Serious illness can have a devastating impact on a family — but it can also strengthen relationships, bring family members closer, both geographically and otherwise, and, it is hoped, bring out the best in those whose lives it touches.
Such has been the case for Scott and Timothy DeHart, whose mother, Linda, was diagnosed last year with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
Since Linda’s difficult diagnosis, the family has banded together to ease the transition of the family-owned Franklin, Ohio-based AAA Wastewater Services Inc. from Linda and Eugene (the “mom-and-pop,” respectively) to the two sons.
As they navigate the transition, Scott and Timothy are simultaneously working to restructure and strategically reposition the 55-year-old company for sustainable success.
While they grew up together, the two brothers went in very different directions after high school and thus acquired experiences and education that couldn’t be more different: Timothy, having lived and traveled around the world, and Scott, who stayed put and worked for the company his whole life.
The two are looking to build off divergent strengths and pool their talents to strengthen the business’s foundation and set it on course for a profitable future.
Their strategies include charting out business and succession plans, documenting work processes and encouraging accountability among employees.
WORLD TRAVELER
Timothy never imagined he’d wind up back in his hometown and working for the family business. The youngest son in the DeHart family, he was an adventure-seeker who had spent time working and traveling around the world, most recently living in Lima, Peru, where he served as the director of Noche de Arte (Night of Art), an art-show fundraiser for the United States Embassy Association.
It was while he was living in Peru in 2007 that Timothy noticed that his mother’s speech seemed slurred over the phone. He urged her to see a doctor, and she was told it was stress. By 2008, Timothy could no longer understand her. “This clearly alarmed me,” he recalls.
While his parents were in Lima on a visit, Linda saw a neurologist who was the first to suggest the possibility of ALS, a terminal illness that affects nerve cells that control muscle movement. Another doctor later confirmed it.
“The problem is that ALS is not an easy disease to diagnose until the patient is further along with the illness,” he explains. “At that time, the symptoms become more recognizable. Since then, we have been taking it one day at a time.”
Finally, early last year, Timothy made the decision to come home.
“After speaking to some friends … I came to the conclusion that both my parents needed me and I had the skills to be useful to them,” Timothy explains. “I believe very much in being aware of ‘windows or doors of opportunities.’ The timing couldn’t have been better for me to move back home to help my mom,” he says. “So after discussing it with my parents, we decided it would be the best thing for me to do, and here I am.”
Timothy, now 40, had been gone 16 years and had lived in four U.S. cities and six countries. He had graduated from Ohio State University with a degree in advertising and journalism, had served in the Peace Corps, and had earned a master’s degree from the New School University, New York, in Organizational Change Management.
EXPERIENCED AND ABLE
Scott, 47, currently the company’s vice president of operations, is the technical expert. Having worked for AAA since he was old enough to tag along with his father and grandfather on calls, Scott has seen it all — and has acquired a lifetime of knowledge and skill in the liquid waste industry. He understands the day-to-day operations of the family business.
Scott has performed every task associated with running a septic service company. Recently, he took over dispatching trucks (a post his mother had previously held) and field supervision of the company’s 12 employees. He handles job bidding and specifications for AAA’s trucks and equipment.
The current fleet includes 14 trucks: a 1991 Ford F-800 pump truck with a, 2,000-gallon waste/200-gallon freshwater tank and a 4,000-psi jetter; a 2000 Sterling with a 3,300-gallon waste/300-gallon freshwater tank with a 4,000-psi jetter; a 1985 Ford F-800 with 2,800-gallon tank; a 1989 Ford van; 2000 Ford F-150 pickup; a 1996 Vac-Con with a 1,500-gallon waste/1,000-gallon freshwater tank; a 1999 Ford F-550 dump truck; a 2002 Ford F-550 with a 650-gallon waste/300-gallon freshwater tank; a 1999 Ford F-550 with a 650-gallon waste/300-gallon freshwater tank; a 2000 Ford F-650 with an 850-gallon waste/350-gallon freshwater tank; a 1997 Ford F-450 with a 400-gallon waste/250-gallon freshwater tank; a 1994 Ford Super Duty with flatbed; and a 1999 Ford F-550 flatbed.
All the tanks are steel; the F-800 and 2000 Sterling were built by Abernethy Welding & Repair Inc. Except for the Vac-Con, the rest of the trucks were built by AAA.
