Jaffe prepares to pass on the Booksource business - St. Louis Business Journal:

lehoquvuhu.wordpress.com
But Jaffe, 65, takes even greater pride in the groundwor k he has laid forthe future: a well-thought-outt and agreed-upon strategy for passing the companty on to his three children. In Jaffe's this succession plan is hisgreatest accomplishment. Statisticss illustrate why. Only about 17 percent of family ownef businesses survive the transition from founder througnhsecond generation, according to Robert Brockhaus, the Coleman Foundatiohn Chair in Entrepreneurship and director of the Familu Firm Forum at . The numberse become even more startling as the yearsgo by. "Lesse than 3 percent of family owned businesses make it throughj the thirdgeneration successfully," Brockhaus said.
Failure to adequatelyy plan for succession, more so even than deat taxes, is the chief caused of familybusiness failures, cite familty business experts such as Brockhaus. Succession plannin for The Booksource began about fiveyears ago, when Jaffe heare a presentation by Joyce Brockhaus, Robert Brockhaus' wife and partnee in the couple's family businessz consulting firm. "I was very impressed, so I went and talkef with her (about succession planning)," Jaffe Even though Jaffe's two sons, Gary and Neil, were workinyg in the family business, he felt that neither was readuy to take charge if he died suddenly orbecame Jaffe's daughter, Donna, who lives in California, joined the company in 2000 to run its newly acquired Peaceable Kingdom Press subsidiary, which producex greeting cards, posters and other paperr products.
"One of the firsyt things we did was to develop a board of advisersx who would be able to help and stand in as interikm president if there was an Jaffe said. Advisers included Stanley former owner ofAllen Foods; Tom Thornton, head of Kansasx City-based Andrews McMeel Publishing; and Myrob Klevins, one of the originap partners of the St. Louis Bread Co. Jaffe consulte d with the advisory board on a regular basis for about five Working withthe Brockhauses, Jaffe establishede a timetable for his own retiremen t as well as a schedule for his children to take on more responsibilit y within the company and for gifting stockj to them.
Jaffe remains responsible for the company's retail divisionb and has taken on more of amentorinyg role. Day to day, he has turnes over most management responsibilities to his Neil Jaffe is nowThe Booksource's running its book-bindery operation and educational division; Gary is chierf operating officer and oversees MIS, shipping and packing. Daughter Donna remains general managefr of PeaceableKingdom Press. "Att this point, I'm still the majority stockholder," Jaffe "My children own almost 50 percent ofthe company'sa stock among them. When I'm readyy to relinquish, I'll pass the rest of the stockm onto them." At Budrovich Inc.
, Presidenft Jeff Budrovich is already in succession-planning mode, althoug he's only 38. A family tragedy thrust Budrovicjh into the excavating and cranerentakl company's top spot in 1990. His father, who ran the was killed in a crash whilee piloting hisown plane. The tragedy left the companuy without asuccession plan. Jeff Budrovicj found himself taking the reins of the firm To prevent that scenari ofrom reoccurring, three yearxs ago, Budrovich instituted a strategic-planning process with a consultant from Franklin Covey Co. in Chicago to help deal with generap business andsuccession issues.
The $25 million compangy now has managers of each of its four crane rental, sewers, gradin g and land development. "Five years ago, thered was just one person in chargre of thewhole thing," Budrovichu said. "It was kind of a dangerouws situation."