THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The Importance of Looking Ahead
A May 14, 2008 article on Business Week’s web site told of numerous family businesses that have continued through generations and generations. Considering the thousands of businesses that fail after only a year or two, it’s amazing to read about some of these enterprises staying strong after a century of work. Writer Stacy Perman noted the endurability of such family enterprises like the Italian Marinelli family, making bells in its foundry since the year 1000. Then there are the six generations of workers in the Loane Bros. family business. The family company started in 1815 making canvas sails on Baltimore's Bowley's Wharf for Baltimore clipper ships, then moving to manufacturing awnings with the advent of the steamship and other water transportation. According to William O'Hara, the executive director of the Institute for Family Enterprise at Bryant University in Rhode Island, the way for the family businesses to succeed is in proper planning for the future. "The companies that have trouble are those that don't look ahead, whether about succession or future products," he says.
John Lyman explains that the reason his Connecticut family business has held on for 265 years was in seeing the need to keep a pulse on market needs. For the Lymans, this varied from selling spring lambs, dairy cattle, hay and peaches .The family even voted to take part of its large mansion-like home (built in 1785), and turn it into an event space for weddings and other occasions.
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