Advice Counts By Mike Kunkel profitteammike@gmail.com

Being Like-Minded with Common Core Values in the Family Business

s an industry consultant who works with many family businesses, I wit- ness a lot of good and bad examples on how to handle things. In the business, there are issues that, when involving mul- tiple family members, can create prob- lems. For each family business, those problem issues can vary. A number of years ago, the Busch brothers of NASCAR®

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fame crashed into each other during a race. It took a scolding from their grandmother at Thanksgiving to repair the relationship. Many of us who are involved in family business are famil- iar with these types of situations. My partner, Bill Stevens and I have per- sonal and professional experience in family business. When working with com- panies, we often become involved with sorting out family and business dynamics while working through the problems asso- ciated with them that become evident in the company. We were also both in fam- ily businesses. Bill grew up in the used parts world while I was involved in my family’s new auto parts business. In both of our cases, we personally crashed and burned for a variety of reasons.

Lessons from My Story

I grew up into a leadership position in my family’s company until I left for col- lege. Upon my return, my stepmother filled that spot. The trouble started soon after my return. There are a number of facets that led to my downfall and ulti- mately my career in the salvage industry. Yet, we – myself, my father and step- mother – all had a hand in the problems. With perspective, you could see that all the problems boiled down to one primary issue – being unable to separate family from business. As leaders in the compa- ny, we did not approach decisions from a common set of values or a like-minded mission for our overall success. My stepmother always sided with fami- ly matters. She hired friends of my step-

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opted to not be a part of it because I felt it would not be sustain- able longterm.

About eight years after I left the company, my father passed away. Thankfully, we had made amends and things between us were good. Three years later, my stepmother bank- rupted the family busi- ness. The family mem- bers who had pushed

siblings, allowed siblings who were not involved in the business influence deci- sions based on what was best for them or their significant other. Much of the time, I disagreed with the decisions because my perspective of the matters at hand always minimized family and primarily were driv- en by what was best for the business. From there, the disagreements over these issues were carried home and holidays became uncomfortable because of our inability to separate family and business in order to keep everything in proper proportion. The more my father and stepmother pursued the decisions that I perceived were wrong or bad, I rebelled. That made things even worse.

The end result in my situation was that my dad left town for a “quick trip” and, hours later, I was terminated by my step- mother. The “quick trip” scenario was understandable, but it took us a long time as father-son to recover from. Interestingly enough, I made another attempt at the family business and ulti- mately found that nothing had changed. It was then that I decided that it was time to go back to the salvage industry before things turned ugly. I realized that it boiled down to the fact that family was going to be the primary factor in every business decision within the company. Because my focus was primarily on the business, I

for their own benefit realized that their ideas of grandeur were not going to hap- pen. Out of respect to my dad, I have repaired the relationship with my step- mother. She was never a bad person, she simply made bad business decisions.

What is Your Story Going to Be? The moral of the story is, evaluate your

business and make sure that you have bal- ance involving clear lines of communica- tion with all parties. Evaluate your decision-making process, which is where current company values tend to come to light. If you don’t like what you see, are you willing to make a change? If you are bringing family members into the busi- ness, make sure expectations and the organizational flow chart are clearly laid out. Have ways to position the members of the company to be successful while maintaining balance on the home front. I am looking forward to visiting with

everyone at the upcoming trade shows and conventions.

Mike Kunkel has 35 years’ experience in the auto industry, with 20 years serving as general manager of a salvage facility. He is immediate past president and a founding member of TEAM PRP, a noted speaker, and past chair of the Used

Parts Committee at the Collision Industry Council. His ex- pertise is streamlining processes and maximizing the rev- enues per employee, measuring historical data when buying to build a growth/profit strategy, and the Pinnacle system.

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