When business owners/leaders get into their 60s, it is normal to ask, “What is going to happen with the business”? Dean and I are at that age. We remember how, around 25 years ago, our parents gracefully handed us the business they had started from scratch. Like many family business owners, our parents dreamed that Walker Manufacturing would remain a family-owned and operated business for generations to come. The survival record of all kinds of businesses is about 30% per generation, so keeping the dream of a multigenerational family business alive is a big challenge.
Dean and I started planning for business succession over 10 years ago. We believe a company with leaders in their 60s and no young blood in leadership training is in trouble, for several reasons.
First, the new energy and ideas of young blood are needed to keep a company moving ahead. At the same time, training the young blood on the foundational principles and culture of the business takes time and must be started sooner rather than later. Finally, young blood is needed to protect investment by continuing to operate the business into the future, not only for the benefit of the owners, but for all of the others who are invested—suppliers, employees, distributors, dealers and end customers.
I am pleased to report that the next generation of leaders is beginning to assemble into Walker Manufacturing. Dean’s two sons, Ryan and Ted, have been working here for a couple of years now and are demonstrating good leadership qualities, talent, passion and interest in the manufacturing business and the Walker Mower business opportunity. An outside consultant has been employed to develop and administer a structured leadership training program to expose Ryan and Ted to every facet of the business over the next three to five years. And since the company is not just the work of a few, it is exciting to see other third-generation leaders now working with the company, each using their energy, talents and passion to keep the company moving into the future in the areas of manufacturing operations, product engineering, marketing, sales, information technology and finance, to name a few.
To paraphrase business management consultant Peter Drucker, the final test of a good leader is how well he chooses his successor and whether he can step aside to let his successor take his place. Finally, a good leader will work and plan for his successor to be even more successful than he has been. Our Dad gave a great model of both of these ideas to Dean and me.
We would always be the kind of people who say “the Lord willing”, but in our hearts and minds we are doing the work so that Walker Manufacturing will continue to be family-owned and family-managed, and the Walker Mower will continue into the next generation.
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