INFORMER
[2-minute meeting]by Beth Ewen
Each exit is different,
Platinum Group
partner says
?No two journeys are the same,? said Steve Coleman, a consultant with the Platinum Group of Eden Prairie, which hosted a breakfast meeting on ?Transition Options for Business Owners.?
He was talking about the routes his clients take when stepping away from their business for a sabbatical, something he highly recommends. Some owners come back to their company with renewed purpose; some leave for retirement; some pursue an entirely different career.
Jack MacBean presented his story as case No. 1, the newly retired president of Ostbye & Anderson, a jewelry manufacturer in Minneapolis. ?I am the illegitimate third generation management of a jewelry manufacturer. I?m a son-in-law,? he said.
Two years ago Coleman invited MacBean to a transitions group he hosts regularly, and MacBean went just because he likes Coleman, not because he wanted to leave his business. MacBean ended up bringing his son, Craig, on board, took a sabbatical, and eventually retired outright. Here?s what he learned:
?Transition is healthy and necessary for a company to be a viable entity,? MacBean said.
Building a talented and committed next generation management team is essential. ?It is not easy to do.?
Don?t plan your transition alone. ?We?re used to doing things alone,? MacBean said, as business owners. ?It?s important to have professional resources and peer support.?
The sabbatical concept provides a testing platform for the transition, he said. ?I tried to be a part-time president,? he said, leaving every Thursday for a while for the cabin. ?That didn?t work for Craig and I.? Yet retiring cold was too dramatic.
?The sabbatical is less threatening. When I left I thought I?d come back, not in a leadership role but I thought I?d have an office. But I decided that wouldn?t work during the period of adjustment.?
?Transitioning the business and transitioning the individual are two separate processes and difficult to do simultaneously,? MacBean said. The smartest thing they did at Ostbye, he said, is they announced MacBean?s retirement one day and he left the next, with son Craig taking over immediately.
Try to make it to: Steve Coleman, the Platinum Group in Eden Prairie, hosts regular breakfast meetings for business owners contemplating a transition. The next one is April 22: Donna Gray, Platinum Group: 952.829.5700; donna@pllc.com.
Magis founding results
from sabbatical, says
Platinum Group speaker
Diane Nettifee recalls hearing Reese Witherspoon in 2006 accepting the Oscar for playing June Carter, and quoting the country singer?s line: ?I just wanted to matter. I want my life to matter.?
That was Nettifee?s quest, too, she said, as the second presenter speaking to a Platinum Group-sponsored breakfast about transitions for business owners.
?For 20 years I was an executive in the packaging industry. I had all the trappings. I had everything I had set out to get,? Nettifee said.
?One day my Dad died,? and when she came back from the funeral ?I saw my to-do list, and none of it had happened during the week,? and it didn?t really matter.
?I decided my horizon was way too small,? she said.
Nettifee negotiated a three-month sabbatical from her company. The first month she lived in Guatemala among the poor. The second month she scuba-dived in Honduras. The third month she did a silent retreat.
?I wanted to shake up the paradigm of my life,? she said. Returning to her career, she tried to integrate the new values into her old life, but finally decided to quit altogether, move to Boston, and go to theology school. ?I realized I was trading one extreme for the other,? she said, and that she missed both business and the money.
?I created Magis, a Latin word that means ?more.? I work with business owners to create success that?s about more than the bottom line,? she said.
One of her clients is a $35 million, 25-year-old company in the printing business. Two years ago one of its big customers went into bankruptcy and they were forced to do the first layoff in the company?s history.
At first management felt sick about abandoning their values of caring for people, but then they realized as the layoffs were happening that a lot of the people leaving weren?t good contributors.
?They started to ask, how can we create an organization that is more competitive? They reframed the value of ?people who care,? to ?you?re going to be expected to grow into your fullest potential,? ? she said.
?Values are not soft stuff. When you really get into it, that?s deep, deep work,? Nettifee said.
Try to make it to: Steve Coleman of the Platinum Group hosts monthly meetings for business owners in transition: 612.270.4327; steve@pllc.com; www.platinumgroup.com. Diane Nettifee: Magis: 952.393.7127; dnettifee@magisventures.com; www.magisventures.com
Obama supporters show
organizing prowess in
Minnesota caucus
Barack Obama?s supporters outdid Hillary Clinton?s in the days leading up to the Minnesota caucus Feb. 5.
The Informer?s household, known for voting reliably for Democrats, was called six times and visited once to caucus for Obama. No one call
