Wichita State family business group proves founder wrong, marks 20th anniversary

Early in the establishment of the Kansas Family Business Forum, Don Hackett quipped in a planning meeting that he thought it would outlive its usefulness in a few years.

“I said I view this as a five-year program,” he said. “I think we will have gone through all the major prospects in five years.”

This year marks the 20th year for the organization that Hackett, Wichita State University professor and former director of the school’s Center for Entrepreneurship, founded at the recommendation of a business colleague.

From those early days when Hackett struggled to recruit even one family member, the organization has grown to and maintained a membership of nearly 40 family-owned companies employing dozens to hundreds of people in the Wichita area and across much of Kansas.

“We value the education piece of it,” said Patrick Goebel, president and chief operating officer of Star Lumber & Supply, a company that marked its 75th anniversary this year and was the forum’s first member. “We also value the camaraderie with the other members.”

The group is led by Kirk Ring, who is in his second year as director. Ring, who also is a professor of management at WSU, is the center’s third director in two decades.

He replaced Ron Christy, who died in April 2013 and served the longest stretch among the forum’s three directors, including Hackett, who preceded Christy.

Ring earned a doctorate degree in strategy with an emphasis in family business and entrepreneurship from Mississippi State University.

“We were very fortunate to find Kirk, and this is his area of study,” Hackett said.

Ring said the forum’s mission is to “assist family-owned companies long-term so that they can pass on the business to the next generation.”

“We mainly focus on long-term issues family business seems to have,” he said, such as succession and estate planning, corporate governance and generational issues.

“Your son’s or daughter’s career is intertwined with your retirement,” Ring added to explain the complexity of family businesses.

“A family business is made up of love, blood, power and money,” Hackett said. “You mix those four ingredients together … they can contribute greatly or they can tear them (family businesses) apart.”

September marks the start of the educational programming season for the organization.

This year’s programming, which runs through early April, includes a mix of education sessions on topics such as next-generation management, estate-planning strategies, and hiring and retaining key family and non-family employees. The forum also hosts peer group sessions in which family business owners can share their successes and challenges with their peers.

And the forum offers formal presentations from people such as David Cabela, son of the sporting goods retailer’s late co-founder, Dick Cabela, who will be speaking to forum members Sept. 25.

Ring said members pay an annual fee of $2,000.

The organization also is supported by several area companies, financial and otherwise, including accounting and consulting firm Allen, Gibbs & Houlik, Martin Pringle law firm, Intrust Bank and the Wichita Business Journal.

Goebel said his cousin, Star chairman and CEO Chris Goebel, is the one who got the company involved in the forum.

He said the forum “does a great job” of helping a company navigate family leadership and ownership issues.

“We have fourth-generation family members who are active (in the company) and fifth-generation members coming,” said Patrick Goebel, who is a third-generation family member.

All told, he said there are 19 family members who are working at Star, and 27 family members who own stock in the company, which employs 333 people in Wichita, Manhattan and Oklahoma City.

“My goal this year is to get the next generation involved in the peer-advisory groups,” Goebel said.

Walter Berry is the second generation to run Berry Cos., which sells, rents and services construction and industrial equipment in Kansas and five other states and employs 540 people.

Berry said his company has been a forum member for several years and described the organization’s offerings as a “smorgasbord of benefits” for family businesses.

“I’ve got four kids,” Berry said. “I think many of them will be involved in the business.”

They include his oldest son, Jon, who runs the Berry Tractor division as general manager, a position he’s held for three years. Another son, Adam, is a financial analyst for American Airlines in Dallas. Berry thinks Adam will eventually work for his company, too.

Berry said because of Jon’s involvement in the company, he’s begun thinking about the next generation of Berrys to be involved in the business, and of their participation in forum events, including executive breakfasts and the peer-advisory groups. He said the peer groups have been especially helpful and will be for his children.

“We have found it successful,” Berry said. “I can see the need continuing as we get more (family members) involved.”

Not a ‘finite market’

Hackett said when the idea of the family business forum was presented to him by Bryan Hanning of Insight Wealth Strategies, it was a lightbulb moment. Hackett said his first thought was, “Oh my gosh. We’ve missed this whole thing.”

As the leader of the Center for Entrepreneurship at the time, Hackett said, his mind was focused on teaching entrepreneurs how to successfully start and sustain businesses.

But, “it’s as important to keep good businesses going.”

Hackett said it was tough going for the forum in the beginning. He called on more than 12 family-owned businesses to see if they would be interested in participating.

“I thought I was a good salesman,” he said. “(But) there was just nothing on the end of the phone. And I was saying, ‘Gee, the Wichita market may just not be made for this.’”

Then, Hackett made one more phone call. It was to Chris Goebel. “He said, ‘We’ll sign up.’”

And with Goebel’s help, Hackett said, the forum brought on 17 other members the first year.

Even after that first year of success, he thought it would be a short-lived effort.

“I thought it was a finite market, and it has proven not to be that,” Hackett said.

This story was originally published August 29, 2014 at 5:22 PM with the headline "Wichita State family business group proves founder wrong, marks 20th anniversary."