A Vibrant Vision: The Entrepreneurship of Multigenerational Family Business

by Richard N. Seaman

Challenges to the entrepreneurial spirit are complex, particularly in a family business if the entrepreneur wants to have the business survive him/herself and successfully grow into future generations. This vision contrasts sharply with the lifestyle business or "harvest your business" mentality promoted by venture capital or private equity models. To have a vision of growing a small family business into a sustainable multi-million dollar business requires distinctive processes that support innovation, human capital development, strategic planning, and quality assurance in manufacturing and service. Additional distinct processes must be created and implemented that support good governance and effective education and stewardship of future generations of family shareholders. A Vibrant Vision shares the experiences of the author in his growing family business after his father passed away at a young age and building this industrial fabrics business into a multi-million company while at the same time encouraging his children and grandchildren to become stewards of this treasure we call a family business.

200 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 28, 2019

About the author

Entrepreneurship is the joy of creating a vision,
The discipline of developing a strategy,
And the passion for executing the journey.

RICHARD SEAMAN is the Chairman of Seaman Corporation, where he served as CEO from 1976 to 2015. He assumed the leadership role of this family busi­ness in 1978 after his father passed away at the young age of 55. Under his leadership, Seaman Corporation, a manufacturer of industrial coated fabrics, grew from $10 million in annual sales to nearly $200 million in sales today.

Richard serves as a Trustee of the Burton D. Morgan Foundation, whose mission is to support entrepreneur­ship and the free enterprise system. In 2012, he was asked by the Governor of the State of Ohio to serve as a Commissioner of the Ohio Third Frontier, a billion dollar initiative focused on creating an innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem in the state. He is a member of the Young President's Organization, the Family Busi­ness Network-USA, and a Trustee on the board of the College of Wooster.

Richard was recognized as an Honored Life Member of his industry trade organization, the Industrial Fabrics Association International, and was selected as a Wall of Fame Honoree by the Wooster Area Chamber of Com­merce. In 2015, Richard was chosen by Ernst & Young as Entrepreneur of the Year in the Family Business category.

Richard is an avid skier, sailor, photographer, and tennis player. Richard and his wife, Judy, live in Wooster, Ohio. They and the families of their three chil­dren are committed to being active owners and stewards of their family business enterprise.

Reviews

[Lisa Kosak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Did you know that outside of the United States most businesses are family-owned? Not all family-owned businesses are small mom and pop companies? Companies all over the world are multigenerational like Ford, Walmart, Cargill, and Comcast? If you have an interest or stake in a family-owned business then the new book A Vibrant Vision – The Entrepreneurship of Multigenerational Family Business by Richard Seaman is a must-read.

Richard Seaman is CEO of the Seaman Corporation. His family company manufactures industrial fabric and is a $200 million firm with over 350 employees. It has survived several generations and it has been a challenge. Only 3% of family companies survive into the fourth generation. Seaman shares stories and antidotes about his company along with firms from all over the world. We obtain a better understanding of what struggles and triumphs go into growing a family business.

A Vibrant Vision outlines eight key areas for family enterprises to focus on to grow and remain relevant for several generations.

1. Innovation: The spirit of multigenerational growth
2. Human Capital: Invest in people for the future
3. Strategic planning: Focus on quality and constant reinvestment
4. Customer-Focused quality
5. Strategic imperative
6. Governance: Focus on inside and outside views with inclusion
7. Shareholder education and engagement
8. Sustaining yourself throughout the journey

Seaman shares his CARE program that has guided the business for years. There is both an internal and external focus.

• External focus: Customers Are the Reason for Excellence
• Internal focus: Competitive Advantage Requires Excellence

Any leader running a family business has stories of the daily difficulties of maintaining a vision while keeping an eye on the goal of remaining independent, being sustainable, and building a solid foundation of family culture along with financial sustainability over many generations. A Vibrant Vision leads us on a family journey while sharing stories, graphs, and pictures of strategies, and offering a look inside the nuances of maintaining a lasting family business.

[Alexander L · Rating 5 out of 5]

2nd generation

As someone who is now taking over the family company as the second generation with my brother. This book could not have come at a better time. The past year I have been working on my vision of what the next 25 years could hold. Along the way we have bought a business that really made me think about stewardship. The owner being someone who had no heirs who wanted to be in the business. But he had built such a strong reputation in the community. So taking possession of his business felt very much like a responsibility to get it right and do our best.

As I continue to learn, this book has given me a good foundation to start building towards a multi generational business. Which also the other books referenced in this book that I look forward to reading.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has a lot of information about running a successful family business, and should be useful for people who own their own companies. Seaman did a good job of covering the topics of human capital, strategic planning, customer-focused quality and the whole shareholder and governance aspects of a corporation. Using his company as the case study, Seaman provided pertinent examples, which helps readers see more clearly the points he’s trying to make. He had great examples for building a productive workforce and for meeting the customer’s expectations for quality. It is well written, and detailed enough to set any family business owner on the right path. I received an ARC for review.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insightful look at a multigenerational organization it trials and tribulations and how others may be able to do the same thing with many pointers along the way. Well worth the time investment to read.