Event recap: Seen and heard…at the Family & Closely Held Business Summit

“(Joe Bartolotta and I) are two people who got together early on and we said to ourselves, ‘Let’s build our core values; let’s define what’s important to us,’ and those became very obvious to us.”

–Paul Bartolotta, chef and co-owner of The Bartolotta Restaurants

“You keep it at the door if there is something going on that you disagree with business-wise. You leave it; the door’s closed. At the end of the day, you’re family.”

–Nick Chiappetta, chief operating officer of Chiappetta Shoes

“Having core values are so much easier for us to articulate as a private company because we don’t have the pressures of shareholders every quarter. We can actually pause and do the right thing for the business and for the family, rather than worrying about this quarter’s earnings.”

–Dan Ariens, chairman and chief executive officer of Ariens Co.

“(Succession planning) doesn’t have to be from a traumatic event like we’re experiencing. It’s about how to get ready, how to move forward… the time is now.”

–Keith Trafton, COO and managing partner of The Bartolotta Restaurants.

“We call it the one man, one vote. The way I augmented that over the years is by joining best practices groups, where peers in the industry get together a few times a year and compare business strategies.”

–Jerry Weidmann, president of Wisconsin Lift Truck Corp., part of Wolter Group LLC, on the company being governed solely by president and owner Otto Wolter, his father-in-law.