More Women Taking Over Family Businesses

“Junior,” the youngster being groomed to take over the family business, was once assumed always to be male. Not anymore.

A growing number of women, among them Christie Hefner, Kathryn Klinger and Barbara Millard, are going to work for Dad--or even Mom--and learning to pick their way through the minefield that is Family Inc.

“What we’re seeing now is an increase in the number of women who are both invited to go into the business and who are interested in going into the business,” said Barbara Hollander, a family and organization consultant based in Pittsburgh.

Mother-Daughter Teams

Mothers and daughters are teaming up more frequently, too, experts say.

It makes sense. An increasing number of women are running their own businesses, starting them at a rate estimated at three times as fast as men. Women run about 2.5 million companies, up 33.4% from 1977, according to the House Small Business Committee.

Christie Hefner, the 32-year-old president of Chicago-based Playboy Enterprises and daughter of founder Hugh Hefner, joined the entertainment company in 1975 after two years as a freelance journalist in Boston. Her father remains chairman of the board.

Kathryn Klinger, 34, president of the cosmetics company that bears her mother’s name, Georgette Klinger Inc., said, “You get to do so much more, have much more responsibility and more creativity than if you were working for somebody else.

“But you get all the headaches that go along with it. Nobody worries about it like you do,” she added.

Young President

At 27, Barbara Millard seems young to be president of the nation’s largest personal computer retailer, ComputerLand of Oakland, founded by her father and chairman of the board, William Millard.

But she’s been involved in the company for a decade, first working after school to make extra money. She considered, and rejected, an acting and singing career to move into the business full-time.

Hefner said she chose her path within the company once she got there. It evolved as she did, she said, because when she started as an assistant to her father, she had no plans to move into the president’s office.

In 1978, she was promoted to corporate vice president. Later, she joined the board of directors. She was named president in 1982 and assumed the additional title of chief operating officer early last year.

Working in the family business is not all upbeat.

“I don’t think you can ever enter the family business and not be plagued by speculation that you are only there ‘because.’ No matter how much you accomplish, it plagues you,” Hefner said.

In many cases, children are encouraged to “prove” their legitimacy by working outside the family business or earning a graduate degree in business administration.

Little Experience

Except for Hefner’s writing experience, these women neither worked in other jobs nor earned MBA’s, and there are some regrets.

“The only thing that probably would have been smart would be if I had had some business school background. That’s the only thing I’m sorry I don’t have,” said Klinger, who studied English at Kenyon College in Ohio.

Hefner graduated from Brandeis University with a degree in English and American Literature but decided against seeking a master’s of business administration degree.

Millard is a college dropout. “The education I got working for my father, given who he is in the industry . . . I’m much better equipped for the job that I have than if I had taken a couple of years out and gone to school,” she said.