-Grower and Marketer, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 10, 2001
222
Dr. Cindy’s Focus On Family Helps Insure Business Stability
ANDY ANDREWS
Editor
HERSHEY (Dauphin Co.)
Dr. Cindy lannarelli has
had her share of rescuing
family businesses from
plight.
According to “Dr. Cindy,”
the name her clients know
her best, what’s the greatest
mistake an owner of a busi
ness, such as a farm market,
can make?
It’s “not talking about the
business at the dinner table,”
said Dr. Cindy. “It’s the
worst mistake you can make
for your children.”
Dr. Cindy spoke to a few
dozen growers and agri
industry representatives in
early February at the Mid-
Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable
Convention at the Hershey
Lodge and Convention
Center.
Dr. Cindy reviewed several
myths of operating a family
business. She has come up
with strategies in which her
own consulting firm, Dr.
Cindy lannareUi’s Business
Cents, helps other businesses
to cope.
Dr. Cindy noted the dire
statistics for family busi
nesses. She said that of 100
businesses started by the first
generation, only 30 percent
survive to the second. Of
those, only 10 percent survive
to the third generation.
Of the 100 started, only
three survive “due not to
business reasons, but to
family reasons,” she said.
“It’s sad to see how fami
lies can actually disintegrate
over issues of family busi
ness,” she told farm market
owners and operators at the
convention.
What’s fair in the house is
not always fair in the busi
ness, she said. But the earlier
you begin involving children
in the business, the more
communication and training
you do for them, “the better
chance you have of importing
business sense to them,” Dr.
Cindy said.
She spoke about growing
up in Bridgeville in western
Pennsylvania, near Pitts
burgh. Her father was an im
migrant from Italy.
He came to the states with
$5OO to start his own dry
cleaning business in the early
19505. He rented a storefront,
put up a sign, worked at a
front counter with a cash reg
ister and took all the cloth
ing to a friend’s business to
dry clean, returning it on
time for customers.
The dry-cleaning business
“was our life,” Dr. Cindy
said. She lived and breathed
the business growing up
until her father died unex
pectedly, leaving his wife in
charge.
Her parents had other
plans for Cindy and her
brother, including something
“better,” she said.
“My father wanted us to
have educational programs,”
(the;
MBBBBBB BSHHT
•••
TO '*
1 * Operating A Business
With Your family c
lannarelli has authored
a business “cents” guide
to operating a family
business.
said Dr. Cindy, to be either a
pharmacist, doctor, accoun
tant, or attorney custom
ers her father believed it
better than most (working a
simple 9 to 5 shift, rather
than the countless hours her
own father put in).
Their father died while
both Cindy and her brother
were in college, leaving their
mother with 100 employees
in 10 locations.
The next three years, Dr.
Cindy said, “were like a
living hell.”
Dr. Cindy learned, and
advised her mother on a vari
ety of issues that allowed the
business to stay viable. Her
real-world education allowed
her to develop her doctorate
program that looked into the
issues of family businesses,
while using the business as “a
classroom,” she said.
The following are several
studies of the “myths” about
family businesses:
• Myth 10: “We’ve never
had a family meeting, so how
can we start now?” Someone
not the leader of the busi
ness should command this
meeting. You have to go
beyond any tensions and
have this for the sake of gen
eral business planning.
• Myth 9: “Nobody knows
our own business like us.
Why have outsiders?” De
velop a board of directors
from a noncompetitive area.
This neutrality can be critical
to the conduct of the busi
ness.
• Myth 8: “Each of my
children have different needs,
so I pay them accordingly.”
Forget giving anyone prefer
ential treatment. Pay all by
industry standards.
• Myth 7: “If I die, my
spouse and five children will
work things out together.” If
you did die, as a business
owner, what is going to
happen? Estate planning will
help decide who will run the
business and in what capac
ity. Insurance is critical.
• Myth 6: “Everyone in
the family should be happy,
so we avoid areas where con
flicts arise.” Raise these
issues at family meetings. Dr.
Cindy advised reading many
good business family strategy
books. Baby boomers stand to
inherit the largest windfall in
history from inheritance
$10.4 trillion so prepara
Ujj*
Even kid games are
critical to developing
“business cents” with
Dr. Cindy’s program.
tion is critical
• Myth 5: “My wife wants
to be fair to all the children,
so we will divide the business
equally.” This may be com
pletely unreasonable. Every
one wants to make sure they
are treated fairly, but is this
always reasonable?
• Myth 4: “My girls are
not interested in the busi
ness.” Not true, in cases
where the business owners
didn’t pay attention at the
dinner table to what younger
siblings had in mind.
• Myth 3; “The kids are
teen-agers, and too young to
think about the business.”
It’s important to train and
develop a plan early.
• Myth 2: “Why sell the
business to the children when
they expect us to leave it to
Use Of Genetically Modified Plants (GMP)
In Crop Rotation Sequences With Vegetables
M.D. Orzolek
Department of Horticulture
Penn State
Within the last three years,
availability of genetically
modified plants, especially
field corn and soybeans, has
been cited as a major ad
vancement in the production
of these field crops.
Unfortunately, herbicide
resistance of genetically engi
neered field corn and soy
beans is not viewed as an
achievement for vegetable
growers in the state.
Glyphosate (Roundup),
imidazolinone (Pursuit,
Scepter), and sulfonylurea
(Classic, Accent, Beacon,
Harmony, Oust, Ally) resis
tant field corn and soybean
varieties now being grown by
many grain farmers can have
dire consequences if placed in
a rotation with vegetables.
With regard to Roundup
ready corn and soybeans,
while glyphosate does not
cause any residual problem,
spraying the corn or beans on
a windy day near sensitive
vegetable crops can be disas
trous and result in stunting of
the vegetable crop, delay in
maturity, reduced yield and
in certain severe cases, plant
mortality. Postemergence ap
plications of Roundup must
be planned in context to the
total cropping sequence on
your farm and the need to
identify locations where sig
Dr. Cindy lannarelll, left, with Jim Sargent, Bucks
County business management agent, at the Mid-
Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention.
them?” Begin estate transfer
planning early.
• Myth 1: “When my chil
dren enter the business, they
can just watch me and learn
what to do.” It’s important to
train them early and often to
create successor develop
ment.
One person needs to be a
champion of these issues in
nificant economic loss can
occur with drift from
Roundup.
With respect to the pos
temergence application of
sulfonylurea and imidazoli
none herbicides, generally the
off-target drift may not be as
serious a problem as the re
sidual effect from both of
these herbicide families. Soil
pH levels above 6.8 favor the
persistence of sulfonylurea
type herbicides that could
affect some vegetable crops in
rotation. In addition, sul
fonylurea herbicides are ap
plied at recommended rates
of 0.5 to 6.0 ounces of active
ingredient per acre.
Any increase in the rates of
sulfonylurea herbicides
whether for insurance or mis-
every family business, ac
cording to Dr. Cindy. And
some start early one busi
ness she dealt with had a
“100-year plan” in place for
the family.
“A family meeting on a
regular basis to talk about
family business and how it af
fects them is so important,”
she said.
calculation can cause serious
residual problems on some
vegetable crops. The imida
zolinone herbicides will cause
similar problems as the sul
fonylurea herbicides with the
addition that only legumes
should follow legumes with
the use of imidazolinone ap
plied herbicides. Non-legume
vegetables have demon
strated severe stunting
planted after an imidazoli
none ready soybean crop or
after application of Pursuit to
labeled crops like peas and
snap beans.
Use of herbicide resistant
agronomic crops requires
more intensive and long
range planning for vegetable
growers who plant them in
their crop rotation programs.