Igniting a new era

It’s the cycle of life. The loss of two uncles, both owners in the family business, resulted in the end of an era for Eagle Creek Nursery in Indianapolis. It was the beginning of a new age for the company, which was founded four generations ago in 1916. One uncle had been overseeing operations for the last four decades; the other was mostly retired. The family had not anticipated the loss – the uncles passed within a month of each other.

“We reached a fork in the road at that point,” says Mark Esterline, who had been in charge of landscape maintenance and worked in the family business since the early 1990s. He is now president of the company. “Being a family business, everyone had ideas about what they wanted to do and where they wanted to go, and here was an opportunity to make some changes.

“We had lots of ideas, but no real plan in place on how to execute them,” Esterline says.

Esterline’s uncle – his father’s brother – had been managing plant procurement for the nursery, along with daily banking and insurance. Esterline immediately began taking over these duties. “We had a void there and everyone was so busy in their own part of the business, someone had to step up and start doing more,” he says.

The company continued to move forward, not slowing its pace. But the fact was, Eagle Creek Nursery had been riding steady for some time, Esterline points out. “Under the past management, we had gotten lethargic and were not growing anymore,” he says. “When you have someone who has been in charge of the business for 40 years, change is tough.”

The business needed to undergo rigorous strategic planning to uncover growth opportunities, and that involved taking a good, hard look at the company structure and the roles supporting that.

First, Eagle Creek formed a key management team, including family members and some non-family that had worked at the company for years – its business systems manager and a valued, long-term employee. “Through that group, we decided to seek out help [with strategic planning],” Esterline says.

Eagle Creek turned to LandOpt about six months ago to work through its key business functions, from sales and marketing to financials and operations. In a short time, the company has set goals to expand the business, namely diversifying its customer mix. “We started looking at sales and what is going to make us successful,” Esterline says.

The team did some focused soul searching.

“It would be much easier to start a company fresh than trying to retool one, I think,” Esterline relates. “Working through a transition requires patience, being a good listener and a good communicator.”

Family members and managers took a personality assessment to determine their natural abilities so they could plug people into roles where they’d succeed. What has surprised Esterline during the whole process, so far, is certain family members' willingness to accept new roles.

Some family managers moved out of leadership roles. And, Esterline says, that was OK with everyone. “We had the facts [from the personality assessments] to back up those decisions, and people realized that, yes, this is where I will succeed and where I want to be, and this is how I want to help the company,” he says.

Eagle Creek is early in its transition. Roles recently were reassigned, and Esterline is now president. “I have never worked this hard in my life,” he says. “Before this happened, I was in a rut, personally. This has been a new beginning for me – it’s exciting.”
 

QuickTips:

• Form a team. Eagle Creek assembled a team of key managers to begin strategic planning and to work through the business transition. This team meets regularly to discuss goals and progress.
• Seek out resources. Eagle Creek abruptly faced transition – there was no real plan in place. Once the company mobilized via key members taking over tasks that were left “open” by the loss of an owner, managers decided to seek out a third party consultancy to assist with taking the business into the next generation. “We are an 80-plus year old company, so change is not easy to do,” Esterline says simply.
• Reignite interest. Change can inspire longtime employees and managers to go after new goals and drive the business forward. That is what Esterline has found to be true at Eagle Creek. “Before, we were not changing with the times,” he says, adding that successful transition is about “not being afraid to make tough decisions and take some risk.”