
alternative or complementary products? A simple
example is a customer buying a hammer. She could
probably use some nails, a belt holder, safety glasses
and other complementary products.
Increase Your Share of Wallet: Identify how
much of your products or services your customers
buy from you then try to increase it by selling more
of what they are buying now or identifying other
products or services to sell them.
Have Lunch: Deepen your relationships with a select set of your customers rather than blasting communications to all of them. One effective way to do
this is through an informal lunch where you intentionally don’t sell. Have it be a reward for being a
good customer. The sales will follow.
Quantify Your Difference: What are the top three
reasons your customers buy from you? How do you
know? Conduct an exercise to rank the top reasons
customers buy from you, then ask your customer to
do the same thing. Through this process you’ll identify specifically why they buy and have opportunities
to sell them more.
Cut It In Half: Offer select promotions that encourage customers to buy. Some companies offer half
As with all recommendations, it’s not knowing what
you can do, it’s doing it that counts. n
Ch ristop h er D iCenso is managing director of Growth Strategy Partners in Marshfield.
Hand over a healthy business.
CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS
VISION • DIRECTION • SUCCESS
Westwood • Framingham
781.407.0300 www.gggcpas.com
Will you be able to proudly pass along a company that is on solid
financial footing? Call us today to find out how we can help you keep
the “family” in your family business.
9
The 401(k) Conundrum
Does cutting the match cut into a company’s family values?
by bob clark
G
FAMILY
FINANCES
Why is the 401(k) plan a
common target for cost
savings? There are a
host of reasons:
• It is a deferred
benefit, so there is no
immediate impact to
employees’ wallets/
pocketbooks
• It is easy to stop and
easy to reinstate
• The savings are easy
to quantify; both the
amount and the timing
• As a general rule,
employees don’t value
the retirement plan
as much as current
compensation and
health related benefits
(medical, dental, etc.)
• It makes a difference
• Others are doing it.
SOURCE: Bostonian Group
iven the current economic crisis, most companies in America have been contemplating
any and all cost-cutting measures to bolster
the bottom line or salvage the enterprise. One
prime target: the company 401(k) plan. In the
first three months of 2009, for
example, more than 80 public
employers announced plans to
reduce or suspend contributions to their defined contribution retirement plans. Many
employers have followed suit
in the second quarter, While
B ob Clark
others are still contemplating
this strategy.
Family-owned businesses are equally impacted
by the current economic state. But some face a
unique set of challenges.
Many family-owned businesses are not managed by family and do not employ family members. These businesses tend to act more like their
industry peers, facing the same challenges and
contemplating the same strategies with a similar
mindset. Other family-owned businesses are run
by family and employ family members. These organizations are confronted by similar challenges
and explore similar strategies, but they tend to
have a slightly different culture. Many of these
family-owned businesses tend to have a bias toward saving jobs during tough economic times.
Their culture is more family-oriented and their
focus is not so much on “shareholder value”.
Take, for example, a local retail business that
has multiple stores and employs 1,000 people, of
which a few dozen are family members. As the financial meltdown began, they knew they would
need to dramatically reduce cost. They began to
manage inventory more closely. They implemented a hiring freeze. They reduced travel. They deferred pay increases and reduced bonus payments.
This all helped, but as the recession deepened,
they needed to cut costs even more deeply.
The 401(k) match presented an easy target
for saving hundreds of thousands of dollars. After much debate and anguish, the family owners
decided to reduce the match. The thought was
that as the market recovered, they could increase
the match to the previous level. If their business
thrived during the rebound, they could provide a
profit sharing contribution to make up for the lost
match. Difficult as it was to reach concensus about
cutting the match, it was a far more palatable option than cutting jobs or implementing layoffs.
Harboring Change
But what are the implications of cutting the
401(k) match? Early indications show that this
strategy may result in some employees reducing
or stopping their deferrals. This can have a profound impact on nondiscrimination testing, since
most employees that have cut or stopped contributing are non-highly compensated. This will
likely be especially challenging for sponsors that
offered a Safe Harbor contribution formula, since
many had gone this route because they could not
pass the ACP test without limiting contributions
of the highly compensated.
