Case 17
REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS, INC.
Dick Randall, president and CEO of Real Estate Development Partners, Inc., arrived in
Pennsylvania after serving in World War II. He had saved a little money, and together he and his
father bought a piece of property and developed it into a golf course. Eventually, Dick decided to
Over this same period, several national measures of economic activity in the industry
indicated considerably lower growth rates in both revenues and asset values of other companies.
In fact, Real Estate Development Partners seemed to be growing at twice the rate achieved by the
average performers in the industry.
Although he was very pleased with the company’s record, Dick felt that he had two major
unresolved issues. First, he questioned whether, given the size of his estate and his age, he could
Al, the eldest son, had worked in the business since he was 8 years old. Along with his two
brothers, Tom and Ken, Al had learned the business from the bottom up by doing mostly odd
Notwithstanding their early experiences in the business, not all the boys went into the family-
owned business. One decided to work for a Fortune 500 company after graduating from college,
and developed his career there for over a decade. He had recently returned to the family-owned
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Dick thought that there were three major ways the company might grow in the future. First,
the company could begin operations in Florida, where it already had developed some expertise
with smaller real-estate investments. Second, it could convert several of its golf club properties
into more lucrative commercial developments. Population growth surrounding several of the
AN ACTION RESEARCH CONSULTING PROJECT AND THE RANDALL FAMILY
Because of Dick Randall’s concerns regarding the future of the family-owned business, he
agreed to participate in an action research effort to discover just how ready he and his family
were to transition the business across generations of owner-managers. Given his dream of
continuity, he had to prioritize the issues to be addressed.
A family-business consultant visited the offices of Real Estate Development Partners and met
Several weeks after this meeting, when the family and family-business survey data had been
analyzed, the two-person consulting team met with family members and key nonfamily
results were then presented to the family members in the second phase of the meeting, after
nonfamily managers had been excused.