Scandinavian Building Services: Preserving the Past and Ensuring the Future

On October 31, 2017, Terry Hay, patriarch of the Hay family and leader of the family business, was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer and given three weeks to live. This grim prognosis placed the Hay family on an unexpected trajectory and forced them to confront Terry’s health crisis while grappling with the impending transition of their family business, Scandinavian Building Services Ltd. (SBS), based in Edmonton. Although the family had already planned for leadership succession, Terry’s sudden illness forced them to accelerate their plans and adapt to unforeseen circumstances. How could the family navigate the leadership transition while responding to the urgency of Terry’s illness? What strategic decisions would they need to make to stay competitive and grow market share? Most importantly, how could they preserve Terry’s legacy and solidify the business’s future across generations?

This case is suitable for undergraduate and graduate level courses focused on family enterprise, business strategy, or corporate governance. Students should be familiar with the basic principles of industry and organizational analysis, including the five forces; value, rarity, imitability, and organization (VRIO); and strategy diamond analyses. The instructor can also integrate the more traditional strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis. After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to do the following:<br><br><ul><li>Understand the importance and complexity of succession planning in family enterprises.</li><li>Use industry and organizational analyses (e.g., SWOT, Porter’s five forces, and VRIO) to evaluate SBS’s strategic position at the time of the case.</li><li>Assess the impact of “familiness” within family firms.</li><li>Create a succession plan for SBS that addresses the dynamics of the family, organization, and ownership for the succession event represented in the case.</li><li>Create a strategic recommendation for SBS.</li></ul>

• family enterprise succession
• leadership transition
• business strategy
• corporate governance
• industry analysis
• organizational analysis
• SWOT analysis
• Porter's Five Forces
• VRIO analysis
• succession planning
• familiness
• family firm dynamics
• strategic recommendation
• market share growth
• competitive strategy
• legacy preservation
• generational continuity
• business sustainability
• organizational resilience
• leadership crisis management
• family business
• crisis management