Leaving a Legacy

David C Bentall

Description

David. C. Bentall shares family business insights gleaned from 20 years of working with the Bentall group and Dominion Construction. Skillfully marrying his own experience with bet practices in the field, he offers solutions to the distinct challenges faced by all families in business. Practical examples are also included from the following prominent entrepreneurial business families from across North America: Peter Armstrong Rocky Mountaineer, Victor Bachechi Carlo Inc., Keith & Ryan Beedie Beedie Development Group, Murray Berstein Nixon Uniform Service and Medical Wear, Jay Bornstein Bornstein Foods, DJ Devries Newton Omniplex, Ashleigh Everett Royal Canadian Properties, Karen & Charles Flavelle Purdy’s Chocolates, Ken Finch & Robert Foord Kal Tire, Paul & Michael Higgins Mother Parkers Tea and Coffee, Richard Ivey Ivey Foundation, Greg Kuykendall Kuykendall Hearing Aid Center, Peter Legge Canada Wide Media, Stuart McLaughlin Grouse Mountain Resorts, David McLean The McLean Group, Jack McMillan Nordstrom, Paul Melnuk FTL Capital Partners, Dave Miller Fix Auto, Larry Rosen Harry Rosen, Greg Simpson Simpson Seeds Inc., Jane Tidball Thunderbird Show Park, Bill Yeargin (Meloon Family) Correct Craft.

Informations

• Publié par: Castle Quay Books
• Date de parution: 01 mai 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781894860987
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

Leaving a Legacy: Navigating Family Business Succession
Copyright ©2012 by David C. Bentall
All rights reserved
Printed in Canada
International Standard Book Number:
ISBN (hard cover): 978-1-894860-97-0
ISBN (e-book): 978-1-894860-98-7
Published by:
Castle Quay Books
1307 Wharf Street, Pickering, Ontario, L1W 1A5
Tel: [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]
Copy Editor: Marina Hofman Willard
Cover design by Burst Impressions
www.burstimpressions.com
Photo Credit: All colour building project photos courtesy of Anthony Fulker (except Bentall Centre, downtown, Vancouver, and TD Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba)
This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form without prior written permission of the publishers.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Bentall, David C.
Leaving a legacy : navigating family business
succession / David C. Bentall ; foreword by Steve McClure.
Includes bibliographical references.
Also issued in electronic format.
ISBN 978-1-894860-97-0
1. Family-owned business enterprises--Succession--Canada.
2. Family-owned business enterprises--Canada. 3. Bentall,
David C. I. Title.
HD62.25.B45 2012 658’.045 C2012-901810-4
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my mom, Phyllis Bentall.
She taught me about love, self-sacrifice and family.
Her gentle spirit and humility inspire me to serve others and to do my best to help other families.
I want them to discover the kind of love that she created in our home.
Endorsements
“When it comes to advising family businesses David’s combination of intelligence, experience and integrity are unmatched. He helped our family to develop new patterns of communication and better relationships. Upon this foundation, our family’s business continues to grow and expand.”
Colin Bosa
CEO of Bosa Properties
“David has been uniquely gifted to help families learn to hear each other and work together. He’s lived through a lot and can empathize with family members.”
Nan-b de Gaspé Beaubien
Co-Chair, Business Families Foundation
“David can be trusted to genuinely seek the best for every family member. He has experienced both the best and worst a family business has to offer.”
Kevin Jenkins
CEO of World Vision International
Former President and CEO of Canadian Airlines
“I think of David as the Wayne Gretzky of executive coaching and mentoring.”
Stephan Luking
Managing Partner, Gramercy Developments
“David C. Bentall is a man of great integrity and depth. He’s also insightful and caring.”
Jimmy Pattison
Chairman, Jim Pattison Group
“I am touched by David’s drive to leave a legacy in his own family, with his wife, towards his children and grandchildren. He is reaching for a legacy built upon humility, wisdom, self-discipline and love. He is a superb family business consultant, but his work with other families pales in comparison to his gift for his own.”
Peter Vaughan
Principal, West Vancouver Therapy and Psychological Services
David C. Bentall
An advisor to families in business
An executive coach and mentor
A communicator and teacher




