Winning three Pulitzer Prizes in the '90s gave us a way to not only engage the family, but to thank them for their values and their support. Acquiring newspapers in Yakima, Washington and Maine provided us an opportunity to create significant on-going family celebration. This is a hallmark of any successful family businesses. Lots of it. These are essential if you are going to have trust and build confidence.
Stewardship is a strong element in all family businesses that endure.
But, Blethen said, the degree to which a business, and its leaders, understand and embrace Stewardship is a very wide continuum. In that context, we focus on the contrast between Stewardship vs. Ownership. We constantly remind each other, and our next generation, that we inherited a Stewardship - we did not inherit an Ownership. Our responsibility is to maintain and enhance that Stewardship for future generations of Blethens and of the communities we serve. The family is entitled to some financial return, but the business itself is not ours to discontinue, sell or dispose of.