Bob Follett on Succession

Summary: Bob Follett leads us through Follett Corporation’s leadership succession from the second generation to the third. This is a family business life-cycle moment when outside managers are often brought in, and governance structures are adapted to reflect the change. Bob offers insights into recognizing talent, doing what’s best for the firm, preserving a legacy, and taking a path other than direct lineage when appointing leaders.

Background: Bob’s father, Dwight Follett, the eldest son of Follett founder C.W. (Charles Walcott) Follett, retired from the roles of president of Follett in 1977 and chair in 1979. Significantly for the future of Follett Corporation, the board appointed Dick Litzsinger, husband of Dona Follett Litzsinger (granddaughter of C.W. Follett and daughter of Robert D. Follett, who started the Follett College Book Company in 1930), as president and CEO in 1977. The appointment capitalized on the skills Dick demonstrated as head of Follett's campus retail business and challenged the family-business succession norm of appointing the firstborn son. Bob accepted the role of chair of the board of Follett Corporation in 1977.

In 1983, Follett sold Follett Publishing Company–the unit Dwight ran following C.W.’s death in 1952 and Bob led starting in 1968. With Bob's support, the other family owners accepted the sale. As a privately held firm competing against publicly held companies, the sale raised the capital needed to compete in two key markets: campus bookstores and the software-based delivery of educational products and services. Bob and Dick managed Follett through periods of change in the educational publishing industry until Bob’s retirement in 1994 and Dick’s retirement in 1997.

Bob ends the interview by encouraging family business owners to make decisions that serve the long-term interest of the family, both in succession and in other strategic moves.

Finally, as the interviewer, I was intrigued by Bob's discernment in decision-making—how he responded to circumstances by choosing between viable paths in ways that supported both business and compassion. Discernment is an important leadership skill in family enterprises and other businesses and is central to our teaching at Loyola University Chicago Quinlan School of Business.

-Katherine Sredl

Reflection Questions

These questions are designed to guide you through the film so that you can integrate Bob's story into your academic learning and understanding of your family enterprise. Consider watching Bob’s video and discussing these questions not only in class but also with family members.

What were the internal and external strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that Follett faced during the transition from second to third generation? How did these factors affect the board's willingness to accept an outsider (i.e. brother-in-law) in a leadership role?  

How are governance, ownership, and management in your family enterprise structured to build on the strengths of immediate, in-law, and extended family members? How are the interests of the firm and the family represented in governance and management? How would you like governance, ownership, and management to shape succession in your family?

Based on what you have learned in class or your own experience, what do you think were the viable paths Bob faced regarding the potential sale of Follett Publishing Company? What are the challenges on each path? Consider legacy, finance, and control in your answer as well as benefits to family and firm.

Consider times when you or other family members used discernment in decision-making at the intersection of family enterprise and family well-being. If you are not in a family business, then please use a family business in the news as your example. What were the viable paths in that decision? What decision was made? How were conscience and compassion enacted in the decision? How can you evaluate choices in ways that integrate academic learning, personal experience, and compassion?

Jean Follett on Women in Family Councils

Britten Follett on Women and Successor Legitimacy

Britten Follett, CEO of Follett Content Solutions and 5th Generation Follett family member offers viewers the opportunity to learn how women successors establish legitimacy while maintaining legacy in family business. This video is of interest to women planning a career in their family's enterprise, women switching careers and business sectors to work for their family's enterprise, boards managing succession, and the wider family enterprise sector concerned with developing successful and resilient families and enterprises.

Britten brings to life a key takeaway from family enterprise education, research, and consulting: family sets family enterprise apart from other enterprises. Thank you, Britten, for generously sharing your commitment to family enterprise.

Katherine Sredl
Lead Scholar, Follett and Litzsinger Family Enterprise Learning at Loyola

Reflection Questions
Consider reading these Ignatian Pedagogy inspired reflection questions after viewing the video to make your family enterprise learning experience transformational.

• What, if any, assumptions, thoughts, or feelings did you have about young women taking leadership roles in family business?
• What do you think or feel about this issue after watching the video?
• What about the video might have caused this change?
• What one thing can you do after watching this video? Some ideas could be: start a conversation with my parents/daughter/board about the future, check out Loyola's Family Business Center programs, ask AI to summarize "women succession in family enterprise"