At the October 2023 IBO show Billboard Insider’s Dave Westburg moderated a Founders Journey Panel.  The panel included out of home execs from a small company (Charley McIntyre – Bullfrog Outdoor), a medium sized company (Steve Richards – Pacific Outdoor/Mile Hi Outdoor) and two larger companies (Bill Lodzinski – West Virginia Outdoor and John Siegenthaler – Lind Media Outdoor).   Here’s what they said when asked about succession planning.

What succession planning does your company have in place?

Charley McIntyre: I lost my wife, unfortunately, three years ago and up until last week my oldest wasn’t interested in the company.  Nobody wants to talk about this but sometimes you have to be an adult and so you have to make these decisions.  I talked to Dave Westburg about it and and I sent a letter with Dave and my accountant and my attorney saying that in the event of my death Dave would run my company for a fee for five or six months until sale. Now with my son coming on board hopefully that will abate.

Bill Lodzinski: We don’t have a formalized succession program but it is on the top of mind when it comes to our owners and workers directors.  I’m getting ready to touch sixty in a couple of months so that gives you an idea that you know we’re always facing near death experiences.  We have a third generation descendants that are employed by our company they’re young and what we’re doing is we’re trying to mentor these youngsters to see if they have the attitude and the aptitude to move the company forward.  Some of our shareholders know that they need to draw from the outside.  That’s how I came on board, so there is a little bit of a loose plan and I think it’s the right move because again we’re we’re all aging.

Steve Richards :  We have young managers in our two markets that are ambitious and we’re putting a lot of money behind training them and making sure that they carry the torch.

John Siegenthaler:   We have two children that are in college and I don’t anticipate them being interested.   People say that Gen z and millennials are unmotivated but I don’t see that.  My wife Maura is an amazing leader of the company and I think we’re in very good hands if anything happens because we have a lot of fast learners and really dedicated folks.

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