Two major family-owned food businesses announced leadership transitions recently, taking very different approaches to one of the most consequential decisions a family business can make.
Australian dairy manufacturer Bulla Dairy Foods has appointed Peter Hall as CEO following what the company described as an extensive global search. Hall brings more than 25 years of international food and beverage leadership experience, including senior roles with Heineken, Treasury Wine Estates and Diageo. He succeeds acting CEO James Downey, a fifth-generation member of one of Bulla’s founding families. (Food & Drink Business)
In California, Driscoll’s announced a different succession path. Brie Reiter Smith, Vice Chair of the company’s Board and a member of the Reiter family, will become CEO, succeeding Soren Bjorn. Bjorn will remain involved through the transition and support several strategic priorities. (Blue Book Services)
Different decisions. Similar challenge.
For family-owned food and beverage companies, succession is increasingly about more than identifying the next CEO. It requires an honest assessment of what the business will demand from its entire leadership team over the next five to ten years.
The Question Isn’t Simply “Family or External?”
The more useful question is: what capabilities does the business need next?
A company entering a period of geographic expansion may need a different leadership profile from one preparing for generational succession. An acquisitive business may suddenly require a CFO experienced in capital allocation and integration. A manufacturer adding facilities may need a COO who has managed a substantially more complex network. A business moving from founder-led selling to a sophisticated commercial organization may need its first true CRO or Chief Commercial Officer.
This is particularly relevant in food and beverage, where growth often brings operational complexity with it.
More customers, channels, facilities, SKUs and acquisitions can quickly expose gaps in financial infrastructure, supply chain leadership, commercial discipline and organizational design.
The executive team that successfully built a $100 million business is not automatically the team required to build a $500 million one.
Leadership Transitions Are Business Transitions
Family businesses also have considerations that don’t appear neatly on an org chart.
Legacy matters. Culture matters. Relationships with employees, growers, suppliers and customers may have been built over decades or generations. Owners frequently want professionalization and new capabilities without losing the characteristics that made the company successful in the first place.
That makes executive hiring particularly nuanced.
The best external executive isn’t necessarily the person with the blue chip résumé. It’s the person who understands the complexity ahead while being able to operate effectively within the ownership model and culture of the business.
Likewise, promoting from within should be based on the capabilities required for the next chapter, rather than continuity alone.
Build the Leadership Team Before You Need It
The most effective succession planning starts well before a vacancy exists.
For owners and boards, that means periodically asking:
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- What will be materially different about this business in three to five years?
- Which capabilities will become more important as we grow?
- Where do we have genuine internal successors?
- Where would an external executive add experience we don’t currently have?
- Are our CFO, COO and commercial leaders equipped for the scale and complexity we’re targeting?
- Which leadership gaps could constrain the strategy if we wait too long to address them?
These questions are particularly important at points of inflection: succession, acquisitions, rapid growth, geographic expansion, ERP transformation, new facilities, professionalization or a change in ownership structure.
Executive Search Should Start with the Business, Not the Job Description
This is where 3P Partners takes a different approach to executive search.
We work exclusively across food, beverage and agribusiness, primarily with family-owned and private equity-backed companies navigating these types of inflection points.
Rather than beginning with a generic CFO, COO or CRO job description, we start by understanding where the business is going, what is changing and what the incoming executive actually needs to accomplish.
We then benchmark the leadership team against those requirements and search within a highly specialized network of executives who understand the realities of food and beverage businesses: manufacturing, agriculture, commodities, supply chains, retail customers, capital intensity and often complex family ownership.
Because ultimately, succession isn’t about filling an empty seat.
It’s about making sure the leadership team is capable of taking the business where its owners want it to go next.
3P Partners is an executive search firm dedicated to the food, beverage and agribusiness sectors. Since 2013, we have placed more than 600 leaders across 200 businesses throughout the US, Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand.
Choose a Search Partner Who Understands Family Business
If your business is considering outside leadership or thinking about the next stage of growth, connect with the 3P Partners team.