The long-term implications may be more profound. The loss of the match in the near-term,
compounded by investment returns, will have a
limited impact if the match is resumed as economic conditions get better. But what if employees that have stopped contributing don’t resume?
This will likely create another pocket of the population that will never save enough to enjoy a financially comfortable retirement.
Talk The Talk
Communication is critical. Let employees
know how valuable they are. Let them know your
plans relative to resuming the match. Some family run businesses are contemplating strategies
to make up the lost match over time with special
discretionary contributions or enhanced matches
during good economic times. Some are planning
profit sharing allocations based on company performance. In any event, communicate your plans
with your employees to let them know you’re
in this together. This will go a long way toward
helping solve the 401(k) conundrum. n
B ob Clark is managing director of the Retirement Services Practice at The Bostonian Group, in Boston .
10
Family Meetings
A Collection Of Events Of Interest
To Family-Owned Businesses
JULY
AUGUST
outlook greater boston 2010
Sponsor: Mass. Lodging Association
Date: July 9, 2009 Time: 8:00 a.m.
Location: Sheraton Boston Hotel,
Continental Ballroom, 39 Dalton Street, Boston
annual summer reception
Sponsor: Boston Chamber of Commerce
Date: Wednesday, August 5 Time: 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Location: Taj Boston, 15 Arlington Street, Boston
business showcase
Sponsor: Boston Chamber of Commerce
Date: Wednesday, July 15 Time: 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Location: Back Bay Events Center
Dorothy Quincy Suite, 180 Berkeley Street, Boston
poolside reception
Sponsor: Massachusetts Restaurant Association
Date: Monday, July 20, 2009 Time: 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Location: The Colonnade Hotel, Boston
picnic in the park
Sponsor: Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater
Springfield Date: Jul 24, 2009 Time: 10:30 a.m. - 9:00 p.m .
Location: Six Flags New England, 1623 Main St, Agawam
7th annual tanglewood
wine and food classic
Sponsor: Tanglewood
Date: August 8, 2009 Time: 12:00 p.m.
Location: Tanglewood Grounds, Lenox
OCTOBER
mass. family business awards
Sponsor: Family Business Association, Inc.
Date: Oct. 15 Time: 6:00 p.m.
Location: Royal Sonesta Hotel, Cambridge
your g re at, g re at,
g re at g r a n dc h i l dr e n
w i l l t h a n k you.
we’d all like to be remembered long after we’re gone. and not as the one who squandered the family fortune. at Bessemer trust, we believe maintaining wealth from
generation to generation is the true art of wealth management. So we have a team of specialists targeted at precisely that. we meet with each client and create a plan based
on their family’s goals. that vision drives everything. our Family wealth Stewardship advisors help prepare the next generation to responsibly guide your wealth. and our
legacy Planning team puts the tools in place to help them do it. our tax Strategists help fend off the largest threat to your wealth. we have specialists to help you manage real
estate. Family businesses. insurance. even philanthropy. and while our focus is long term, our returns are in the top quartile of the lipper Balanced Fund universe.* let’s face it.
history is littered with family names once associated with great wealth that now are mere footnotes. everything we do is designed to keep you from becoming one of them.
contact Stephen kistner, Managing director, or Pamela Murray, Principal, at 617-279-4080, or visit www.bessemer.com. Minimum relationship $10 million.
*January 1, 2005 to March 31, 2009. Past returns are not indicative of future performance. lipper Balanced Fund returns and rankings are before the deduction of fees and expenses.
11
Kristin Sundin Brandt and her
father, Roger Sundin, at their
Natick advertising agency.
12
Generation XX
Photo: Gary Goodman
More women
are taking
over the family
business from
dear old Dad
by scott van voorhis
Kristin Brandt had only a vague
understanding growing up what
her father did for work at his Natick
advertising and marketing agency.
Christa Hagearty left to pursue her
own career – until she came back
to help out the family’s South Shore
dry cleaning business after the
death of a beloved uncle.
