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A woman’s place in family business
As Writen By Peg Eddy
The San Diego Source
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
It is generally accepted that most family businesses on a worldwide basis have had a traditional male bias and that the rule of primogeniture is still practiced by the majority of multigenerational businesses.
However, past studies completed by Babson College in partnership with MassMutual Life Insurance company indicate that women are taking more leadership positions in family-owned businesses and that this trend is going to continue.
In addition, studies indicate that family businesses that have women family members as CEOs or in top management positions have less turnover, have more family-friendly hiring practices, and twice the business productivity than that of their male counterparts.
Although women are taking an increasingly bigger role in family enterprises, there is still little research that examines women’s roles in family-owned businesses. However, two books have recently been published that address women’s leadership roles in family enterprises: “A Woman’s Place: The Crucial Roles of Women in Family Businesses” (The Family Business Consulting Group, 2008) and “Women in Family Business: What Keeps You Up at Night?” (BookSurge Publishing, 2009).
“A Woman’s Place …” is the collaborative effort of six professional women who consult almost exclusively with family-owned businesses. In their introduction to their insightful book, the authors wrote:
“We also hope that business-owning families, if they have not already done so, will come to a full appreciation of what extraordinary resource women represent and what opportunities may be lost when their talent is not welcomed or developed. It is still apparent in our work that sometimes a son is being chosen over a daughter to run a business when the daughter is clearly more able and qualified. And that’s when a daughter is actually working in the business. Many family businesses still have no women family members working in them at all. What talent and what opportunities are lost to those companies we can only imagine.”
In “Women in Family Business: What Keeps You Up at Night?” the three major authors, two women and one man, address “the psychological, relational and financial issues impacting women in family owned businesses: wives who want their husbands to retire; mothers who want to treat their children fairly; widows who don’t know whether to keep or sell the businesses.” In addition, they address step-family members’ feelings of exclusion and daughters who strive for their father’s approval. (The book is a helpful guide for women thinking about entering the family enterprise, although the way it is organized is a bit challenging.)
Having read through the books, I thought about the interviews I did last summer with three amazing women who are each involved with San Diego-based, family-owned businesses. (I spoke with each of them with the hope that some day I would write this very column.)
I had the privilege of speaking with Kathy Olsen, chief administrative officer of RCP Block and Brick, whose father, Marvin Finch, co-founded the business over 60 years ago; Linda Oakley, president of Oakley Relocation licensed by North American Van Lines and co-owner of Atlas Transfer and Storage in Poway, who married into a family owned business; and Kara Hertzog, business development manager for Innovative Employee Solutions, and daughter of founder and majority shareholder, Karla Hertzog.
In each case, these women gave willingly of their time, shared their own experiences, and provided helpful guidance for women thinking about becoming involved with a family-owned business through marriage or lineage. Although they each had unique stories to relate, the advice they offered was very similar to that provided by the various PhD-authors who wrote the above mentioned books.
Kathy Olsen said she stated working for her dad at age 12 with alphabetizing and filing invoices at the masonry and hardscape products company, RCP Block & Brick Inc. She laughingly recalled, “I was paid one dollar for working in the morning and two whole dollars if I worked all day!” Later at 16 she worked at RCP in the summers and on Saturdays.
Eventually, Kathy learned the family business by working at the sales counter at three different locations: Santee, La Mesa and National City, assisting the credit manager and handling accounts receivables, and eventually, becoming her father’s administrative assistant. She worked full time in the business following her marriage to Eric in 1979 until their children arrived: Erica in 1982 and twins Cassandra and Caroline in 1985.
Once the twins arrived, Kathy worked three days a week helping her dad with industry associations by attending those meetings and becoming more involved with the business banking relationships. Due to his illness in 1995 and subsequent death in 1998, Kathy took over more of her father’s responsibilities and today is part of a successful and talented sibling management team, with her brothers, Mike and Tom, and her sister, Sharon.
As she progressed in levels of management and responsibility in the family business, she said that as a woman family business member, she felt she was expected to meet higher standards than anyone else and was expected to do more because “you were always being watched by the other employees.” She hastened to add that these expectations weren’t those of her — she just felt that more was expected because she was a girl.
