Lehman's Country Life

(part two of two parts)

At Lehman’s, we’re proud of our family heritage. We’re proud of the work that my father, Jay, with over 50 years on the job and still contributing, did to help Lehman’s succeed. It makes my day when a customer tells me we’ve done a good job, because each of us has poured our heart into doing the right thing.

At the same time, it absolutely tears me up when I know we’ve let a customer down. I know we’re not perfect. So, please let me know if Lehman’s has let you down. (Call 888-438-5346 and ask for me, Galen, or send an email to info@lehmans.com) I want to fix it.

I want to believe that it’s rare for Lehman’s to let you down. But, why is it that some family businesses seem to consistently fail you? What is going on in behind closed doors that makes them such a bad place to shop?

To find out, I’ve been asking my Facebook Friends and Twitter Followers what they think.

Sam Chapman of http://www.woodcrafterslog.blogspot.com/ Tweeted, “I’ve been an outsider in a very nepotistic and crazy one which would make me wary of working in one again.”

Another Facebook Friend wrote, “I’m SURE it depends on who’s running the family business..I know of a situation where some members were shown ‘favoritism’ over others thereby resulting in harsh feelings toward each other and creating a negative working atmosphere.”

Emotions can run high in a family business. It’s amazing how differently two people can view their treatment in any family situation. When there’s a lot at stake (inheritance, power, authority, wealth, etc), it can really get ugly.

One thing I know: When somebody is filled with bitterness, anger, hurt or (Heaven forbid) even hate, there’s no way they can take good care of customers. I tend to believe, therefore, that when a company doesn’t give good service it means there is a lot of unhappiness present. It may be buried deeply under the surface where you can’t really see it. Or, it may be pushing its ugly head up into the open. But either way, I’m sure it’s there when people seem incapable of giving good service.

At Lehman’s, we are working our way through the thicket of family emotions two ways.

First, Dad worked at the generational transition from a pretty early age. Unlike many family business founders, he refused to believe that he might be immortal and started planning for his death soon after he turned 50.

Thankfully, he actually does appear to be close to immortal. He started the process of transition almost 30 years and and is still strong physically and sharp mentally. He shows no signs of slowing down yet!

Our family’s nickname for him used to be “The Iron Man.” At 73, he was cutting firewood in the woods and suffered a nasty broken leg. The doctors put an 8” long stainless steel pin in his leg. So, we officially changed his nickname to, “The Man of Steel.”

His decision to start planning for succession even before he graduated from mere “Iron Man” status to super-human “Man of Steel” status, meant he has been there to talk us through the process. This helped to smooth out the succession process because we could discuss his plans.

The second thing we did was appoint a legal six member board that includes three non-family directors. These trusted and experienced advisers guide us through every major decision. The non-family board members have total control over the pay of family members, handling for us what could otherwise be a divisive issue. They even have the legal right to fire me if they don’t think I’m carrying my weight.

My friend Larry Sheets, who I’ve spent hours talking with about values, ideas and principles, wrote a Facebook post that said, “I suppose it depends on the family. I think Lehman’s is great. You seem to get along.”

It’s true, we do get along. At the bottom of our every disagreement is a simple and unshakable fact.

We love each other.

We’ve laughed, cried and hugged our way through a lifetime of joys, sorrows, successes and suffering.

In the end, I suppose that’s what makes family businesses work. It’s about the love!

Galen Lehman, President, Lehman’s


Click here to join
me on Facebook!

PS – To see last week’s blog posting about what makes a family business worthwhile, click here.

(part one of two posts)

For years, we’ve been advertising how Lehman’s was family-owned. We boast about how my father, Jay (at age 80) still comes to work every day. Of course, Dad readily admits to only working about three hours a day. We like to joke that this is one of the privileges that comes with 50 years of seniority!

Why do we advertise our family ownership? One of my Facebook Friends said it best.

“I always prefer a family business to a chain.  Typically they provide better service and better knowledge of their products.” (http://www.facebook.com/jane.g.lehman)

OK, I admit that Jane is a Lehman. Possibly the fact that she’s my cousin makes her a little biased. But that doesn’t change what we believe is true: We think that the folks who work in a family business take better care of their customers. We would like to think that family businesses are more stable, longer lasting and more flexible.

However, I realized in a panic last week that some people might not agree with that.
Read the rest of this post »

It’s happened to all of us. You unwrap a gift from a loved one and it’s about as far off the mark as it could be. (Hopefully this has never happened when it was a gift purchased at Lehman’s!)

