Heritage Roundtable Insights

Kalman Gordon: I’m third generation in our business. My son has been with the business for about 12 years after he had been away at an accounting firm and with a paper company. He came back, and it has been great. We also have two nephews from the fourth generation. And now we have the fifth generation working with us. I think it’s a great thing, and I hope we can continue that way. My little grandson who is 10 says he wants to come into the business. But the old saying goes the first generation originates, the second generation operates and the third generation liquidates.

Harry Kletter: It’s subject to the person having the ability and desire to want to be in the business. I do not think you can grow in the new era we’re in—sometimes the family model is not going to work in the environment we’re in, even with good kids who are good fighters. You’ve got to build staff beyond family ties. And family situations are the downfall of a lot of businesses.

Yale Dorfman: I have three sons; one of them chose not to go with us, and two of them are with me. And they’ve taken it up pretty well—they’re way ahead of me and they’re involved with all the young people coming into the business [and] do business with that generation.

Stanley Kramer: The scrap industry in my entire life has always been more of a family business. That’s all changing—corporations are coming in and taking it over. But there is still a strong family trend in this industry. Our sons were born into their businesses, they have come into our scrap yards ever since they were little boys and they have learned and watched how their fathers operate. And your children become professionals. They attend college and they learn things that we never knew.