BOOSTING YOUR BUSINESS
7
Ways To Boost A Family Business At Rocket Speed
“ Customer behavior constantly shifts from one generation to the next. An inability to adapt to customer needs can quickly make older businesses irrelevant.”
The average family business only lasts sixty years. More often, younger generations aren’ t interested in, or capable of, maintaining the business, let alone growing it exponentially. Patrick Devlyn Jr. is the rare exception. A thirdgeneration Devlyn, Patrick took over the operation of his family’ s optical business when it was 350-stores strong. Most other inheritors would have simply cruised along, reaping profits and not risking the status quo.
But Patrick, a member of YPO since 2007, wasn’ t satisfied with good enough. He wanted Grupo Devlyn to be the biggest and the best. Thanks to his vision and the teamwork of other third-generation Devlyns, the company( which just celebrated its eightieth anniversary) now has 1,250 stores throughout Mexico, Latin America( Guatemala and El Salvador), and the United States( Southern California and Texas).
Devlyn has expanded creatively, gaining a presence in LASIK clinics, department stores, and supercenters. The company now focuses beyond prescription optical services and carries designer sunglasses and even hearing aids. Patrick has a clear philosophy about how to take something good and turn it into something great. Here are the major takeaways from his family’ s journey:
1. KEEP CORE VALUES ALIVE AND RELEVANT. With thousands of employees, the company requires a consistent approach. Core values are at the heart of Devlyn’ s culture and decision making.
We usually review our core values every three to five years. What we try to do is to focus on what our founders’ values were and how they expressed them and acted on them. Then we try to‘ translate’ them in a way that is more up-to-date and current with today’ s lingo so that our family and team can readily identify themselves with these values, and adopt them as a reference for our daily activities and intentions behind those actions.
2. VALUE YOUR EXTENDED FAMILY. Patrick knows that he and the Devlyn clan can’ t do it all. He makes sure the company provides a comfortable and energizing environment for everyone in the Devlyn extended family, including each and every one of their more than five thousand employees.
They are the ones that, day-to-day, help us make the difference with our valued customers.
3. DON’ T DEPEND ON THE PAST. It would be easy to look backwards and admire what the Devlyn family has accomplished. Participation of the Devlyn family in the optical business began in 1936 in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, when Dr. Frank Devlyn and his wife, Nelva Mortensen, started the business. But this new generation is looking forward. Patrick’ s team is constantly looking for new ways to innovate, whether by executing a strategic alliance with his main competitor( and growing more than 30 percent as a result), implementing SAP and the Omni Channel strategy throughout the organization, or opening the largest optical lab and DC in Latin America.
4. MAKE IT ABOUT THE CUSTOMER. Customer behavior constantly shifts from one generation to the next. An inability to adapt to customer needs
14 | SPRING 2017