Case 18
SMALL FAMILY BUSINESS
GLASSKING DISTRIBUTOR COMPANY
“Those honchos at headquarters keep coming up with rosy sales projections and glowing
strategic plans,” lamented Marilyn Green. “Don’t they know our entire distribution effort is in
the hands of family businesses?” As director of dealer development for GlassKing, a major
supplier, Marilyn seems to be spending more time coping with family infighting than she does on
new product launches or gaining market share.
Each year, the concerns of her distributors—most of them independently owned family
Lately, the consequences of unresolved family problems have hit GlassKing’s bottom line
harder than in the past. Marilyn first noticed a complacency among dealers at an annual sales
meeting 5 years ago. They were a little grayer, a little heavier, and clearly less enthusiastic about
rapid growth. “They’ve peaked,” she recalls thinking, “and where are all the young people?”
