Designing Succession: How Family Firms Endure

03-05-2026

Family firms don’t accidentally last 150 years. They endure because leaders like Tracy Page treat succession, culture and competition as challenges, not problems.

Succession as a deliberate process

When Page decided to return to Mulhaupts, a security and access control company, after two decades in large global manufacturers, she and her father Mike didn’t simply “hand over the keys.” They hired a leadership and transition coach and spent 6-8 weeks working through hard questions: Was Mike truly ready to retire, what was he passing off and what was she accepting?

The process created space for open conversations about differing perspectives on the future vision for Mulhaupts — conversations that can be especially nuanced when the outgoing leader is also your parent. From there, they brought the management team into the dialogue, aligning everyone around a refreshed purpose, mission and core values as leadership transitioned from Mike to Tracy and her husband, Paul.

Her key succession lessons for family companies:

• Start early and treat succession as a multi‑stage journey, not a date on the calendar.
• Use a neutral third party to surface unspoken tensions and keep conversations constructive.
• Separate roles from relationships: at work it’s “Mike” and “Barb,” not dad and mom, which helps internal and external stakeholders see professionalism rather than family politics.
• Address the hard questions about differences in vision and management style to reaffirm trust.

Building a place where people want to work

Post‑COVID, Page sees labor and retention as one of the defining challenges for small, family firms. Unlike earlier eras when “people were waiting in line” for jobs, today’s employees have options, visibility into opportunities via LinkedIn and social media, and higher expectations for how they’re treated at work.

Her response has been to actively design a culture where people choose to stay: focusing on fair wages, attractive benefits, and — importantly — making it a place where “people want to work,” which includes intentionally creating opportunities for fun and connection. Poor hiring just to “fill the seat” erodes customer experience and team cohesion. She aims to build an ethos of “one team, one Mulhaupts.”

Two cultural moves stand out:

• Modeling servant leadership by listening first, inviting people into problem‑solving and being willing to “climb a ladder or be on the floor” alongside the team.
• Protecting boundaries in a family business — no business talk at large family events, and the ability for her and her husband to “table” work conversations at home — which preserves personal relationships and reduces burnout.

Competing with private equity

Page candidly addressed one of the biggest structural shifts in her industry is the rise of private equity buying up small firms and rolling them under large umbrellas. These PE‑backed platforms can leverage national buying programs, negotiate better pricing and appear more attractive to new talent because of their scale and resources.

For a locally owned, family business, that creates a strategic imperative: clarify and amplify what makes you different. Page’s playbook includes:

• Re‑establishing Mulhaupts’ identity in the market — who they are, what they stand for and why customers should care.
• Competing on relationship depth and responsiveness in a world where projects move faster, designs are incomplete at bid time and customers expect shorter lead times despite complex supply chains.
• Positioning the family‑owned model as a strength: long‑term commitment, relationship and local decision‑making.

In that environment, Page doesn’t try to out‑“big” the big players; she instead leans into agility, culture and multi‑generational trust to set Mulhaupts apart.

What stands out are her insights for family firms. If they are willing to professionalize succession, treat culture as a strategic asset and compete on relationships and responsiveness, they can more than hold their own.

View and listen to Page’s Executive Forum class: