Marvin now has 8,000 employees in 16 cities.
Most people listen to the family business and think about the long ice cream salon in the corner or the mechanic, whose first customers driven the TS model.
As it turns out, many are in production. In fact, 99 percent of producers in America are small businesses and most of them are family -owned. But it’s not always easy to keep that way.
Over the next 10-15 years, 125,000 family-owned manufacturers will transfer ownership while the previous regime retires. Traditionally, 30 percent of family businesses make it in the second generation, 12 percent reach the third, and only 3 percent reach the fourth or beyond, according to the Family Business Institute.
For those with aspirations to avoid trend, there are real advantages to keep things in the family – most of them stemming from a commitment to longevity that precipitate deeper investments in technology and people.
George Marvin founded Marvin Lumber and Cedar in 1912.
Marvin, a window and door manufacturer of 8,000 employees based in rural minesota, stands as a proof of this type of long -term thinking. They are the rare manufacturer who has made it not only three generations or even four, but going to five. The company has fourth generation leadership and a fifth generation entering the store floor.
To get a sense of how Marvin made it, I talked to CEO Paul Marvin about how the company has been able to grow over the past 113 years. Here are his advice that other middle and middle manufacturers can apply for their family businesses.
Tip 1: Connect ownership with every day.
Young people born in family businesses may feel the need to explore other interests, to see what is there before engaging in a career in the family store. While this exploration is healthy, it can eventually lead to a break between ownership and business reality. So Marvin does something that breaks down from tradition: mandates all owners to keep full -time jobs in the company until they return 33 years old.
A Paul’s grandfather’s product, the engaged leadership policy, is codified in the company’s purchase agreement. Family members have the opportunity to complete post-secondary education, gain external experience and attend entrepreneurship. But at a time when they hit 33, they must maintain full -time employment. Otherwise, their shares tender automatically.
Whether on the store floor, in customer service, or at high leadership, they must be “in the foxhole, working and appearing and living culture,” Paul says. “Here is the company’s culture, and you can’t get it if you’re not there inside and outside.”
Tip 2: Facilitate open discussion – by making dinner table.
In the office, members of the Marvin family holding a ownership action are simply employees working their daily work. No more, no less. It is within the construction of the Marvin owner council, led by the leading marketing and experience official Christine Marvin, that they are able to express their opinions as partial owners. Council – which is also open to family members aged 21 to 32, who are still not working in the company – offers a place to learn about business and for discussions led to decisions affecting its future. It is currently composed of six fourth -generation family members and 11 fifth -generation family members.
“As the family tree became bigger and you are in the generation of the second cousin, you have people who do not grow at the same kitchen table,” Paul says. “We need a forum to have those conversations and cure family culture, what are our goals and aspirations.”
In essentially, those conversations have a structure – a group of policies and procedures and governance that ensure that everyone has their word. Separately, when it comes to business, Paul takes all the tasks and decision -making of a CEO with the full support of the team around him, family members or otherwise.
“In the family business, you can be either a first business family or a first family business is not right or wrong, but you need to know which you are,” Paul says. “We are a paapological family, first of the business, which means that business is what connects us together as a family. Our goal is business.”
Tip 3: Take a planned approach to leadership success.
So far, each of Marvin’s CEO’s success decisions has been well taken in advance, a fact that speaks not only of good fortune, but about a deliberate, long -term approach. When he was 65, Paul’s uncle, Jake Marvin, announced that he wanted to get out of the role according to the age of 70. Non-family members on board directed a check that eventually intercepted Paul and placed it in an accelerated development plan. He took over as CEO in 2017.
This approach does not stop with CEO. Marvin has been deliberate for the merger of his leadership team with non-family members. Nine of the 12 senior management positions are held by people outside the family, plus half of the board of directors. “It helps to ensure that we don’t get a tunnel vision or in love with our ideas,” Paul says. “The continuity and being supported by non-family leaders is really important. Success is not just in the family. “
Tip 4: Long -term thinking means investing in your people.
Whether they share an adjective or not, Marvin wants employees around for a long time. In December, in its last round of profit sharing, the company announced that $ 17 million will spread to its employees, with a quarter of that allocated based on service length. Full -time employees received a bonus of up to $ 5,400.
It may sound cliché, but Paul boils down so much of the company’s success to hit that difficult balance between the present and the future – a balance that is so important to today’s producers who navigate the disruption of the supply chain and economic uncertainty. Here, to some extent, family businesses have a foot up. There are no shareholders knocking on the company’s doors for a three -month dividend.
“The hardest thing a company can do is execute today while investing and plans not only next year, but for the next decade,” Paul says. “Fortunately, a private company has to do that.”
Marvin’s story is evidence that there are many advantages for private ownership past through generations. Manufacturers who copy from their book-related to ownership with daily operations, creating space for open discussion, engaging in long-term thinking and investing in their people-can also find themselves reaching those third, fourth, or even fifth generations. If they do this, the production will be better for it.