By contrast, Aviva Sapers grew up
in greater Boston working alongside
her father in the family insurance
and financial services business.
While the details of their stories are
different, all three women are part
of a fast-growing trend – daughters
taking the reins of the family
business.
Continued on Page 14
13
Generation XX
Continued from Page 13
The opening up of new opportunities across the business world
for women has also opened the door to a traditional path to success
in which sons, not daughters, were heavily favored.
As many as 30 percent of family businesses will now consider a
daughter for the top job, according to a key Babson College survey, up from just 10 percent back in the 1990s.
Still, the climb to the top can be tricky for women across the
corporate world, and especially so when it comes to family businesses.
No overnight transition, the transfer of power often comes after
a years-long evolution in which father and daughter carve out a
new, and sometimes unfamiliar role – that of workplace colleague.
Pop Rocks
“I have a lot of people who ask me ‘how do you work with your
dad?”’ notes Brandt. But it “has given us a relationship we not
have had.”
“When it’s good, working with a family business can be awesome,” she said.
While more daughters may be taking over the family business,
as in the case of Brandt, there’s not necessarily any long-term succession plan at work.
Even after graduating from Wheaton College, Brandt was more
interested in pursuing a career in the publishing business in the
PRESSED HER SUIT: Christa Hagearty showed her father that she could
grow Dependable Cleaners. (Top Left)
EARNED INCOME: Aviva Sapers had to prove to her father, Bill, that she
was qualified to become president of the family investment management
firm. (Bottom Left)
Contributed Photos
Meaty Job
At Agar, a daughter shows how it’s done
by scott van voorhis
K
aren Bressler dreamed of a career in
international business, of striking out
on her own.
But she has made her mark in the local
business world as chief executive of one of
the region’s largest food service and meat
distributors, Agar Supply Co.
Bressler is the third generation of her
family to run the business and yet another
example of a daughter who took the reins of
the family business.
Throwing her entrepreneurial energy into
the family business, she has helped transform
Agar from a respected local meat company
into the largest, family-owned food service
14
distributor in New England.
Still, it was not an outcome she would
have envisioned growing up. The gritty
meat distribution business started by her
grandfather Karl, in Chinatown and built
into a major local player by her father, Alan,
had little glamour or appeal.
“It was a volume meat distributor,’’
Bressler said. “It was dirty. Nobody grows
up and says I want to go into the meat business.’’
And for several years, it appeared Bressler
would not be following in the footsteps of
her grandfather and father.
After earning a master’s degree in inter-
national business, Bressler spent six years
working in the import/export side of the toy
business.
It was only when she was looking to make
a career change in the early 1990s that she
met with her father, who was also looking
to make a change of his own and step back
from the business.
Bressler decided to take a chance on the
family firm. She took a job as a credit manager and started working her way through
the company in different posts.
Unexpected
“I have two sisters. None of us were ever
Big Apple – and roller skating down busy Manhattan streets – than
in working for her father’s advertising and marketing business.
It was only after a heart-to-heart talk from her mother that
Brandt took a serious look at the idea of working for the business
her family owns jointly with another.
“I said ‘can I leave?”’ Brandt recalled of her initial job negotiation with her father. “And [he] said if you are bad at it, I can fire
you. With that we had a good agreement.”
More than a decade later, Brandt has become a key player at
Sundin Associates, which provides marketing and ad services for
About 30 percent of family
businesses will now consider
a daughter for the top job.
small and mid-sized banks.
The Natick firm’s resident tech guru, she helped the firm stay
ahead of the curve with the latest in e-marketing while taking on
ever greater responsibility on key accounts.
That means helping banks with everything from setting up
and managing their websites to newsletter marketing campaigns.
That’s in addition to the firm’s bread and butter business of overseeing ad and marketing campaigns, often through local print and
electronic media.
“Our competition has something called a website,”’ Brandt recalls of a call from a panicked banker in the early days of the web.
“We need one.”
