Henning Freybe could be the poster dad for succession planning.
He started early, sending his son Sven to Europe for work experience. He steadily increased Sven’s authority and responsibilities over the past decade. He set a date for the business hand-over as 2007, when Henning turns 65. He brought in a top-notch succession expert who regularly visits Freybe Gourmet Foods in Langley, B.C., to coach father and son.
Most importantly, he’s adopted a “people learn from their mistakes” mantra and tries hard not to be a meddling papa.
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Henning is the opposite of his father, a fourth-generation sausage meister who brought Old World craftsmanship, but also an old-fashioned domineering management style, when he emigrated from Germany.
Henning believes so much in team building that all his managers also have the title coach on their business cards, reminding them their job includes developing employees, not just ordering them about.
Under Henning’s watch, Freybe Gourmet Foods has become one of the largest private businesses of its kind in Canada, with more than 350 employees producing nearly 140 products.
But his smartest succession move came when, he says, “he lucked out” by deciding to buy a struggling maker of salads, soups and sauces.
Fortunately for the succession process, the rechristened Gourmet Chef continued to struggle. After a while, Sven took over the division, but the problems were so deep that it continued to lose money in his first couple of years as president.
In hindsight, that was Sven’s lucky break. He loved running Gourmet Chef, even though its woes sometimes kept him sleepless. That’s partly why he loved it.
“It makes an amazing amount of difference,” Sven said. “I was given a lot of rope. I’m congratulated appropriately when there are successes and I’m the one responsible when something isn’t successful.”
He discovered that if you don’t have the freedom to fail, you don’t have freedom at all.
And after all, the main company is still Henning’s baby.
“My father has huge passion for our business and a huge base of knowledge,” said his son. “So when people come to him to ask him about something, it’s very difficult for him to say, ‘you should talk to Sven about that.’ “
Henning does try. Talk to either man and the influence of their succession coach is obvious. He has even banned Henning from saying no.
“The only thing I can say if I think that person is wrong is: ‘I wonder if there’s another way of looking at this,’ ” said Henning. “And gosh, this is so tough to do. You want to say, ‘look guys, here’s how it’s done.’ “
The influence of the coach, an expert in organizational planning from Montreal, is also evident in Sven’s language.
“How do you have conversations that are fair to both sides and where both sides are really listening?” Sven said when asked about the biggest hurdle in the succession process. “That might be the biggest trick of all.”
Tricky is a good word for it. The Freybes have the best of intentions, employ the best strategies and still credit luck with keeping it all on track.
If the people who do succession well find it so challenging, what are the odds for those who haven’t even got around to drafting a succession plan?
Glenn Cheater is editor of Canadian Farm Manager, the newsletter of the
Canadian Farm Business Management Council. The newsletter as well as archived columns can be found in the news desk
section at www.farmcentre.com.
