Q. With 10 family members involved, what’s the secret to making your business work without family issues getting in the way?
A. There are several. One is open, candid communication, both in terms of the process of communications as well as the content. My parents founded the business in 1958 and they gave the business to my brother and myself, equally, in the early 1970s. In the mid 80s, when the business was growing rapidly, we recognized that we needed outside help. We didn’t know it all. We retained David Bork, an outside consultant who is now chairman emeritus of Aspen Family Business Group. Bill and I obviously didn’t agree on everything. So how were we going to manage the company? David helped us create an outside advisory board, of which he was chairman. We still have that board, which meets quarterly. We share everything with them just like a board of directors. They have given us great advice.
Q. What was your policy about your sons entering the business?
A. We also came up with an entrance strategy for our sons. I always dreamed that our sons would come in. But we wanted them to come in on their own decisions. These were seven bright young men, who went to great colleges. But there were two rules. First, they had to work somewhere else for five years after they graduated from college. Secondly, if they wanted to come into our business, there had to be a real job. They were not entitled. We weren’t going to create a job just because their name was Mitchell.
Q. Why did you insist on outside experience?
A. It’s not that they have to prove themselves. It’s about getting experience from other people other than their father and uncle. They need to learn what it’s like to get on a plane and go to South Korea, and what it takes to make a buck. We wanted to see that they were promoted within those jobs and hopefully they were successful. Several sons had two or three jobs at places like IBM between the ages of 22 and 30.
Q. If there are so many family members in the business, how do you coordinate the decision-making?
A. Many family businesses are challenged by not communicating openly but we have regular family meetings every Tuesday morning with the 10 of us. Then in addition to the advisory board, we have a family council which includes all the Mitchells with our parents when they were still alive and 12 grandchildren. We have two grandsons at age 15 in the family council. That meets two to four times a year. And then we also have family retreats including all the grandchildren even though they are not yet 15. We play competitive games together, like you would on a corporate retreat.
Q. What kind of issues come up that not everyone agrees on?
A. We’re always working through the issues. It’s a consensus based leadership model. My wife Linda is a very important part of that. She is the glue. One issue we worked hard on was the expanding of Mitchells into a 27,000-square-foot facility in Greenwich, which opened in September 2000.
Q. It sounds like you work hard to prevent an issue from really emerging into something that is too divisive, right?
A. Absolutely. That’s why we have the openness. And my brother and I agreed that if we didn’t agree on something, we would kill it. We’re very strong personalities. We would both try to present our case. My brother is more on the floor selling; I’m more on the business side. We respect each other’s expertise and positions. It’s the same with our sons. All the issues regarding money and finances are handled by Russell Mitchell and marketing and advertising is done by Andrew Mitchell
Q. How do you figure out how much to pay the sons when you also have non-family executives?
A. Fair is not always equal even in compensation. When you’re a business, you pay for performance, whether you’re a first born son or last born. On the wealth side, we’ve already gifted the equity and the real estate to our sons.
Q. Then how do you figure out who succeeds you as CEO?
A. We’ve worked very hard on that. Russell and Bob, both my sons, are the co-presidents and have been for five or six years. Clearly they could become co-CEOs when the time comes. We have worked on this with David Bork for the past four or five years. It became very apparent that these men had what it takes. They played baseball in high school together and went to Dartmouth. Their wives get along very well. One is more outgoing, and looks after things like sales and merchandizing. The other is more financial and analytical. That’s similar to the balance between Bill and myself.
William J. Holstein is a New York-based business writer and author.
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