Mitzi Perdue: Strengthening Your Family Legacy
If I could highlight one word to describe Mitzi Perdue it would be authentic. Warm, graceful and genuine, her achievements during her life and career are impressive. Wife of Frank Perdue (Perdue Farms) and daughter of business titan Ernest Henderson (co-founder of Sheraton Hotel chain) Mitzi is a powerful businesswoman in her own right. She is a visionary entrepreneur with interests and talents that are as varied as they are interesting – computer programmer, software developer, television and radio show host, author, egg decorator (yes!) and wine grape supplier to name just a few.
But her passion lies at the very heart of her large business empire(s)—a core value of FAMILY.
Combining the Sheraton and Perdue empires longevity, Mitzi’s leadership propagates the legacy of 224 years of families in business staying together. Her mission is to keep it thriving for generations to come. Her experiences and insights into highly successful businesses’ cultures empower her as an expert in helping business families break the “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations” cycle.
“When a family business has a strong culture,” her late husband Frank Perdue used to say, “family members are willing to work hard for something higher and more important than just ego or money: the family.”
ETHICAL WILLS AND OTHER TOOLS
Over the years Mitzi has developed many tools and traditions to help guide her family’s ongoing business and family successes. A master storyteller, she continuously preserves her families’ stories, histories and values for the benefit of the next generations of family business successors.
Her strategies are a thoughtful and creative combination of education: all family members – no matter how young – must learn about the family business. Using ethical wills to impart the wisdom and lessons learned from elders and from those who came before actively shape the values of new generations. She believes ethical wills can play a role in helping the young family members to grow up to have happy, productive lives of meaning.
Being the inspirational “shoemaker with her own shoes”, naturally Mitzi has written ethical wills she has gifted to her family. She has written one for her children and one separately for her grandchildren, to share her finest wisdom with the intended reader.
Mitzi has also created a road map to embed a positive business culture within business families in her book “How to Communicate Values to Children so They’ll Love it”. Ever mindful of passing on core family values, proposed activities in the book – such as the Magician’s Kit– create monthly opportunities for children and parents to bond and learn.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Creating family cohesiveness throughout the generations is what Mitzi is all about. Her tips on growing a family firm offer a wealth of practical and actionable knowledge from which family business owners (and everyone!) can benefit.
The essential lesson here is that Mitzi Perdue is not leaving the future to chance. With purpose and intention she is guiding her family and other family businesses towards success and happiness with the help of Ethical Wills. As Mitzi says, “Want Those Who Come After You to Be Happy? Write an Ethical Will! Lack of values can make children vulnerable to destructive behaviors, can turn heirs into playboys and can accelerate the arc of “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations.”
With the countless family businesses that have collaborated with Memoirs to record their Legacy of Values™ and the experience and insights that I have been blessed to receive – I couldn’t have said it better.
