Each member of the Oland family’s fifth and sixth generations has brought value to the family’s succession-planning process, even the ones who don’t directly work in the 143-year-old brewing business

Considering that the Oland brewing family is currently in its sixth generation, you might think that Derek Oland, the 71-year-old scion of the fifth generation, would have no interest in succession planning. After all, the Olands, who own Moosehead Breweries, have far exceeded the longevity of most family-owned-and-operated businesses. Typically, they tend to fall apart in the third generation, often victims of infighting or indifference. 

But the Olands, whose incorporation documents for John Oland and Son date from Oct. 1, 1867, when Canada was only 90 days old, have successfully kept their family business going for generations before “succession planning” became a hot topic. However, the current generation has not only taken up the concept of organized and disciplined succession planning but is also willing to share what it has learned. (The original company was split following the 1917 Halifax Explosion when Derek’s branch of the family moved to Saint John. The Halifax Olands sold to Labatt, now AB INBEV, in 1971.)

Recently, the fifth and sixth generations of Olands gathered at Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Management to talk about their succession-planning efforts. The event was organized by its new Centre for Family Business and Regional Prosperity. Members of the media were barred so the participants could speak frankly. “It was great to share the stage with my family,” says youngest son Giles David Oland, 34. “We’ve got a lot to be proud of—not just our business, but our family.”

Meet the parents

In fact, for one member of the family, some of the formal aspects of succession planning—academic workshops and earnest discussions—should be taken with a grain of salt. “It’s just the buzz thing right now,” says Jacqueline. “We’ve seen some unfortunate examples in Canada, but if you have a family business, it’s part of your mandate, your responsibilities.”

It helps that Jacqueline is a strong personality. In the 1960s she was a veterinarian on her way to New Zealand when she took a temporary job in Saint John, where she met Derek. She says he was impressed that, with her British pub-culture background, she could drink more than one beer. She was impressed when Derek offered to take her somewhere for a beer after hours, back when “there were just two bars where you could take women in Saint John.” They went to the brewery.

Derek has referred to Jacqueline as his “anchor” during the tough times with his brother (presumably she represented the New Zealand option), and since then she has been a vital force in achieving the work-life balance that makes succession planning easier. “We had a pretty solid philosophy that business is important,” she says, “but family is more important.” She gave up her career as a vet to make sure Derek didn’t work too hard “for his own health and the health of the family,” that he was around for the boys’ special days and that they took regular family vacations.

Jacqueline’s proudest accomplishment is that “we’ve raised four good kids who respect each other and the people who work in their companies. They are free of any sense of elitism.” Other than that, she insists, “I’m on the periphery. My strongest connection with the business, other than enjoying the beer, is requesting donations from Moosehead in support of my many fundraising projects,” she says. Over the years, the Olands have supported many charitable projects, most recently helping to organize a multimillion-dollar campaign to update Saint John’s Imperial Theatre.

“You’ve got to work on succession early and often,” says Derek Michael Frink Oland, the executive chair of Moosehead Breweries. “Not just because it helps avoid family rifts but also because not doing it can damage shareholder value.” Derek witnessed that firsthand growing up as he watched his father, Philip Warburton (P.W.) Oland, part of the fourth generation, struggle with the complex situation his own father’s will had left behind.

The forebears

P. W. was the second of the four sons of George Bauld Oland, of the third generation. He spent his career in New Brunswick both buying out his siblings to become the sole Moosehead shareholder and competing with his cousins in Nova Scotia, thanks to his grandfather’s idiosyncratic will. In those days, succession planning was all post facto: somebody died, the will was read, and the survivors scrambled.

Derek and his brother, Richard Henry Oland, fought over how to run the company to the extent that Derek quit in 1981 and was about to move to New Zealand when his father, P.W., named him executive vice-president. Richard quit instead, and the next year Derek became president, not because he was ready and his promotion was part of a planned progression but because his father had been forced to make a decision on the fly.

Relations worsened after P.W.’s death in 1996. According to P.W.’s will, Derek had control of Moosehead with 53% with of the stock, but Richard still owned one-third of the shares, so after a number of unpleasant annual meetings, Derek bought out his siblings in 2007 and, like his father before him, became the sole shareholder.

If that sounds complicated, it’s because it is—and we haven’t even considered the succession during the first three generations. However, over the years it seems the Oland dynasty has instinctively adopted some sound succession-planning practices, long before the concept was given a name. Here are six of them.

Stick to what you know best.

Some families diversify their businesses and then divide them up among the next generation; the Irving family of New Brunswick is perhaps the most famous Canadian example of that. Founder K.C.’s three sons were known around the province by their nicknames “Oily, Gassy, and Greasy” because of the companies they inherited.

But the Olands have stuck to their knitting or—in their case, brewing. The brewing branch hasn’t diversified into trucking, movies, or real estate development like the food-empire Sobey family of Nova Scotia. And when non-brewing Oland family members have started their own businesses, they have done so independently and not under an Oland family trust or holding company.

Have enough children.It may sound facetious, but having a sole heir who isn’t interested in taking over the business usually sounds a death knell. For example, the founder’s firstborn, Ethelred Henry Oland, whom you would expect to be first in line to inherit, moved to Western Canada and became a farm-equipment salesman. Fortunately, there were several younger brothers from which to choose.

