Our Story
My great-grandfather, Alexander Sanguigni, migrated from Pisa, Italy to Pittsburgh when he was just 9 years old, arriving in a new country with his family and little more than the clothes on his back. Though he didn’t know it at the time, he would eventually end up at the heart of a true, 19th century “rags to riches” immigrant success story.
Alexander’s father, my great-great-grandfather, was a baker who decided to start an Italian bread and macaroni trade. Over time, the business prospered and employed several members of the family, including Alexander, who drove truck.
Less than a decade later, after marrying a fellow Italian immigrant named Anna, as well as being blessed with 4 sons and 5 daughters, Alexander bought a used delivery truck. Little did he know this would be the first step in the creation of a very successful family trucking and excavation business: A. Sanguigni Sons Company.
The company flourished under Alexander’s direction, growing into one of the largest excavation companies in western Pennsylvania. Thanks to his contributions to community and sporting events, a field named in his honor still exists today in Pittsburgh.
The successful transition from the 1st to the 2nd generation
The family business thrived even through the Great Depression until it was hit with an unexpected twist – Alexander passed away unexpectedly at the age of fifty-nine, leaving everything he owned (including his business) to his wife Anna. Suddenly, she was left on her own to figure out what to do, and to do so fast, before the company value diminished significantly.
To keep things fair to her 9 children, she allowed each of them to submit a sealed bid to buy the company.
Camil, the second oldest son, submitted a successful bid to buy the family business and had the right skills to take over. And thankfully, Camil proved to be an outstanding successor to his father, and the company continued flourishing.
A. Sanguigni Sons Company excavation site
A failed transition to 3rd generation…
But then Camil passed away unexpectedly at the age of 56.
Unlike his father, Camil didn’t leave the business to his wife. Instead, he left the business to his two sons to decide how to proceed, both of whom quickly realized that they could not work together after their father’s passing.
So, one of them left the company and the remaining brother tried to buy him out. But when they couldn’t agree on a price, the remaining brother sold the assets and closed the company down.
And in what seems like the blink of an eye, the family business of A. Sanguini Sons Company was suddenly over.
How does one of the most successful excavating companies in Pittsburgh fail to continue when passed to the next generation?
Could Camil have anticipated and addressed the possibility of sibling rivalries? Or better trained and educated his sons to run the business?
Or even divided the business into separate companies for each son to run?
Perhaps more importantly, could the failure of the Sanguigni business have been prevented with a better plan for the succession of the company?
A surprisingly common story
Although the company had already ceased to exist during my youth, I grew up regularly hearing family members lament the loss of the company. And needless to say, it left an impression on me.
But unfortunately, the fate of the Sanguigni family business is just one example of the all-too-common American succession story that has been repeated for generations.
In fact, 70% of all businesses fail in the transition from the 1st generation to the 2nd generation owners, 85% to the 3rd generation, and 95% to the 4th generation.
In my 30 year career as an entrepreneur, consultant, attorney and CPA (inactive) who represented hundreds of closely-held businesses, I saw this statistic play out again and again.
I could put together the most flawless, perfectly-executed shareholder agreements, stock options, retirement packages, golden parachutes, employment agreements, by-laws and estate planning documents out there, and I’d still see companies fail because
of family discord or simply not knowing how to get things on to the next generation. I even ran into succession issues because of problems with the CEO and shareholders while planning exits for 2 companies of my own.
In other words, it seemed like succession issues were everywhere!
And this is where I realized a critical aspect that most succession planning seemed to miss – working through succession wasn’t solely a tax issue, a legal issue, or a family issue...getting it right meant using a multidisciplinary approach that took all these factors into account.
And so, I pulled together my 30 years of experience in the field of succession planning to create a multifaceted, 6-stage process that considers legal, financial, and familial factors. I call it The Succession Solution.
I’ve directly led 100+ clients ‒ from majority owners & CEOs, to minority owners, to in-laws of minority owners, to disgruntled next-generation family members and more ‒ through The Succession Solution with remarkable results.