Three doors stand before every produce company facing a generational shift: keep family members in place but hire someone to take you where you can’t go on your own; hire from within by promoting a strong inside candidate; or totally transform the business.
For three decades, industry veteran Julie Krivanek has guided talent through the International Fresh Produce Association’s Leadership Program. Drawing on 30 years of strategic consulting and executive coaching, she sees a glaring disconnect in the produce sector: 75% of private and family businesses lack a succession plan entirely.
Yet, paradoxically, 60% to 80% of these companies still promote from within.
“We can’t ignore the fact that a lot of businesses, particularly family businesses, don’t have the preparedness that leaders of this era have,” Krivanek says.
When companies rely on comfort over a formal strategy, promotions often become points of failure, she says. Stepping into the C-suite is the biggest transition of a leader’s career. It requires moving from a direct line role — like chief operational officer or vice president of sales — into an entirely new headspace defined by board interfaces, investors and complex power dynamics with former peers.
Compounding the challenge, says Krivanek, is the reality that many family businesses operate in a bubble, running things much like their grandparents did. When she peels back the layers, she finds the hurdles leaders face at the top are often foundational issues that should have been solved years prior: time management, delegation and building high-performance teams.
What’s more, the operational landscape is shifting underfoot.
“We are in a very challenging industry that’s getting more so by the minute. People discuss headwinds, but I would classify it more as cross currents,” Krivanek says.
At the executive level, day-to-day operations turn into a game of whack-a-mole, politics multiply and leaders must think three to five years ahead in an industry where the future arrives “like next Tuesday,” says Krivanek.
Whether steering a small family farm or a global corporation, Krivanek stresses that the core principles of leadership remain universal: “If you got a Size 10 foot, you better buy a Size 10 shoe. You can’t get an eight and a half and think it’s going to fit.”
The Packer recently connected with Krivanek to discuss why succession planning can’t wait until a transition is already happening, what companies often overlook when developing future leaders and how owners and executives can begin preparing their teams now.
4 Case Studies in Successful Succession
1. A Family Business Lets Go to Level Up
For third-generation family businesses, letting go of the reins can be the hardest hurdle of all. When cousins Dan and Tom Chan realized General Produce, their Sacramento, Calif.-based wholesale distribution and export company, had gone as far as it could under their direct leadership, they made a pivotal choice: They hired an outside executive, Jeff Sacchini, while staying on as owners and partners.
Krivanek highlights this as a masterclass in self-awareness and trust.
“They knew he had the financial competence, he had the business competence, he had the right cultural fit, and they just said, ‘take it away.’”
By recognizing that the next level of growth required a different skill set, the family handed over the operations to someone capable of expanding the business far beyond its historical limits.
“You cannot believe the things he has done that have taken the company from here to here,” says Krivanek. “The third generation recognized they couldn’t do it. It wasn’t in their space. But Sacchini could. So, that’s an example of a succession project where the people understood who they hired, they trusted and treasured him.”
2. Home Depot Flips the Leadership Model
When an existing CEO underperforms and leaves behind declining stock prices and astronomical payouts — such as a former chief executive of Home Depot who walked away with a $210 million severance package — insiders often look on and say, “I can correct that,” Krivanek says.
That is exactly what Frank Blake did when he stepped up from within to lead Home Depot as chairman and CEO from 2007 to 2014, steering the giant retailer through the 2008 financial crisis and housing downturn, she says.
Krivanek points to Blake as a standout example in servant leadership and culture correction. Seeking to break away from toxic corporate excess, Blake set the tone immediately.
“I want a contract, but I don’t want any severance because that rubs people the wrong way. I don’t want that money,” Krivanek says.
Instead of focusing upward on himself and Wall Street, Krivanek says Blake completely inverted the corporate hierarchy by saying: “It’s the customers and the people who wear the orange apron. That’s on top. I’m down here someplace on the bottom.”
He repeated this message constantly, backing it up with genuine appreciation by writing personal notes to staff thanking them for satisfying customers, says Krivanek. By dismantling the growing selfishness at the top and redirecting energy toward the frontlines, Blake proved how an insider could step in, reverse a diminishing culture and achieve enormous operational improvements.
3. Oasis Dates Hires for the Future
While some succession plans focus on correcting past mistakes or simply repeating what previous generations did, Krivanek points out that true forward-looking growth often requires looking outside the box — and outside the family.
When Oasis Dates spotted an expansive market opportunity for dates, the company realized its existing team didn’t have the playbook to capture it.
“This was a case where a business has a future in mind — either through opportunity or geographic expansion — but they can’t figure out how to get to it with their players, so you bring in a new player,” says Krivanek.
With a bold vision to double the date business in five years, Cooper represents the ultimate “futurist” model of succession — what Krivanek playfully calls the “Dolly Parton model” of finding the exact person who can make a big dream a reality.
“You can’t push people to do something that’s not within their wheelhouse,” Krivanek emphasizes. When a company has spent a century doing things one way but wants to claim the business of the future, “you gotta get the person that can do that.”
4. C.H. Robinson Engineers a Total Transformation
For some companies, succession isn’t just about filling a seat or capturing a new market; it requires a complete, breathtaking overhaul. Krivanek points to logistics giant C.H. Robinson as a prime example of a solid, old-school business bogged down by outdated methods like spreadsheets and fax machines.
To break the mold, the company hired supply chain veteran Dave Bozeman, formerly of Ford and Amazon, as president and CEO in 2023. While leadership initially wanted him to layer incremental updates onto their legacy system, Bozeman pushed for a much deeper reinvention.
Under his leadership, C.H. Robinson automated and transformed the entire supply chain experience. If a customer is shipping cantaloupes and a blizzard hits Denver, the system automatically recalculates pricing, reroutes the trucks around the storm, handles disruptions and invoices the client seamlessly without human intervention, Krivanek explains.
“They worked on that for two years, and that’s because they hired a guy who said, ‘we need a total transformation.’ And they said, ‘You bet we do,’” she says.
Finding the Right Door: The True Scope of Succession
True succession planning is never just about who gets to inherit the corner office. As Krivanek says, it is an all-encompassing evolution of people, customers and strategy.
“Succession encompasses the human, the customers, the business — the everything. It’s not just who gets to take Big Daddy’s position. It’s really in totality,” she says.
For businesses feeling stuck, Krivanek offers a reassuring message: You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to go.
“Companies who can’t do it themselves can feel encouraged because it’s not like we’re going to Mars to raise tomatoes. Somebody out there actually knows how to do what you need,” she says.
Whether a company needs an internal culture correction like Home Depot, a bold external visionary like Oasis Dates, a total technological overhaul like C.H. Robinson or a trusted outside hand like General Produce, the hardest part is often just admitting the truth.
“People are less confused than it seems,” says Krivanek. “In my experience, people know their next step. They may be frightened of it, or they may not know exactly how to move forward, but they know their next step.”
Whether that means recognizing that an internal successor is ready, acknowledging an outdated business model, or spotting a missed market opportunity, leaders already carry the answers within themselves. From there, Krivanek says, it is simply a matter of looking honestly at the reality on the ground and choosing the right door forward.
Krivanek Consulting celebrates 30 years of service to the produce industry, specializing in executive coaching,
leadership development and succession planning.
