Legacy Is Earned, Not Inherited

Emmanuel Cerf, second-generation president and CEO of Polypack, is unequivocal on this point. If the next generation needs persuasion to join the business, he argues, succession is already compromised. Cerf believes working outside the family firm forces young leaders to confront different management styles and expectations, equipping them to return with ideas that challenge legacy thinking rather than reinforce it.

“If you have to convince them to do it, it will never work,” Cerf says. “They need to want it, and working elsewhere helps them decide.”

Berguig’s experience reinforces the point while adding nuance. He didn’t graduate with a predetermined plan to take over PAC Machinery. Instead, outside work and evolving opportunity gradually pulled him in.

“That organic entry made the commitment real,” Berguig says. “Not assumed.”

Edginton agrees but adds that credibility can also be earned internally, if next-generation leaders are willing to start at the bottom and accept criticism from non-family supervisors. Whether inside or outside the business, the common denominator is humility and accountability.

Navin took the idea even further. He left Spee-Dee for 15 years, built and scaled a healthcare information systems company to 500 remote employees, and only returned when the timing and interest aligned.

“We’ve told our kids they should work somewhere else for five years before joining the family business,” Navin says.

Bryan emphasizes that building bench strength before leadership transitions is critical and that outside experience remains one of the most reliable ways to do so without entitlement.

Modernize without erasing the foundation.

Communication sits at the heart of any successful transition, but working with relatives often introduces unspoken bias. How successors communicate with the prior generation frequently determines whether change becomes collaborative or contentious.

“I stopped bringing problems,” Berguig recalls of working alongside his father. “I started bringing plans.”

Hamrick describes a similar balance. 

Takeaway: Modernization includes organizational design, not just machines or software.

“He’s been through things I haven’t,” Hamrick says of his father. “[The company] combines that experience with my fresh perspective and has found a new path to success.”

Generational tension around modernization is unavoidable but often productive. Hamrick admits that modernization at Hamrick Packaging often lagged vision, not because of disagreement, but because legacy systems and risk tolerance take time to evolve.

“Some ideas took a decade,” he says. “But the patience to get them right preserved trust while still moving the company forward.”

At PAC Machinery, Berguig describes modernization not as disruption, but translation. Whether upgrading IT systems, CRM platforms, or workflows, progress accelerated when evolution was framed as continuity rather than correction.

Navin adds a crucial nuance: modernization isn’t only technological.

“It’s not about being stuck in a role just because of your last name,” he says. “You have to do something you enjoy and then put the right people around you.”

At Spee-Dee, that meant restructuring leadership roles and elevating a non-family COO to oversee day-to-day operations.

Bryan’s succession frameworks consistently emphasize defining roles and decision rights early, before modernization efforts test relationships.

Culture can’t be bought.

All five presidents accept that consolidation and private equity aren’t going away. But as consolidation accelerates, they believe family-owned OEMs increasingly differentiate themselves through culture.

“Give people consistency,” says Edginton. “Give them a great place to work.”

Takeaway: Culture must be explicit, enforced, and protected, especially during change. 

Berguig adds that culture erodes fastest when family conflict becomes public. He emphasizes handling disagreement privately and presenting a united front to employees, noting that professionalism, not bloodlines, sustains trust.

For Cerf, culture is inseparable from independence. He argues that family-owned OEMs retain the freedom to make customer-first decisions that large corporate groups simply cannot justify. Whether it’s reinvesting time, absorbing short-term cost, or adapting machines on the fly, Cerf believes these choices reinforce pride, not just profitability, across generations. “If we were owned tomorrow,” he notes, “the [next generation] wouldn’t feel the same ownership or pride. It wouldn’t be theirs anymore.”

At Spee-Dee, Navin believes culture only scales when supported by structure. The company formalized core values, built an outside board, and clarified ownership roles to reduce friction as it grew.

“We hire and fire based on [core values],” Navin says. “If people don’t believe what we believe, they shouldn’t be here.”

Bryan warns that culture is often the first casualty of poorly planned transitions, and once lost, it cannot be repurchased through capital or scale.

Legacy is earned, not inherited.

From PAC Machinery to Spee-Dee, these leaders demonstrate that family-owned OEMs don’t survive by resisting change—but by managing it intentionally.

Hamrick’s first succession was reactive, driven by loss and urgency rather than design. Navin’s was deliberate, structured, and supported by governance. Both agree on one point: waiting too long makes succession harder than it needs to be.

“You need to plan, communicate, and identify key people early,” Hamrick says. Navin adds that documented tribal knowledge and financial planning often determine whether a business survives transition or loses control to circumstance.

In modern manufacturing, legacy is not automatically handed down.
It is re-earned, generation after generation, through humility and deliberate leadership