CHANGE IN THE AIR
It isn’t uncommon for business owners — particularly small business owners — to put off planning for the future. For AAA, Linda’s diagnosis put the need for a succession plan front and center. The plan includes fundamental changes as the next generation steps in to run the business without their parents. Eugene, 76, retired in 2003 although he still stayed somewhat involved over the years, but Linda, 67, had been involved in day-to-day operations. She is scaling back as her sons take on more.
Timothy, now executive vice president, intends to apply his expertise in change management and his experience managing people to the family business. He credits his time away with giving him objectivity in looking at what exists — and what needs fixing.
In order to get a full view of the business “as-is,” upon his return, Timothy spent the first several months performing a thorough analysis of the business’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. His first goal was to establish a system of accountability, and get employees on the same page.
“We started having weekly management meetings, so we could collaboratively make decisions on the company’s priorities,” he explains. “In our case, we quickly realized our focus needed to be to create a healthy financial climate. With the decline in the construction market, the company needed to be stabilized in order to define its financial success.”
SYSTEMIZING
He didn’t stop there. “Now that that has been accomplished, I have started to work on human resources and marketing at the same time. We have hired new office administration so that has made it easier to change some of the systems to serve our customers better and faster.”
His goals are lofty, including an emphasis on social responsibility. “Identifying myself as an ‘agent of change’ I hope to develop more inroads into the family business to allow us more visibility in our responsibilities and commitments to our customers, employees, community, vendors and environment as a whole.”
Employees’ needs, abilities and well-being are an important piece to the puzzle:
“We spent a lot of time learning about building trust with employees,” says Timothy of his master’s program. “In order to do this, transparency and openness helps people understand better what is going on and trust the owners better.”
That accountability is encouraged with proper training and explicit directions for the job they’re required to do. Checklists and processes are in place to ensure employees do each task satisfactorily.
A key part of success in this is vision — that every employee is on the same page. “I am a believer that someone has to be guiding the overall ship, looking at the ‘big picture.’ I have taken over that role,” Timothy explains.
A WRITTEN RECORD
One of the more difficult symptoms of Linda’s illness thus far is that she is no longer able to speak, a hurdle for both the transfer of knowledge from parent to children, but also a frustrating hindrance to normal family conversations they’ve always enjoyed.
“My mom has lost her ability to speak and gets very frustrated trying to communicate with us. She’s able to get out and do everything she wants to do, but she has to write everything down. Sometimes you can tell in her frustration it’s hard for her to get what she’s trying to get across,” Scott explains.
Linda oversaw many of the business’s financial and record-keeping processes, so transferring that knowledge has been a challenge as well.
These difficulties brought to light the need for clearly documented processes, so that duties can be carried out easily by more than just one person. Scott has undertaken the job of putting everything that’s in his head (and his mother’s) down on paper. He’s capturing all the information others might one day need to know: the best process for cleaning a restroom or installing an onsite system.
This documentation will lead to improvements. “The office has gotten relaxed in a lot of its operations, and we’re trying to set up … and modify the systems that are already in place,” Scott says.
CHARTING A COURSE
AAA has not been immune to economic hardship — the company has lost a few of its customers to the economy. But rather than sit back and wait for things to improve, the DeHart brothers are revving things up now to prepare for success when the economy turns around.
“We’re restructuring the company, taking it from a mom-and-pop organization to a more professional and competitive type of business,” Scott says.
“By working together with our employees, our goal is to beat the odds of surviving and taking this company on to the next level,” Timothy adds.
Sales and marketing will be one focus area. Having relied on the Yellow Pages to serve as its primary advertising vehicle for many years, there is untapped potential, Timothy says. Plans include a redesigned Web site and crafting a solid sales and marketing plan.
Timothy has also put an emphasis on fiscal belt tightening, and analyzing every penny that goes out the door, including more diligent fleet management. A three-year strategic plan — currently under construction — will tie all of these strategies together in a cohesive document based on the brothers’ vision.
Timothy acknowledges that succession in a family business can be precarious, and done wrong, can be a recipe for failure. Working with family members provides its own share of challenges, but the brothers have settled on a set of common goals that work for them — and a relationship based on mutual respect.
“If it’s two siblings, you have to stop and look at what makes each other tick, and you have to try to be respectful and compassionate about each other’s needs,” explains Scott. “You have to come to mutual ground where you all agree.”