On the side, she’s even launched her own podcast aimed at
young mothers, Manic Mommies! The podcast has netted corporate sponsors – including General Motors – interested in finding
new ways of reaching desirable demographics.
raised thinking we were going to go into the
business,’’ Bressler said. “He never raised us
to think this would be our legacy.”
The family business, however, had grown
more sophisticated and soon Bressler found
herself helping plan and oversee a major
shift and expansion.
After years focusing solely on meat distribution, Agar expanded into a full-scale food
distributor, with an array of dry goods, from
ketchup to frozen fish and paper products.
The company saw its customer base grow
as well to include a full range of restaurants,
hotels and institutions.
That growth led to another big jump in
2000 – the decision to leave its traditional
Boston base and build a new, 275,000 square
foot warehouse and office complex in Taunton.
The first year was a tough one, with the
company losing employees in the move and
having to adjust to a new computer system.
Manic Mommies has built a following of 1,500 moms, making it
a top parenting podcasts.
Brandt has also been talking to clients and industry groups about
how they might use new marketing vehicles like Manic Mommies
to reach clients.
“Manic Mommies is an experiment that has grown far beyond
being an experiment,” she said.
And while her father, Roger Sundin, has no immediate plans to
retire, when that day comes, Brandt will take a leadership role in
the family business that she has grown to love.
In an era when marketing is rapidly changing, Sundin, an engineer by training himself, notes with pride his daughter’s enthusiastic embrace of the latest in technology
“To me it’s one thing to talk about it,” Sundin notes. “It’s a whole
other thing when you are doing it, and she is doing it.”
Twist Of Fate
Like Brandt, Christa Hagearty also had plans of her own that
did not involve her father’s dry cleaning business.
While she helped out with the business growing up, Hagearty
opted to pursue her own career after he left college, going to work
for Plymouth Rock Insurance.
That came in part as the result of the prompting of an uncle,
who, while heavily involved in the family business, told Hagearty
not to feel obliged to work with him but to pursue her own interests.
But after the uncle’s sudden death a few years later, Hagearty
came back to help out her father and never left.
Working with her father, she came up with a strategy to expand
Quincy-based Dependable Cleaners, with a focus on improving
customer service, creating a top-flight management team and
boosting same store sales.
She bought the company from her father in 1996 and over the
years has expanded the number of locations to 16 from 12. The
But the new and larger complex helped
set the stage for a dramatic growth spurt,
one that more than doubled the company’s revenue to $560 million and came
close to doubling its head count to 430.
Bressler by than had moved up the company’s ranks, and, in 2001, took the job of chief
executive.
“I then sort of realized the business would
be what you would make it to be,’’ Bressler
said.
And while family is important, Bressler
said she has learned the importance of making sure the business and its needs come
first.
Too many family businesses fall into the
trap of piling relatives on the payroll, creating a heavy financial burden, she notes.
“We are a family business, but Agar is the
baby,’’ Bressler said. “If I can’t take care of
the baby, there isn’t anything else to take
care of.’’ n
Continued on Page 22
SURPRISE CEO: Karen Bressler never expected
to be top dog at Taunton-based Agar Supply Co.
15
by kay metcalfe
Stalling
Can Family-Owned Car Retailers Make It In The Bay State?
For family-owned auto dealerships across Massachusetts,
the last few months have been like being in a Nascar race
with a gasoline shortage. Many of them are going to make
the finish line, but some are sputtering and watching their
dreams of glory stall.
Car sales are down across the board, and that’s
forcing many of the state’s dealerships to scale back
significantly. But dozens of others are in danger because of the woes of General Motors and Chrysler
Corp., both of which are yanking franchises out
from under owners.
the Boston Better Business Bureau - yes, we will remain in business,” was the comment from a member of the Stagg family, whose Cape Cod Chevrolet
dealership appeared on Chrysler’s list of 789 dealerships nationwide that the ailing automaker vowed to
close.
