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Fifty Years of Landaal Packaging Systems – A G3 Family Business (required)

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Landaal Packaging Systems is an unusual family business success story in Flint, Michigan amidst the highest unemployment in the nation along with the fall of the auto industry. Ninety-percent of family-owned businesses go bust before a third generation can take over — the Landaal Family has also beaten those odds.

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This documentary looks at the personalities in the family, their guiding forces, and their plans to continue the family legacy into the fourth generation, a place where only one-percent of family businesses survive. All this in the face of a failed auto industry in Michigan and the economic peril that has brought to the area.

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Innovation For Sustainability at LPS (required)

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Three legged stool of sustainability

(as related to family business)

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Leg One: Economic Responsibility

Leg Two: Social Responsibility

Leg Three: Environmental Responsibility

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These responsibilities are linked to the family values of

God, Family, and Community

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Economic responsibility — is defined by the sustainability of the business through succession planning, to ensure employment livelihood and community support with time and treasure. It is also defined through product innovation that saves energy, time and is competitive in the marketplace.

SUPPLEMENTAL READING:

• Starbucks’ Create Jobs for USA Program with the Opportunity Finance Network® (OFN) “The Create Jobs for USA program and Indivisible wristbands provide Americans an opportunity to help support job creation at a time when we have alarming unemployment and many struggling small businesses. The more we stimulate demand and increase the purchasing power of middle class consumers, the faster we will recover. By making a donation to the Create Jobs for USA Fund, Starbucks customers and concerned citizens can take meaningful action to help create and sustain American jobs,” said Starbucks chairman and ceo Howard Schultz. “We hope this is a galvanizing moment as Americans come together to be catalysts for change by giving community businesses access to the credit they need to hire, to grow and to contribute to creating thriving communities.”

• Black & Decker In The Community Guided by his belief that all people owe something to the society in which they live, Alonzo G. Decker, Jr. gave generously to a variety of organizations by donating his time, money and business expertise.

• Rethinking the Social Responsibility of Business Thirty-five years ago, Milton Friedman wrote a famous article for The New York Times Magazine whose title aptly summed up its main point: “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits.”
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Social responsibility — is defined as the business being an active partner in the community through stewardship. This purposeful responsibility moves the family and business past consumption and profits as being the only motivation. Product innovation also fills this responsibility by allowing consumers to participate in sustainability through buying power.

SUPPLEMENTAL READING:

• Being a Responsible Company We’ve always believed that businesses can – and should – have a positive impact on the communities they serve.
• The “Social Responsibility” Of Business Is To Earn A Profit UCLA Law Professor Stephen Bainbridge, who has written in the area of the fiduciary responsibility of corporations extensively said,” The social obligation of business is to sustainably maximize long-term profits for shareholders. Nothing more. Nothing less.
• Create Jobs For USA website We know that the Create Jobs for USA program won’t solve the problem by itself but we hope it can help create conversation, inspire ideas and empower us all to take action in our communities.

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Environmental responsibility — is defined as a caring approach toward our natural resources, what condition we leave the earth to the next generation, and the effects on the environment through business practices. This responsibility requires a mind-set that is both internal and external to your company. Product design should always focus on this responsibility through material choice utilized.

SUPPLEMENTAL READING:

• The story behind Apple’s environmental footprint. Apple reports environmental impact comprehensively. We do this by focusing on our products: what happens when we design them, what happens when we make them, and what happens when you take them home and use them.

• Report Calls on Investors to Adopt Stronger Proxy Voting Guidelines for Environmental and Social Issues “Environmental, social and governance factors can affect the risk and return performance of investment portfolios to varying degrees across companies, sectors, regions and asset classes.”
Marriott’s® Strategy for Contributing to Environmental ConservationWith an increase in global travel comes corporate responsibility for mitigating our business impact on the natural environment. Both in our hotels and beyond, we seek to understand and act on the direct and indirect environmental impacts of our business operations.

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The intertwined nature of sustainability and family business creates many dynamics that must be managed and communicated and if done wrong can produce significant hurdles. The values adopted by the family must drive the organization. This will produce an organization culture that is based on trust and transparency. This culture can be measured and systematically improved through personal develop training (ie.. Behavior modification) and consistent information sharing. The strategic plan for the business must compliment the culture and drive sustainability goals.
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The family planning piece of the puzzle is critical and must be accomplished first. The multiple-generational family business has unique characteristics that must be fully respected and discovered (ie.. Feelings, emotions, expectations) This truly represents the horse before the cart, and become the prerequisite of all planning as related to the business strategy and family trusts instruments. The realization of a productive family council requires everyone being fairly vested and engaged, regardless if you work directly for the business. The family council realizes the business is the engine that creates the wealth to sustain the purpose and support the mission, not only personal consumption driven.
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From the family planning stage, succession must be carefully planned and executed. As the business is passed down, the constant becomes the values and the purpose, as everything else is in constant change.

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Pre-class Questions