Family Business from Harley's Perspective

2020 Years of Service- Century Associates with 25 Years or more service

A few years ago I was voluntold that I would be addressing our Years of Service luncheon.  Our Years of Service luncheon is when we honor employees that have been with Century for at least five years, and we go up from there in brackets of five. This particular year we had three honorees who had been with the company for 45 years.  Overall that year we were honoring 345 individuals with over 1380 years of service and commitment to our company.

To me this event is the most humbling event to attend let alone address.  I have sat in that room many years in awe of the individuals around me and their dedication to our company.  I guess Alex was traveling, and so I was the next best speaker for the occasion, or maybe the last on a longer list. Regardless, our director of Human Resources asked me on Monday if I was ready.  It was the first I had heard of my responsibility.  In many ways I thank her for the short notice as I fretted for the next three days about what I was going to say. How do you address a room of people who represent the heart and soul of your company?  How do you give them something back for everything they have given you?

In the end, I chose to read from an interview that my grandfather had with a gentleman who was trying to capture some of his story.  To me it speaks back to the heart of our company. I wanted to share the same story here with you now...

The question was, "What about the switch, or the gradual disappearance of family-owned companies?"  To that my grandfather responded...


"Well, it just happens. Lots of times, the next generation isn't interested, and they want the money, so they go public. It's very seldom you can see where you can find three or, I'd say, four generations in what you might call a family business. Usually, it disintegrates down the road, 'cause, you get a person who say doesn't have any children, so he gets old and he says, "Well, I'll sell." And you take another, why, think about it, he had a couple of daughters, and no one's interested in the thing. Anyway they want the money.  So they sell or go public or that kind of thing.  And you take our situation, grandfather started Shuford Mill, 1880, and then my father, my brother, then me, then my sons. As a rule, doesn't happen when you go that long. 'Cause you see what I mean. There are various interests. That most of the time...most of the time it's money.  

"I had one time somebody came in here.  This is a long time ago.  And he wanted to buy Century, you know, what's the name of that, big company? And I said, "There's no way you got enough money." He said, "What do you mean?" I said, "You haven't got enough money. If you gave me $100 million, you couldn't buy it." He said, "You're a strange man." I said, "No. Why would I with children sell and give them a lot of money, and they sit and nothing, no future, no reason, no justification. What I'm trying to do is give them an opportunity, and give them a purpose in life. And the reason, see. Money is not the criteria of things. And if these children haven't got enough sense to run it, they'll be broke. I wouldn't sell at any price. Now, it's a challenge, it's a reason, and they think, have I got the ability and the capacity to do it and it makes their life worthwhile. To give children a lot of money, and what the hell would they do? I mean, you know, you can't do with so much."  I said, "I would be fairly unjust and unfair to them to do such a thing, because everybody must have some reason, some purpose."  I said, "They got a responsibility, we got a lot of people here. A lot of good people working here 40 years and 50 years. There's a responsibility to the community. These people have given their life's work. We can't just sell and run off and sit.  That's not fair.  That's not the way the ball game goes. So you can get back on your airplane, and you can go back to where you are, 'cause you can't buy this place."

"Well, that's the way I felt, and that's the way I felt all along. Well, maybe later on, when I'm dead, they'll decide to go public, get a lot of money. And they could, I guess, get a lot of money, but I still say that I don't think they'll do it as long as I'm living.  I don't want to interfere, but I would be very disturbed, because I wouldn't see any reason.  Because you get people in here that wouldn't treat the people like we've tried to treat them all these years. And I don't think they will. I think they respect me enough that they're not going to do that.  They might do it after I'm dead...but, way it is, that ain't going to be too damn long. But the main thing, like I say.  I always tell you boys, "Don't think about the money. If you do the job right, the money will take care of itself. Well, if you're always looking at the money, that's the wrong way.  Do the job, and you'd be surprised. If you do it right, the money will come later. But if you rest your life on the so-called dollar..."  I've seen so many people, like I told you, rich as hell, family's not worth killing. The old man didn't have time to say hello, the kids turn out with dope or turn out....they might be rich, but I've seen them and they're awful unhappy, they're divorced, and redivorced, and divorced again, or the kids have gone to hell.  And because the old man was so obsessed with how much money he could put in the bank, that he got, I told you before, he got his life out of balance.  You got to keep things in balance, at least I think so." ---


I never knew my grandfather as a businessman, I only knew him as my grandfather- funny, competitive, a little intimidating but generous beyond compare.  Reading back through his stories about the business, this one in particular, I also know he had a strong set of guiding values that I respect immensely.

Century remains a family owned and operated company.  My father, the youngest of my grandfather's children, worked hard to give his children the same opportunity that his father gave him a long with that sense of purpose and responsibility.  Each day we wake up we think about the legacy we have been left, and work hard for our employees, our partners and our customers.