“We are not closing our business as ... has been
implied incorrectly. We will continue servicing our
very loyal customers and have expanded our service
department by servicing all makes and models including most imports. We are a Chevrolet dealer
and have always sold more pre-owned vehicles than
new,” said Peter Stagg, owner of Stagg Chevrolet/
Chrysler, in a statement.
“I am getting the
next generation ready
to get involved with
the business.”
Ernie Boch Jr.
s Ernie Boch Jr. at one of his
Norwood dealerships. He
says he’s selling less than
before, but he’s still looking
forward to a fourth generation leading the company.
16
For the Dimopolous family, the economic downturn meant the end of the line for its Seacoast Motors
in Salisbury. Although it was one of 12 dealerships in
Massachusetts on Chrysler Corp.’s list of franchise
terminations, patriarch George Dimopolous said the
end was already in sight. The dealership just couldn’t
survive with sales levels so low that it lost more than
$1.5 million over the last couple of years.
But most of the state’s family-run dealerships say
they plan to fight to stay in business.
“After 32 years of A+ business practices rated from
A Pile-Up
But dealerships not selling GM or Chrysler products, too, are affected by the mega-corporations’
meltdown.
“Business is down around the world,” said Ernie
Boch Jr., president and CEO of Boch Automotive.
“The problem with the auto industry isn’t that we’re
facing harder times than anyone else, because we’re
not. Everyone’s having troubles. The problem is
that our troubles are plastered across the front pages
of newspapers everywhere you look.”
Out?
Boch said that while his company sells foreign automobiles,
they are still affected by GM’s woes.
“The bankruptcy of GM is hurting our business,” he said.
“With Chrysler and GM in trouble, people say, ‘it must be great
for Honda, Nissan and Toyota [dealers] because now there’s less
competition,’ but that is not the case. Without GM spending
money on advertising they’re not spurring that competition to
keep the market alive. People aren’t getting excited to buy new
cars, they’re scared and it hurts us.”
Boch Automotive began in the mid-1940s. Ernie Boch Sr. took
over the company from his father in the late 1950s and garnered
fame for his over-the-top marketing campaigns, which included
smashing a car windshield with a sledgehammer to illustrate the
company “smashing prices.” Boch Jr. inherited the catch phrase,
“Come on down!” and the business from his father, after Boch
Sr. passed in 2003.
“It’s the time to look back to the business basics of the past,” he
said. “It’s time to be making sure management is trained right and
to be really taking care of our customers better than we have been
doing. It’s the time to make sure customers feel safe.”
Boch’s empire of dealerships, concentrated mostly along the
“Automile” on Route 1 in Norwood, is still showing and selling
more cars than any other dealership group in the state, he said.
“But, yes, we are selling fewer cars than we were a year ago. I
feel like we are the tallest midget. We’re doing more business, but
it’s a bigger piece of a smaller pie,” he explained.
As for making sure the business stays a family affair?
“Yes, I am getting the next generation ready to get involved
with the business,” he said. “I have an eight-year-old daughter
and a six-year-old son. I am trying to have my son take over the
business. I’ve been asking him if he will do it since he was four.
I’m working on my daughter, too.”
If that fails, Boch said he also has plenty of nephews and nieces
to fill his shoes if necessary.
Passing Lane
Over at the Honda Cars of Boston dealership in Everett, the
Giacchino family isn’t even sure if the business will continue with
the next generation. Salvatore J. Giacchino started the business
in the late 1960s. Sons Gene, Paul and Rob got involved when
they were in high school, working part-time and during summer
breaks. The brothers got more involved as they got older, and in
2004, five years after their father’s passing, took over running the
dealership completely.
“We’d really like to see the business stay in the family,” Gene
Giacchino said. “It will definitely be a challenge because there are
10 offspring right now between us all. We don’t know what will
happen. We’ll have to wait and see.”
The greatest challenge for the Giacchinos right now is keeping
their business viable.
“We’ve definitely been feeling a strain on our business as the
country has gotten deeper into the recession,” Giacchino said.
“Consumers are a lot more cautious about making a commitment
on large purchases such as new cars.”
On the other hand, the business has seen improvements in the
service and maintenance side of business as well as pre-owned car
sales, according to Giacchino.
