Anish Quenim coordinated the effort to connect university entities to community members
and family ranchers.
CREATORS
Succession talks for any family business – be it the fictional Roys of the HBO show
“Succession,” or the real-life examples of the Murdochs or the Guccis – can be challenging
at the best of times and ruthlessly dramatic at the worst.
“Succession triggers a nerve,” said Anish Quenim, instructor and director of the Alderson & Griffin Center for Family Business & Entrepreneurship (AGCFBE) at the Jerry S. Rawls College of Business. “It’s like you’re telling the family someone’s going to die. The truth is, it’s
not planning to die; it’s planning if dead.”
The same difficulties that face families in the public limelight are the ones facing
ranching families across the U.S.
Texas Tech University is providing some much-needed support to those ranching families.
Quenim co-led the development of the Families in Ranching Succession Toolkit (FIRST),
which officially launched Sept. 25 during a McCoy Family Speaker Series event held by the AGCFBE at the Museum at Texas Tech.
In total, current and former representation from 12 different Texas Tech entities
contributed to FIRST:
Three community entities also contributed to the toolkit: the Ranching Heritage Association,
the Lubbock County Office of Dispute Resolution and icebreaQers.
The toolkit consists of five chapters and provides readers with activities to complete
as they start to tackle the complicated work of succession planning. Readers start
with understanding key terms in chapter one and end with chapter five, which features
the Lubbock-based Welch Cattle Company, considering milestones and how family meetings
will run.
Jim Bret Campbell, executive director of the NRHC, sees FIRST as addressing a need for families that
serve vital roles across several facets of the U.S.
“Ranching is a distinct way of life, as well as a business, and its culture and values
of hard work, integrity, honesty and determination contribute to society as a whole,”
he said. “It is critical to our economy and national security that we are able to
feed ourselves and ensure that we are not dependent on foreign imports.”
The FIRST Step
The origin of FIRST stemmed from conversations Campbell had with Rod Williams, vice provost for Outreach & Engagement, and Quenim, who had previously worked in
Outreach & Engagement before joining Rawls College. At the time, Campbell and his
family were navigating their own succession planning and needed some guidance.
The trio realized there was a need that Texas Tech could better address: how can the
university help ranching families navigate succession planning?
“The reason succession is generally a problem is this one word: communication,” Quenim
said.
He speaks from experience; he’s a fourth generation of a family business and is specifically
interested in helping other family businesses find their own success.
Anish Quenim speaks to an audience at the FIRST launch during the McCoy Family Speaker
Series.
Quenim and the FIRST team eventually presented an early draft of the toolkit to their
target audience: the ranching families themselves.
The reaction was not exactly warm.
“They were like, ‘What the heck are you guys talking about?’” Quenim remembered, laughing
at the obviousness that comes with hindsight.
Quenim said the ranchers liked what the toolkit was trying to convey, but they had
some issues with the language the writers used. They wanted something more straightforward
than an academic publication.
One of the ranchers who provided feedback was Mark Kirkpatrick, who runs Stoker-Kirkpatrick
Ranches with his brother and three cousins.
Kirkpatrick is a bit of a rare case. He says that ranches typically last about three
generations, yet he is the sixth generation on his mother’s side and fourth on his
father’s.
Succession had been on his mind for some time, so having a chance to guide FIRST in
any way was an exciting opportunity for him. And despite the more academic language
of that early draft, he could tell there was something special with the toolkit.
“Here’s the problem with succession planning: it’s the one thing you know you need
to do, and it’s the last thing that you want to do because it requires a lot of time
and work and emotional investment,” he said. “But the more you do ahead of time, the
easier you make it on the next generation.”
While FIRST moved through the revision process and the language was finetuned and
made more approachable, Quenim looked to support ranchers in a meaningful and long-lasting
way.
The FIRST Movement
Quenim stressed that he and his team view FIRST as a starting point on the path of
succession planning.
