Family businesses grow out of trust, loyalty, and a shared sense of purpose. But as they become more successful, the practices that worked in the early days, like informal communication or decisions influenced by family dynamics, can start to hold the company back. Scaling doesn’t mean giving up your roots. It means building the structure to support what’s already working, and making room for new people, new ideas, and new ways of operating.
Successful family-owned companies like Kohler, Enterprise Holdings, and Boston’s own Piantedosi Baking Company have done exactly that. Their approach to growth shows what it looks like to scale with intention, and how to adapt when the old way of doing things isn’t enough.
Earning Your Spot in the Business
Kohler Co., founded in 1873 by John Michael Kohler, is best known for its plumbing products. At Kohler, family members don’t automatically step into leadership roles. As the company expanded into a global brand, they created a policy requiring relatives to work outside the business before applying for executive positions. That way, when a family member comes into the company, it’s because they bring real skills and fresh perspective, not just a last name. It’s a structure that helps prevent resentment among non-family employees and encourages excellence at the top.
This kind of shift can be hard for smaller family businesses at first. But once roles are clearly defined and hiring is based on qualifications instead of tradition, trust grows both inside the company and outside of it. When everyone earns their place, it’s easier to work together and build something that lasts.
Putting Core Values into Practice
Enterprise Holdings, best known for Enterprise Rent-A-Car, began as the vision of Jack C. Taylor, a Navy veteran from St. Louis. Drawing on the values of discipline, service, and leadership that he learned while serving aboard the USS Enterprise, he invested his life savings into a new business and named it after the ship that had shaped his approach. He built the company on a simple philosophy: take care of your customers and your employees, and profits will follow. As the company scaled, they didn’t just hope those values would stick, they built them into how the business operates. New employees are trained in those principles. Leaders are promoted based on how well they live them. Even the CEO, Chrissy Taylor, granddaughter of the founder, went through the same training program as everyone else.
It’s a good reminder that values don’t speak for themselves. If you want your culture to survive growth, you have to write it down, talk about it often, and build it into your processes. Otherwise, as new people join the team, what used to be second nature can quickly get lost.
Adapting While Honoring the Past
Piantedosi Baking Company has been a fixture in New England since 1916. Now in its fourth generation of leadership, Piantedosi Baking Company has grown from a small retail bakery to a large-scale commercial operation serving foodservice customers nationwide. The company has embraced innovation while honoring its roots, investing in state-of-the-art baking technology and expanding its product offerings, all without losing sight of the values established by the founding generation. Through steady leadership and a strong commitment to quality and tradition, the Piantedosi family has managed to grow with the times while maintaining the close-knit culture that defines their business.
Every growing family business faces this moment, where honoring the past meets the need to change. Being willing to listen, share ideas, and check assumptions on both sides helps keep innovation and tradition from becoming opposing forces.
Knowing When to Add Structure
What Kohler, Enterprise, and Piantedosi have in common is that they didn’t wait for things to fall apart before putting structure in place. They built it as they grew and that’s the key difference. Formal policies and systems aren’t a sign that you’re “going corporate”, they’re tools that protect what makes a family business special as it scales.
That might mean developing clear HR policies around hiring, firing, benefits, and paid time off. Or creating a compensation structure that’s based on roles, performance, and market data so every employee, family or not, knows what to expect. It also means setting up consistent ways for people to give feedback, share concerns, and feel heard.
Many family businesses also reach a point where it makes sense to bring in outside help. Whether that’s an external advisor to support succession planning or an outsourced payroll partner to improve efficiency and ensure they’re adhering to compliance regulations, it’s also about freeing up your internal team to focus on the big picture. These kinds of decisions don’t signal a shift away from your values. They make it possible to protect them for the long run.
Why Family Businesses Trust Commonwealth Payroll & HR
You don’t have to trade your identity to grow your business. But you do need the right tools and support to help you scale without losing what makes you unique. At Commonwealth Payroll & HR, we work with family businesses of all sizes. If your business is growing and you’re thinking about how to build the right structure for what comes next, we’d be happy to talk about how we can help.
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