David C. Bentall is from the third generation of a Vancouver family whose members are well-known real estate developers. For 20 years, he worked in the family’s business, including 7 years as president and CEO of Dominion Construction.
David is a graduate of the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the Harvard Business School. Now serving as an adjunct professor at the Sauder Business School (UBC) and founder of Next Step Advisors, he is in high demand as a presenter, family business advisor and executive coach.
A passionate water skier, David is a two-time Canadian national champion. In January 2012, he was also ranked #1 in the world in his age division. In 2004, his bestselling book The Company You Keep was awarded “book of the year” at the Canadian Word Guild Awards. He and his wife, Alison, have been married for 35 years, and together they have 4 children and 2 grandchildren.
Foreword
Several years ago, I considered myself an athlete. I was an active full-time professional consultant, yet I worked hard at my sport and had some success. Then I met David Bentall. Friends had already warned me, “If you think you are good, he will make you think you haven’t started training yet.” That was, and remains, true. When David is not learning and sharing generously with family businesses or spending time with his own family, he is a passionate athlete and champion. I’ve known him for over a decade now and in that time have come to know him as an excellent executive coach and sought-after advisor to business families.
To David, the success of business families is personal: he comes from a respected Vancouver, British Columbia, family business. His vivid stories draw generously and respectfully from the ups and downs of his construction and real estate business family; his descriptions are at the same time meaningful and instructional. David’s conclusions and insights are real and significant and emerge naturally from his fascinating and open accounts of his family and business experiences.
He draws from his own situation in a family business, yet goes well beyond the limitations of being an expert on one’s own case. He understands that no two family businesses are exactly alike, yet they may share many similarities. He is acutely aware of the huge potential for bias in revealing his own rich and intense experiences, yet he transcends this limitation by presenting wise, thoughtful lessons and preserving and applying several heartfelt stories that help his readers to master the concept.
He is open, honest and humble with the story of his own family’s experience. It often seems self-critical, yet through it he weaves an instructional analysis from his broad knowledge base of the family business field. He has researched and added to his toolkit the experiences of other business families, as a means of expanding his knowledge of what works and what might be applied to others’ circumstances. Primarily, David believes in the advantages of families in business and that he can serve as a conduit and interpreter to assist one business family to learn from another.
David has direct experience and knowledge of family business governance: he has been both a director and a family shareholder represented by independent directors on a board. He knows the fine points of family and non-family leadership in a family firm: he started as a young family employee mentored by non-family managers and eventually became the CEO. He also knows the particular challenges of operating and non-operating shareholders who must work together: he was a business partner with siblings who did not work in the business. He can see things from the point of view of the business leader and of the most distant cousin shareholder. He understands what it takes to make a business successful, even when it must compete for the s’ attention in the midst of difficult transitions within the family. He can relate vivid instructional stories from his own experience and that of others, making you think he has known you and your family for years. Then, in a completely objective way, as if he were watching from afar, he evaluates the positive and negative features of his own background, brings them into the discussion and provides a succinct summary of what you might borrow and apply to your own family business. That is a special and unique skill.
When I started my career, I had the good fortune to receive advice from a smart senior businessman who became a mentor. His advice was always in the form of stories that consistently ended with three points, no matter what the lesson. For example, the story about our firm’s leader’s success was based on three principles: integrity, relationships and hard work. His account of the best client service professionals he knew conveyed the values of integrity, doing one’s homework and good service. At the conclusion of each story, he made his three points by holding up three fingers of his left hand. That hand only had three fingers, as he had long ago lost one in an accident. Today, I still see that imperfect hand with its missing finger, and then I remember his lessons. He presented to me a vivid example and communicated a memorable message every time while never saying, “You should do this.” David Bentall has all his fingers yet has the same effect on those with whom he works.
I have come to know David ever better over the years, had the pleasure of serving as his mentor, seen his results, heard from his clients and engaged him on philosophy about how to best assist business families. If my former mentor were describing David, he would say he does three things very well: he brings integrity, he does his homework and he delivers much more than what is expected. His clients and readers are fortunate, and those who will interact with him or his writings in the future will benefit from his passionate commitment to his profession. His unique contributions, professionalism and dedication have launched him into the leadership ranks in the field of family business.
Steve McClure, PhD
Principal
The Family Business Consulting Group
Acknowledgements
I am indebted to many friends and colleagues, for without the support and guidance of a “small army” of faithful warriors this projec