“We think the family business will be in good standing once
the economy turns back around,” he noted.
n
“We’ve definitely been feeling a strain on our business as the
country has gotten deeper into the recession.”
Gene Giacchino
17
18
Contributed Photo
star
family
of the
It’s a Saturday night, and at Nebo, a hot eatery in Boston’s
North End, the joint is jumping. Customers are lining up
for tables, and Carla Pallotta is calling the shots. She runs
the front of the house, dealing with reservations, planning
parties and maintaining order during peak dining hours. To
most customers, Carla is the face of the restaurant. After
all, she’s the one they see most.
What they don’t see is her sister, Christine, who’s
clearly in charge in the kitchen. There, she’s expediting orders, making sure food is coming up the way
patrons have requested, keeping an eye on the costs
and the quality.
“We’ve never
understood jealousy.”
s
Carla Pallotta
Sisters Christine (left)
and Carla Pallotta
run Nebo in Boston’s
North End.
It’s the kind of set-up that could bring on family
tension, like the lead singer in a band getting all the
attention when it’s really a team effort. But the Sisters
Pallotta say they’ve got it all worked out the way it
should be.
“It’s very important that we have different jobs and
that we know each other’s strong points,” Carla Pallotta says. “Mine is in the hospitality and the front
of the house, and Christine’s is definitely in quality
control and working in the kitchen.”
“Christine is literally the eyes in the back of my
head,” she adds.
Christine Pallotta agrees. “We play our own roles
by kay metcalfe
How some
family businesses
decide who should
be the public face
of the business
and know our own weaknesses. I stay away from the
staff and the reservation book. Carla stays out of the
kitchen when we’re slammed.”
Facing Facts
In any enterprise, there needs to be some employees who are the public face and some who work
behind the scenes. But in family businesses, that dynamic could be especially prickly if it brings up issues
of favoritism. The key, say family executives who’ve
successfully navigated these waters, is to make sure
everyone feels that their contribution is important
and valued.
Norton-based Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture is the
largest, privately-owned furniture retailer in the Bay
State. The company grew from a small mom-and-pop
Weymouth storefront in 1985, to now operating six
stores across Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
The furniture retailer has become a household
name with help from TV commercials featuring the
founders, Bernie and Phyl Rubin. The ads showcase
love seats, recliners, end tables and more, coupled
with the presence of Bernie & Phyl, as well as a catchy
jingle that almost anyone who has lived in the state
can recite: “Bernie and Phyl’s! Quality, comfort and
price! That’s nice!”
Since the early stages, sons Larry and Robert have
helped out with the family business, working behind
the scenes while their parents took center stage. Robert joined the company in the mid-1980s when the
business started, and Larry followed soon after in the
early 1990s.
“We’ve been involved for a long time, but were
never in the commercials until more recently,” notes
Larry Rubin, now president of the company.
The reason for the new faces in the commercials?
“We’re in a transition period now,” Rubin exContinued on Page 20
19
Contributed Photo
From left are brothers Filippo, Damian and Dante de Magistris, owners of Restaurant Dante in Cambridge and Il Casale in Belmont.
Star Of The Family
Continued from Page 17
plained. “We decided a couple of years ago to introduce Rob and
myself in the commercials gradually, and more recently we’ve also
begun to involve our sister, Michelle. My parents are getting older
and we all thought it would make sense now to start transitioning to
the next generation.”
The transition period for a family business, especially when the
business bears the name of one or two family members, is an important one to undertake and the Rubins intend to keep the namesake
of their parents when the transition is complete.
Public On Purpose
Sometimes the decision of who should be famous comes down to
the marketing decision to actually make someone a star.
For brothers Dante, Damian and Filippo de Magistris, owners of
Cambridge hotspot Restaurant Dante, the decision to name the restaurant after one of them was a tough one. “Naming the restaurant
was a really difficult process,” said Head Chef Dante de Magistris.
