These MHI Member Companies Share What Makes Their Generation-Spanning Business Operations Successful —
By Brian Reaves, MHI Executive Vice President —
Days before MHI was prepping to throw open the North and South Halls at McCormick Place in Chicago at ProMat 2017 this past spring, a Board of Governors’ member casually noted that multiple exhibitors—and indeed several MHI member companies—would be represented at ProMat by one or more generations of the same family.
Because we don’t document or track our members’ familial-business relationships, we asked around. To our surprise, we’ve discovered roughly a dozen such companies among our membership ranks, and suspect there may even be more (see sidebar on page 28).
Four companies—Flexcon Container, Hamilton Caster & Manufacturing Co., Southworth International Group and UNEX Manufacturing—graciously agreed to take a few minutes at the show to herd their respective family members together and pose for a quick portrait within their exhibits. Each also shared insights into what makes their generation-spanning business operations continually successful.