Shipley: Employees must be the focus of a family business

story by Aric Mitchell
[email protected]

“It’s not a job; it’s your life.”

That was the message Ben Shipley delivered Wednesday morning (Sept. 22) to attendees of the fall quarterly breakfast of the Family Enterprise Center (FEC) at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith.

The FEC is a support group for family-owned businesses in the River Valley area, and it’s a group whose numbers have been trickling upward since inception. FEC Director Dave Robertson mused at the Wednesday meeting that if numbers continue to increase, “We’re going to need a bigger meeting room.”

Shipley, a Fort Smith attorney, knows something about family businesses. As one-time executive vice president of sales and administration for the Shipley Baking Company, Shipley was third generation to a business that planted roots in Fort Smith in 1921.

The seed for Shipley Baking Company began to grow in 1906 when brothers Harry Shipley Sr., and Garvin Shipley went to work for Thomas Edmonson, a German immigrant, who owned his own baking company. The building was divided into a production area and a retail store, allowing the Shipley Brothers to learn every aspect of the baking industry.

In 1917, they became partners with Edmonson, who refused to sell the business, which led to Harry and Garvin establishing their own company just four years later. Harry Shipley Jr., would join the business in 1946 following World War II — a war during which Harry Shipley Jr., earned a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.

“That experience gave my dad the courage to venture out, do the things, and take the risks you have to in business to be successful,” said Ben Shipley. His father was in attendance at Wednesday’s meeting.

During the presentation, Shipley emphasized the history of the Shipley Baking Co., showing archival photos of the various plants in Fort Smith, Muskogee, Fayetteville, and McAlester through the years, as well as delivery trucks the company owned. In 1998, Flowers Foods purchased the Shipley Baking Company from the family.

The remainder of Shipley’s address focused on three keys to success of a family business: community involvement, customer focus were emphasized and employee appreciation.

“This may sound trite,” Shipley said, “but from my perspective, employees are your company. There’s hardly a week that goes by that my dad doesn’t run in to someone who says, ‘Hey, that (Shipley Baking Co.) was the best place I ever worked.’”

To illustrate his point, Shipley shared a story about how the day before addressing the FEC he received a phone call from a former employee wanting to organize a reunion.

“You may not realize it, but your employees become part of your extended family. They are an extension of who you are, who the company is. They can make or break you.”

Shipley credits his father for teaching him this rule: “My dad learned a lot in World War II officer training, but the most important thing he learned is that you put your people first, and you listen to what they have to say. Many people worked their entire career for the bakery. Joe Coleman worked for us for 50 years, eventually becoming the general sales manager. Barbara Oswald started as a secretary with the company and finished after 45 years as the human resources manager. And those are just two of many.”

Building loyalty, noted Shipley, starts with helping your employees realize they are becoming an integral part of something bigger than themselves. It also requires a good role model, who gives employees, “the chance to grow, to stretch, and to make mistakes.”

As for the “good role model,” Shipley pointed to his father.

“My dad was in the business for 45 years, and he was still out there pulling bread, looking at route books, and talking to the employees,” Shipley said. “Absentee ownership doesn’t work.”

The next quarterly breakfast meeting of the FEC will be held Dec. 14. “Conflict Resolution” is the topic.

For more information about FEC, contact Robertson at 788-7931 or [email protected]