“All we started out knowing was that we wanted it to be a chef-driven restaurant so that when people would hear about us, they would
know our chef and could know to expect good food… Well, that’s
the theory.”
Dante already had a following in Boston, according to Damian, so it
only made sense for the brothers to stick with and build on that positive
20
momentum. Damian and Filippo fill their own important roles in the
restaurant, Damian is in charge of the front of the house and Filippo
manages the wine program. “Arguments may get a little more heated
between us because we’re family, but they dissipate faster too,” Filippo
de Magistris said. “There are never any real grudges held between us.”
“It really helps that we’re all in the field working,” Dante de Magistris says. “We’re all working for the same thing: have each fill a
different role. In the end, it all evens out and all gets done. It always
comes back to trust in the end.”
“We’re not all chefs,” says brother Damian. “If we were, it would
be a different story. We’d be fighting all the time!”
The de Magistris must be doing something right. They just
opened their second restaurant – Il Casale – recently in their hometown of Belmont.
Sibling Support
The Rubins of Bernie & Phyl’s say the move to introduce all of
the family now as faces of the company is a business decision, not a
personal one – and certainly not because anyone had hard feelings.
They know they’ve all got important contributions to make to the
company. That’s the same kind of tone struck by the Pallottas in
their restaurant.
The sisters admit to small fights, but maintain that jealousy has
never been an issue at any point in their lives.
“We’ve never understood jealousy,” Carla Pallotta said. “We’ve always been happy for each other with whatever the other one does.” n
The family that runs Bernie & Phyls Furniture. Daughter Michelle Pepe and founders Phyl and Bernie Rubin
are in front. Sons Rob Rubin (center) and company
president Larry Rubin are in back.
21
Contributed Photo
Generation XX
Continued from Page 15
company also offers delivery service in
more than 20 towns.
Annual revenue has tripled to $15 million.
“It was that crisis that brought me back
to talk to my father,” Hagearty recalled of
her uncle’s death and her decision to return
to the family firm.”For a time I thought
I was coming back for a year to help my
father. My father was semi retired. By the
end of the year, we had both fallen back in
love with the business and figured out how
to work with one another.”
Aviva Sapers’ decision to carve out a career in the family business also came after
much reflection.
She spent long hours alongside her
brothers working in the family business,
Sapers & Wallack insurance and investment management.
But before going to work for the family
firm, Sapers decided she needed to work
for another firm first.
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22
Her Own Footing
After graduating from college, she then
threw herself into the insurance business,
winning entry into the million dollar sales
club back in the early 1980s at one firm.
It was only after reaching success on her
own that Sapers decided she was comfortable coming back to the family firm.
Still, Sapers’ ascent was far from overnight.
When her father decided to step back,
Sapers underwent a year evaluation by
her father and other employees before she
won the top job.
That was more than a decade ago and
Sapers never looked back.
With the Baby Boom generation rolling into retirement, Sapers has overseen a
push by the firm into money management
and financial planning. Bill Sapers, her father, has carved out a new role as head of
a charitable division that helps nonprofits
manage their assets.
While each of these daughters rose to
the top by a different path, each notes the
importance of finding ways to separate the
business side of their lives from the family.
Sundin Brandt has learned to compartmentalize – sometimes in a way that leaves
other family members a bit mystified.
“When I am talking about him in a
work context, it’s Roger, but in a family
context, it’s Dad,” she notes.
One universal rule that has seemed to
work – banning shop talk from the dinner
table or patio during family gatherings.
When Sapers and her father are at family gatherings and business comes up, they
will often take the conversation into another room rather than talk it out at the
dinner table.
“We try and keep the family stuff family,” she said.
And it can mean work for the fathers as
well as the daughters, who are forced at
times to step back and get out of the way.
In the years that his daughter was
working her way up the ranks of the business, as well as the son of one of the firm’s
founders, Bill Sapers recalls having to
walk a fine line.
“We deal with a lot of family businesses.
We have watched some of them destroy
the family,” Sapers noted. “As a father it
is my responsibility to be perceptive as
to what is going on and make sure things
stay on line while they take control.” n
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