Seeing opportunity in building homes on Long Island, Michael Dubb founded the Beechwood Organization, a residential development firm based in Jericho, in 1985. The company grew steadily for decades, but after encountering challenges brought about by the financial crisis, Dubb decided he would ask his son, Steven, previously of Credit Suisse, to join him at Beechwood to help grow the company.
His son brought fresh ideas and influenced the company to widen its scope. “Since Steven joined Beechwood in 2008, he’s been a contributing force to the company’s expansion from residential home builder to diversified real estate developer,” Michael Dubb explains. “We’ve grown through his talents for overseeing new projects, creating new revenue streams and entering new geographic markets.”
Like social relationships, business relationships depend on the character of the individuals involved, and family succession helps to maintain the dynamic between a legacy business and its customers through generations. “I hear people say, ‘Steven is so much like you—he has humility in his interactions and a strong work ethic,’” says Michael Dubb of his son, Steven. “The next generation of ownership must also work harder than the previous generation. Hard work earns people’s respect.”
Succession is particularly important for real estate companies, Dubb says, in order to account for the lives of developments, which extend beyond our own lifetimes. “When we build, it’s important that the planning for it takes into account its use and impact on future generations,” he says. “We look at the impact of what we build not just for first occupancy, but where it will be 15, 20, or 30 years down the road—when the responsibility for it will be in the hands of the successive generation.”
In addition to the benefit of earning clients’ trust, legacy family businesses often excel at retaining employees, who are likely to see well-established companies as better options for long-term employment. “People don’t want to change companies if they’re happy with where they are and what they are doing,” Dubb says, “so while employees see the founder of their company getting older, they also know there is stability as the next generation will be taking over.”