Lee Michael Berg has discovered the “secret sauce” to succession planning, at least for the jewelry business he founded some 46 years ago, Business Report writes in its latest cover package.
Today, his three sons have sole ownership of Lee Michaels Fine Jewelry, and even though they live in different cities they’ve managed to grow the business into a $125 million-a-year operation with 10 stores from New Mexico to Mississippi.
It wasn’t by accident. Berg began sowing the seeds of succession many years ago. “You essentially have two choices as an owner—sell the business or figure out how succession works,” he says. When his sons were still young, Berg began conducting quarterly family meetings with the assistance of an outside succession consultant, then after they married he invited their spouses to attend.
“We opened up the books and talked about the volume, the profit, the problems, the growth opportunities … everything was on the table,” Berg says. “The meetings lasted an entire day. My chief financial officer would give a report, and I would bring in other businesses that had transitioned successfully as well as businesses that had failed. I wanted them to understand how difficult the process was going to be.”
Read more from Business Report’s latest cover package.