Forget primogeniture.Primogeniture is the tradition of inheritance by the firstborn heir; Britain’s Royal Family is a prime example, and the concept is used in many other countries. However, it has played no discernible role with the Olands. Younger brothers have frequently been chosen as leaders, even when older ones are involved in the company. 

After Ethelred headed west, Susannah (née Culverwell) Oland, the wife of founder John James Dunn Oland—and the only woman to run the company, after John’s premature death in 1870—left the controlling interest in the brewery to her fourth son, George W. C. Oland, despite the fact that there were two older brothers involved in the business. It established a family tradition that’s also a sound business practice: that control go to the best qualified, not the firstborn.

There’s no free lunch. There are no automatic careers at Moosehead. While there are summer jobs to help the Oland children earn their way through university, there’s nothing full-time until (a) the child has held a real job somewhere else first, and (b) there’s a real job at Moosehead that requires the child’s skills. In interviews, all four of Derek’s sons mentioned this rule as a strength for the company and their own career advancement.

Look outside for help. Contemporary succession planning isn’t just about who inherits control of a family business. At publicly run companies with enlightened leadership, managers constantly train their replacements, who recognize that ascending to the presidency isn’t a life sentence but rather a term of office. While previous generations of Olands had ceded control only when they were too elderly to make it to the office every day, Derek decided that “17 and a half years as president is too long. Five or 10 years is really enough.” He also recognized that the family could be controlling shareholders without being day-to-day managers.

So Derek did something no Oland had done before: he looked outside the family for executive help, and in 1997 hired as president Bruce McCubbin, a 30-year veteran of the packaged-goods trade. He also promoted Steven Poirier as president when McCubbin became CEO, and it wasn’t until the Ontario native decided to return to his home province that Derek and McCubbin asked Andrew Gwilym Oland to become president of Moosehead in 2008. 

Now 43, Andrew had experience in several areas of the company, from being a brand manager to running the Montreal operation. He had also worked outside Moosehead, at Halifax Shipyards and, with a Harvard MBA, had credentials as well as experience. “About 10 years ago, Patrick and I started to attend board meetings,” says Andrew. “We couldn’t contribute to the discussion, but afterward we could ask questions. It really helped us learn about the business.” 

The advisory board is another of Derek’s innovations and an example of seeking outside help; current members include John Bragg, Bruce McCubbin, Aldea Landry, Courtney Pratt, and George Davie. Derek also credits legendary Maritime businessman Sir Graham Day with mentoring the company over the years. Derek has never used succession-planning consultants, preferring to tap into his own board and outside executives for counsel.

With rules in place early, Derek’s four sons were to some extent self-selected. All had held summer jobs at the brewery but started to develop independently as they went away to university. Patrick, 41, the second oldest, is the only other son working at Moosehead. He earned his MBA from France’s
INSEAD, Europe’s pre-eminent business school. He was
recently promoted to vice-president of finance but has considerable experience outside the company, both in the retail food sector with Christie-Brown and Beatrice Foods and at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he earned his CA.

“The credit is due to Father and Bruce McCubbin for establishing good rules early, so there was no opportunity for sibling rivalry,” says Patrick. Both brothers say a clear chain of command was established and that they didn’t report to their father. Their work was reviewed by other supervisors, and, says Patrick, “The feedback was always objective.” As a result, they developed different strengths that serve the company, and in interviews each brother praised the other’s skills, mentioned their respect for each other, and marvelled at how they complement each other in bringing value to Moosehead.

Manage emotion. “Succession planning is a difficult and sensitive process,” says Matthew Philip Oland, 39, the third son. “How do you manage the emotion in the best interests of the company?” The vice-president of marketing for Warner Bros. of Canada, Matthew discussed the difficulties Derek had experienced with his own brother and how the pair talked around the kitchen table to ensure that the same conflicts didn’t happen to the next generation. “Open honest dialogue is very helpful,” he says. “At the end of the day, you have to try to be fair to everyone.”

Matthew worked for Moosehead for four or five summers and has lived in Toronto since 1995, where he married, had three children, and made a life for himself. “I kept getting great opportunities here and didn’t feel the need to come back,” he says.

Even though succession planning can make the process more transparent and business-like, there’s no way to entirely eliminate the emotional element. Consider 34-year-old Giles, who is currently a managing partner at Airfire, a provider of VOIP solutions for businesses based in Halifax. While he jokes that “It’s so nice to have a product you don’t need to reboot,” Giles also admits that he loves the beer business. “I grew up connected to it, and it’s a big part of me. Not a week goes by that somebody doesn’t ask me about my name.” 

Giles is one member of the family who would like to see the business diversify. Applying his family’s management and marketing expertise, not to mention its capital, to his IT business, would be “magical,” he says. “If they loved my business as much as I loved theirs, it would be incredible.” He believes it’s important to start succession planning sooner rather than later. “It wouldn’t be fair to leave it to someone like Mom to fight it out,” he says. “It wouldn’t be healthy for the ecosystem of the family.”

There is a seventh generation of Olands; it’s 10 strong and counting, ranging in age from 22 years to a newborn. While it’s too early for Andrew to worry about his succession plan, when the time comes he plans to apply his father’s precepts. “If [the youngest generation] want to become part of Moosehead, that’s up to them, but there will be no positions available until after they have had outside experience,” he says. “My father is a firm believer that a family member can be a shareholder but doesn’t have to be a manager. I agree with that view.”