Name withheld

Better Still

 

Here's the story of my future chief executive officer:

Age 10 to 16: She complains that her mom and stepdad talk about the business too much at the dinner table.

Age 17: She starts a part-time job in the office while taking business courses. She's very self-conscious about being the boss's dauthter. She minds her business and does her work.

Age 19: She begins to learn what it's all about. Now she's the one to talk shop at the dinner table, asking a million questions, most of them beginning with "why" or "how."

Age 20: Now married, she must work while her husband goes to college. She's still sensitive about being a family member, but tries hard to be "one of the gang." She'll do anything, help anyone, and wants experience in different departments.

Age 22: She blows up at a fellow employee deliberately goofing off. She has unconsciously made the decision that she's management at heart and begins to make creative suggestions.

Age 26: Her second child arrives, and she flatly states that a completely domestic life would not be interesting or challenging. She has now worked in several departments, does office hiring (and firing), and has taken over business accounting as well as general office management.

Age 28: She is expecting her third (and last) child. Now secretary-treasurer of the corporation, she sees it as her probable future.

What next? She knows how the business runs but not yet why. She needs experience in sales and marketing to round out the picture. Her father is about seven years from retirement and would like to stay in the picture as long as his daughter needs time with the children. No final commitment is needed at this point, but this daughter could take over in an emergency.

Can she hack it? Why not? After all, her father learned the business from his mother!

EDITOR-NOTE:

In our September issue, you may recall, we published a correction about a previous INC. column entitled "The Trouble with S Corporations," whose author, Douglas H. Forde, turned out to be a convicted felon serving a prison term for grand larceny. As chagrined as we were to discover Mr. Forde's current status and whereabouts, we were delighted by our readers' responses to our correction. Here are some of their comments. -- The Editors