How to succeed in business.

• Author: Bailey, David
• Position: Succession planning in business - Includes related articles on the selection and directory of North Carolina's 100 largest private companies

HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS

Ben Mayo Boddie Sr., CEO and chairman of Rocky Mount-based Boddie-Noell Enterprises Inc., has made millions off a simple concept - that people will pay a fair price for a basic hamburger if the service is good and fast.

His theory of succession is just a simple: "My philosophy has always been that the way I want to run a company is that maybe somebody will come in one day and say, 'Hey, I haven't seen Mayo lately.' And they'll say, 'Hell, he died six months ago.'"

At 60, Mayo Boddie is about to put his philosophy to the test. In February, he made his 36-year-old son, Bill Boddie, president of the 12,425-plus-employee company, which is Hardee's second-largest franchisee. At the same time, he created three operating divisions, each with its own president.

"I think the big thing with a lot of entrepreneurs is they just don't want to give up the reins," says Mayo Boddie, whose company ranks 11th on the North Carolina 100 with sales of $300 million last year. "But I like to fish and hunt and do other things, too." The only way he'll be able to do them, he says, is to plan for a smooth transition.

"It's difficult for people to focus on death and dying and giving things away," says Alex Holmes, partner in charge of the Raleigh office of Arthur Andersen & Co. The international accounting firm used 1989 revenues to rank the state's 100 largest private companies for BUSINESS NORTH CAROLINA.

Holmes specializes in helping families, family businesses and businesses in general plan for inevitable - death and taxes. It's a tough job, he says. "There's a feeling, especially among entrepreneurs and business owners, of invincibility, that this is something that doesn't have to be dealt with now."

Bernard B. Clark, who heads Arthur Andersen's Carolinas' tax practice, says a company should have a succession plan as soon as it has something worth passing on, because new or old, big or small, not having a continuity plan can kill a company's liquidity while the owner's estate is settled. It can also set off bitter infighting over who's going to fill the CEO's shoes, especially if it's a family-owned business.

But despite the advice from lawyers, accountants and insurance agents, many CEOs, Clark says, don't plan for succession until "their best friend who owns a closely held business dies and they see his family fighting over what's going to happen. ...

"It's interesting. The family thinks they're very close together on the business...