Challenging, Touchy Role : More Daughters Are Joining Family Firms
“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 are learning to pick their way through the mine field 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.
Mothers and daughters are teaming up more frequently, too, experts say.
Running Own Business
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 free-lance journalist in Boston. Her father remains chairman.
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.
At 27, Barbara Millard seems young to be president of the nation’s largest personal computer retailer, ComputerLand Corp. of Oakland, founded by her father, William Millard, chairman.
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.
Except for Hefner’s writing experience, these women neither worked in other jobs nor earned MBAs, 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 am so 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.
Wear Several Hats
“We have what we call different hats. It’s not fair game to have one conversation and switch hats. It’s easy to do when you become upset. All of a sudden, you’re yelling at your dad. A subordinate just doesn’t get to tell the boss, ‘I just think you’re being obstinate.’ ”
She added: “I’ll cross the line of what’s the appropriate way to treat the boss and . . . he’ll jump in and say, ‘I want you to do it anyway,’ like a father would say.”
Money, too, can become an issue. Either you are paid too much or too little because you are related to the boss.
“I turned down salary increases as I went along, which I wouldn’t have done at an outside company,” Hefner said. “I think it’s more difficult to talk about compensation with your mother or father.”
The biggest problem is that of succession. It causes some family businesses to fail, experts say.
“The founder is often very unwilling to give up the company,” Hollander said. “His or her identity is wrapped up in the company. Nobody is adequate enough to take over.”
The three women say they foresee no power struggles, and they are patient.
“I know that I will have to wait for my own success. Right now, my job is not to screw it up,” said Millard.
The founders frequently have larger-than-life images that can be burdensome for a daughter, or son. Take, for example, Hugh Hefner’s public persona.
“He created the product. If I aspired to that, I don’t think I would be very happy,” Ms. Hefner said. “My challenge is to build on that. I see our challenges as being complementary.”
But later she added wistfully: “It would be nice if people said, ‘Ah, there’s Hugh Hefner. He’s Christie Hefner’s father.”’
