Decorium keeps it in the family
Father, sons’ furniture store part of ‘succession tsunami’ as older bosses begin to retire
That Decorium expanded to a second location the same year founder Joe Forberg retired may seem like a decisive second generation departure by the sons now running the 27-year-old company.
But the forward-thinking patriarch was integral to launching the YongeSummerhill branch this summer. Howard and Steve’s fundamental impact is less apparent to outsiders. It takes place behind the scenes, where they’ve made standard corporate practices, like staff socials and performance evaluations, the norm.
At the Supertest Rd. flagship store, which boasts a 100,000-square-foot showroom and warehouse filled with contemporary and traditional furniture and accents, the phrase “work-life balance” is now commonplace.
“That’s the major change in philosophy,” said 44-year-old Howard, who oversees operations and sales.
“My dad never had a weekend off. Now we want to be there for our kids, when they’re playing hockey, or doing dance, or whatever. We’re more lenient with each other like that, but we still hold each other accountable.
“My brother and I realize that the company will be better by building a better team around us. And we can’t necessarily do everything ourselves, nor are we great at everything.”
A few months ago, Joe, 67, gave his boys the reins. (A daughter, who is a preschool teacher, is not involved with the business.) It’s time now for golf, travel with Gail, his wife of 46 years, and time with eight grandchildren.
“The retail life doesn’t always afford you cottages and weekends,” said the genial elder, seated in the company boardroom for a recent interview. “It’s taken me a long time to get some time off, but it’s hard to divest completely. If I have time on the weekend I like to come in and — I call it schmoozing.”
Others might call it selling, but Joe’s approach is unconventionally subtle. “He’s got a way with people,” said 39-year-old Steve, who manages advertising and purchasing.
“He knows how to instil trust in somebody and build a relationship with a customer.”
After a stint in his father’s upholstery factory, German-born Joe, the eldest of four children, turned to retail, honing his skills in small downtown Toronto furniture stores.
“I had good mentors who taught me how to earn the customer’s re- spect; how to make customers your friends and not just an object to sell a product to,” he explained.
Joe struck out on his own in the early 1970s. He operated various furniture businesses prior to launching Decorium at the present DufferinFinch area site in 1986, in partnership with his brother. They sold to designers and decorators before opening up the 2,500-square-foot mix of imported and Canadian furniture to the public in 1992.
Howard, the eldest, was the first to participate in the thriving business that kept dad away from home. He swept floors, emptied ashtrays and made his first sale at 13. But he doesn’t necessarily wish the same for his three children.
“My 6-year-old boy, he always wants to put on a work shirt like daddy, and he says he wants to work at Decorium. Looking back, it’s probably not the worst thing in the world if that happens, but I’m going to give him the opportunity to follow whatever his dreams are going to be.”
Steve also did some stints at the store as a teenager, but took a circuitous route to a permanent position. He was a marketing director at Sports Authority for five years after business administration studies.
“I wanted to get more of a corporate sense of how businesses are run out there before I went into the family business,” he explained.
“A lot of what I learned I was able to adapt to the mom-and-pop operation that we were. More of how the corporate world treats employees, little things — potluck lunches, Halloween dress-up — that you maybe lose sight of when you’re running a little business. Also things like employee appraisals, which are very important to keeping your employees happy and letting them know where they stand.”
Outside experience is “often a very good way for families to gain perspective,” said Allen Taylor, national chair of the Canadian Association of Family Enterprise.
The organization says a “succession tsunami” is about to transform the country’s business landscape as the founders of many family firms retire in record numbers.
“In the next decade, we expect something in the order of 50 per cent of the family enterprises in this country to go through a transition from one generation to the next, in some description,” said Taylor.
For those who are planning to groom their heirs Taylor suggests “having conversations about what their goals are and allowing them to enter the business at a level that is appropriate for their age and experience.”
Like his brother, Steve would prefer his two children “find their own way in life,” but recently had his 13-yearold son busy in the Decorium warehouse. “I want him to learn that Saturday afternoon people are working; it’s not just watching cartoons and hanging with your buddies,” he explained. When Joe’s brother left the business years ago Forberg and sons established their own rhythm. “When we were younger, we had less of an input into the decision making,” said Howard. “As we got older and gained more experience, our input was more accepted. And there were changes in the way businesses were run, and technology, that we kind of embraced. And it was maybe a little more difficult, or challenging, for my dad to grasp. “The old values of running a business are still the core of running a business. It’s all the peripherals that are involved — whether it’s technology, or the way you communicate with people — that has changed; and he recognized that and let us go forward with that. “If we couldn’t do something he would see it and give us his guidance and help to train us, or teach us, or mentor us.” He also instilled critical values. “What the corporate world can learn from him is having the respect of your employees and always leading by example,” said Steve. “There’s nothing he hasn’t done here, from cleaning a toilet, to putting a sign outside. He wasn’t looking to put a suit and tie on and say ‘I’m the boss.’ He was doing whatever he needed to do to live like the boss.” As for Joe, he knows his legacy is in good hands. “There are aspects of this business that they do better than I do,” he said. “But what I’m the proudest about is what people in the industry think about them. They’re good kids. They never caused me problems, at any time, at any age.”