How can you thank someone for a gift you didn’t want and don’t like? You don’t have the emotion required to give your words meaning, and you can’t fake it with a loved one.

Now imagine the other extreme. Your doorbell rings late at night and it’s a stranger returning your 16-year-old safely home after what could have been a deadly car accident.

Take it a step further and imagine that this Good Samaritan pulled your child from a burning car. How can you thank them enough? The emotions are so huge, so powerful
Read the rest of this post »

Recently, MMA (a banking services and insurance provider associated with the Mennonite church) asked me to speak with some of their investors about how to read the economy. If you follow my Facebook or Twitter accounts, you already know I’m an amateur economist. Apparently, someone at MMA wondered where I was getting my ideas and decided to call me in to see if I knew what I was talking about. Do I know? Here’s what I told them. You can judge for yourself.

I believe there are two broad forces driving our economy, manufacturing and consumer demand. Let’s talk about how to measure what is happening in manufacturing, first.

A key measure of manufacturing strength is “Capacity Utilization.” It measures how much of our manufacturing capacity is actively being used. It normally falls in the range of 80% to 85%. It’s currently at 67.5%

Manufacturing? It’s as bad as it’s ever been since the 1960’s. Take a close look at the raw data on the Federal Reserve website. It’s too early to tell, but
Read the rest of this post »

This week, with all the ballyhoo about a “jobless recovery,” I’ve been soaking up news about the economy.

One of the things I’ve been hearing a lot about is rising oil prices. The fact that oil prices are rising in the face of weak demand and a surplus of supply looks like a mystery. Supply and demand is like gravity. You can’t fight it indefinitely. When supply is up and demand is down, economist tell us prices always, always must fall.

But oil prices aren’t falling.

Grandpa was an logger back in the day when everyone used horses and crosscut saws,
Read the rest of this post »

This week, I was fascinated by the NY Times story by David Rohde, a reporter who was held prisoner in Afghanistan for over seven months.

The story is a interesting in its own right. But, for those of us who have friends and family risking their lives over there today, it strikes especially close to home.

David was on his way to an interview with a rebel leader when his car was surrounded by armed gunmen…emotionless, dark-eyed men who clearly intended to kill him. The story is starkly frightening.

But, the one thing that stuck with me most from the whole six part series is what he said next.

Read the rest of this post »

This morning I took this photo with my cell phone on the road between Mt. Hope and our store in Kidron. I’m loving life in NE Ohio right now! Bright blue skies, brilliant fall leaves just reaching their peak, farmers in the fields laying up their corn shocks. Life is good!

Galen Lehman, President, Lehman’s


Click here to join
me on Facebook!

Most of the risks I’ve taken have ended in failure. Three broken bones, a handful of ugly scars and a trail of wrecked cars are testimony to the physical risks. Some of my failures didn’t leave physical scars, but I sure remember them well. For example, I bought several “sure thing” stocks. Turns out the only sure thing I know about investing in the stock market is that I generally sell stocks for less than I paid.

That said, as I think back over my life I’m realizing that the successes I have had all came from taking a risk. For example, I took a chance by getting married at a very young age, and found a life partner I’ve been able to rely on as a source of happiness and comfort. At work, I took a chance on buying an abandoned warehouse six miles from our store in Kidron, and secured impossibly cheap space for almost unlimited future growth.

So, while taking risks may lead to painful failure, it seems like a fact that taking chances is the only path to success.

I’ve spent my whole working life at Lehman’s, so my work is one place where I can especially see the effects of risk taking. Lehman’s wouldn’t even exist if my Dad hadn’t
Read the rest of this post »

Want to learn what one of our local friends is saying about Lehman’s? Check out the Garden Gate Get-A-Way blog posting. Thinking of visiting? You can stay at the Garden Gate. Now is a great time to visit. Fall leaves are reaching their peak!

Galen Lehman, President, Lehman’s


Click here to join
me on Facebook!

We all say that we hate the legal bureaucracy that enmeshes us. That bureaucracy often prevents us doing what we think is important, ethical and correct. This explains why lawyer jokes are so common and so universally understood. But, we all recognize the importance of having a lawyer you can trust.

I’m not very good at memorizing phone numbers. I know my work, home and cell phone numbers. I know my wife’s cell phone number. I also have one other number memorized; that of my lawyer.

This weeks agenda at my peer support group of company executives called for a discussion of how to choose and best use an attorney. The group is run by the local chapter of MEDA. This small group gathering is a source of strength, encouragement and wisdom for me. I look forward to every meeting. This month,
Read the rest of this post »