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<\/a>The University of Toledo Family Business Center will celebrate its 30-year milestone Monday, Nov. 14, at Stranahan Theater and Great Hall.<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cEmotion is the first word that comes to mind as it relates to a family business, and having the ability to separate emotion from the business, and figure out what is right to do for the business, not the family, but the business as a whole,\u201d said Pat Boyle, general manager of Northwood Industries and a longtime center member. \u201cBut at the same time, you’re dealing with very personal issues. And having a disagreement with a family member is different than having a disagreement with a co-worker or an employee of yours, or a colleague.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Family Business Center provides a springboard for healthy conversations back at the business amongst family because, over time, you’re catching a lot of different topics at events and meetings. Hearing others share personal stories is very impactful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coming together to share those stories was a concept several family business leaders mentioned to the UToledo president over dinner circa 1990. Meanwhile, a couple of other family business notables discussed that same concept with faculty members in the College of Business.<\/p>\n
In 1992, the Family Business Center was established at the University.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the time in the United States, there were seven family business centers, and most of them were affiliated with a university,\u201d said Debbe Skutch, who served as director of the UToledo Family Business Center for 23 years. \u201cToledo had been a haven for Fortune 500 companies, and they were being bought out, they were going out of business, they were merging. And up and coming were the family and small businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really family-owned businesses that were going to be the backbone of our regional economy,\u201d added Angie Jones, director of the center. \u201cAnd there was nothing in the area that supported the dynamics that come along with owning your own business, so oftentimes you felt like your situation was unique. No one understands you; you have no peer to go to when you’re making decisions affecting people’s livelihoods. There was no place that connected people in that role together to learn from each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were 23 founding members of the center. Today there are 250 members.<\/p>\n
It was all made possible thanks to a Stranahan Foundation challenge grant.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy 1995, we had $750,000 in our endowment,\u201d Skutch said, crediting several founding members for their support.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s great for the center those members back then had the foresight to plan for an endowment because they knew what they were creating and they wanted it to be able to go on for 30 years, plus, hopefully, another 30 years,\u201d Jones said. \u201cThat endowment today is around $3 million.\u201d<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t take long for the center to receive attention. It received the 1995 Outstanding Family Business Program Award from the International Family Business Program Association. The UToledo center was the first recipient of that honor, which recognizes excellence in programming, community outreach, creativity, and research and grants.<\/p>\n
Keeping the center on track is an advisory board consisting of family business members. \u201cIt\u2019s a crucial part of our governance and how we run the center,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur No. 1 core value is that we are a member-driven organization,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n
\u201cCenter members learn from their own experiences. And they are able to share those experiences and that\u2019s what has propelled them and the center forward,\u201d Skutch said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe provide a safe learning environment. We stress confidentiality. It’s important for our members to be able to come in and feel safe because they’re oftentimes letting themselves be vulnerable when discussing issues they\u2019re dealing with,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n
Programming includes webinars, forums, roundtables and certificate programs that cover topics ranging from succession planning to protecting trade secrets to hiring practices.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe definitely found the topics of events worthy of our time because it always prompted conversations,\u201d said Boyle, who began his career working for his father at TolTest Inc. \u201cJust like any family business, we were going through potential succession issues and trying to figure out how that was going to work, and we got to listen and talk about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe learned early on that some of the best learning happens by connecting people together,\u201d Jones said. \u201cThat \u2018been there, done that.\u2019 So we like to call ourselves relationship-builders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Case in point: The success of the center\u2019s affinity groups. There are 27 affinity groups with 161 participating companies \u2014\u00a0that\u2019s 65 percent of the center\u2019s membership.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe affinity groups keep growing,\u201d Skutch said. \u201cThere’s nothing else like it available in the business community. And it’s based on the fact that the one thing they all have in common is they’re from a family business. It was based on confidentiality, trust, attendance and learning from each other. And it worked.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe affinity groups put like-minded individuals together as peers to discuss and help resolve issues that we’re confronting with our businesses,\u201d Boyle said. \u201cIt\u2019s been valuable time spent. After a number of years, we still have a core group of people that we continue to meet since day one.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it’s valuable time. It’s often the affinity group meetings come on the busiest of days,\u201d Boyle said. \u201cBut I always make it a point to go, and I\u2019m always thankful I did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Skutch and Jones are grateful for the center\u2019s successful leadership transition. Jones took the helm in 2017, when Skutch retired. But Skutch continued to work part time in 2018.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we hired Angie in 2012, we knew she would be the center\u2019s next director,\u201d Skutch said. \u201cWe learned from our members; she was our succession plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe practice what we preach: If you retire on a Friday, you’d better have a plan in place for Monday,\u201d Jones said. \u201cDebbe continued to work to help us ease into things.\u201d<\/p>\n
That attention to detail is evident in everything about the center, which just posted a 95 percent member retention rate for the fifth straight year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe exist for the center members,\u201d Jones said. \u201cAll that we do is for them; the center is a resource for our members.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that the center has grown and thrived for 30 years proves it’s serving the needs of the Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan family businesses very, very well,\u201d Boyle said.<\/p>\n
Dinner and networking will begin at 5:15 p.m., and the program will start at 6 p.m. Registration is required by Nov. 9 for this free event, and can be made by emailing Jones at angie.jones@utoledo.edu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The University of Toledo Family Business Center will celebrate its 30-year milestone Monday, Nov. 14, at Stranahan Theater and Great Hall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":76565,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,32,5,1,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76561"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76561"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76563,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76561\/revisions\/76563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>