Her advice to women joining the family business is to “wait for some sense of identity” before you give opinions or make decisions. She also cautioned how important it was to always remember the importance of the family. She attributes her success to the loving home environment in which her parents raised her and her siblings, as “We never fussed there, so why would we do it at the business?”
Two of her three daughters now work in the family enterprise: Erica as human resources manager and Cassandra in accounts payable, credit department, and accounts receivable. Kathy said, “If they have the ability and desire is there, of course, I would like them to stay in the family business.”
As her family business relies on construction to a great degree, Kathy says now is a good time for her daughters to learn that although this recession is no fun, “they will learn that there are business cycles and that the business will survive, as tough decisions and business changes have been made.”
The next woman working in a family-owned business is Linda Oakley, who in 1976 married into Atlas Transfer and Storage, an Allied Van Lines agent and a family business. Started by her in-laws in 1942, it is a third generation family business (her son Travis now works there) with more than 50 employees and 35 moving trucks.
Even though she was married to the owners’ son, Linda says that she found cultivating an attitude of always behaving as an employee served her well. Although accounting and finance were not her favorite areas, at times during her many years working in this family business, Linda took on those responsibilities as, “someone had to do it and it fell to me to take this on.” By surrounding herself with experts and asking “tons of questions,” Linda became more proficient and comfortable with these tasks, although sales is her preference she says.
She also enjoys developing new service offerings, like the relocation service she launched last year. Having her son working in the business and her daughter, Sara, assisting with the company’s newest service is a pleasure. When her children were younger, Linda feels that her involvement with the family business instilled in them an appreciation for hard work and set a great example of a solid work ethic.
“With great friends surrounding me, sometimes they could fill in for me at school functions, but Tom and I were able to arrange our schedules to be with the children for their sports and academic activities, so I appreciated the flexibility the business afforded when time permitted.” Her advice for women marrying in to the family business includes:
“Sit down with your in-laws and fiancé and talk about expectations so you are sure ahead of time what your role will be, even if it’s not working in the business itself.”
The most difficult challenge for families in business is doing succession planning, Linda says with a sigh. “You want to be sure your children like the business and aren’t just working there out of duty to you or to the family.”
My last interview was with Kara Hertzog, business development manager at Innovative Employee Solutions, a nationwide provider of outsourced payroll and human resources administration services.
I asked Kara when she knew her mom owned a business. She said, “When I was 5, I used to run around the hallways and stuffed envelopes at TOPS (a previous business her mother, Karla, owned which was sold in 1998). I thought everyone had a mom like mine, but as I got older, I realized that my mom was special and was somebody important, even though to me, she was just my mom.”
During her high school years, Kara worked part time in the business working in the front office. The summers after her freshman year in college, Kara worked full time setting up skills testing for the temporary employment candidates and filled jobs for clients. Kara received her B.S. in Business Administration from Villanova University but didn’t go right into the family business.
Following her college graduation, Kara worked as a senior project manager for Fleet Boston Financial and then worked in fundraising and development for the San Diego nonprofit Angels Foster Family Network. She didn’t return to the family business for six years after college, and Kara received no special treatment when she told her mom about her interest in returning full time to the family business.
She interviewed with the president of the company, who is not her mom, for a client services position. Kara added, “The position was needed, but there was not an open rec for it so they did create it for me somewhat.” She also reports to someone other than her mom.
Her primary advice to children thinking about working in the family enterprise is to “go out on your own for several years, because that way you can bring more to the business. By getting to know other industries, you bring more capabilities, knowledge and experience to your family business if and when you do join full time.”
Kara said she is amazed and appreciative that she and her mom don’t talk a lot about the business when they are together for family time. “I think it’s important to understand each person’s role in the business. More importantly, if I have a work challenge and choose to talk to my mom about it, she is very good about not bailing me out — she listens! That’s a necessity, I think, if children are going to develop on their own and learn how to meet work challenges, particularly in a family-owned business.”
Having spoken with these three talented women about their respective roles in each of their family-owned enterprises, I have no doubt that they could successfully collaborate or contribute to a future book written for women in family businesses by women in family businesses. It is certain that their family businesses have benefited from tapping into their talent and resourcefulness, which has greatly contributed to the success of each of their companies!