“The whole goal with broader impact is you don’t just end it with a survey or research
paper. It might be that, and plus, plus, plus,” he said, raising his hand in the air
and making rhythmic chopping motions. “This is a movement; it doesn’t end with me
or with FIRST. Hopefully what we’ve built will be the reason why a ranch stays within
a family or the family stays in the ranch.”
A two-week microcredential continuing education course for families interested in
beginning succession planning was designed to complement FIRST. The toolkit’s five
chapters will be repurposed into course modules with achievable goals.
Quenim said the course will first be offered in spring 2027 and is open to ranching
families across the U.S.
He also spent this past summer modifying the Family Enterprise course (MGT 4377) offered
through Rawls College to gain community-engaged learning (CeL) designation. He wants to work with family businesses and use their unique situations
as case studies for students to directly help the families start succession planning.
Though the course is not about ranching specifically, the Kirkpatrick family is serving
as this semester’s case study.
“Succession is not just for ranching families; it’s for any type of business,” Kirkpatrick
said about his interest in volunteering with the CeL course. “The thing is, in agriculture
and small family businesses, they’re so busy trying to make a living running the operation
they can’t spend time thinking about succession planning.”
Quenim also understands the busy schedules of small family businesses and hopes the
upcoming Succession Room project with the Office of Dispute Resolution for Lubbock
County can help in this regard.
Set to launch in early 2027 during the next McCoy Family Speaker Series event, families
will be able to book appointments through the Office of Dispute Resolution for Lubbock
County to engage in mediation and succession services to create a continuity path
for the family business.
Quenim hopes the toolkit can offer families an introduction to a wider range of services
and assistance.
“It’s not a one and done,” he said. “It’s about hovering around in our orbit.”
And the “Big Bang” for FIRST was this past McCoy Speaker Series event.
The FIRST Launch
The morning of the McCoy Family Speaker Series on Sept. 25 featured a classic Lubbock
storm. Rolling thunder served to herald the launch of FIRST, and the mood inside the
museum was as electric as the lightning dancing across the sky.
Texas Tech President Lawrence Schovanec, hair and suit drenched from his walk in the storm, welcomed attendees as they settled
into their seats.
Texas Tech University President Lawrence Schovanec welcomes attendees and speaks about
the importance of engaged efforts like FIRST.
“Successfully transferring these enterprises from one generation to the next is important
not only to the families themselves, but also to the rural communities in which they
exist and to the economies they support,” he said. “That makes today’s perspectives
on what you’ll hear so very important and relevant.”
Campbell led a panel session as three ranching families – Kirkpatrick, John and Bonnie
Welch and Jody and Betsy Bellah – discussed their family histories, business dynamics
and succession planning experiences.
And while each family shared unique perspectives, they all touched on having difficult
conversations and prioritizing the family’s well-being above all else as their primary
motivation.
“Succession planning is a different animal in my mind,” Kirkpatrick told the audience.
“We try to come up with a plan that keeps the ranch together as long as we can, with
the understanding I’m more concerned about my family members. I want them to be able
to sustain a lifestyle, and at some point, if that means selling the ranch, that means
selling the ranch. You just have to be realistic about it.”
From left, Jim Bret Campbell leads a panel discussion on families in ranching with
Betsy and Jody Bellah, Bonnie M. Welch and John Welch, and Mark Kirkpatrick.
After the panel discussion, attendees were invited to a lunch-and-learn session that
served as a preview of the upcoming microcredential course.
But before that, Vice Provost Williams helped close the McCoy Speaker Series event
and spoke about the importance of FIRST and the role of engaged scholarship at Texas
Tech.
“Engagement is the front door of our university,” he said. “It’s the front door that
our faculty and staff and students walk through to meet with community partners. It’s
the front door that community partners walk through to come work with us.
“The FIRST program, from its very inception through the middle to where we are today
and where we’re going tomorrow, embodies everything that we want to showcase and call
engagement here at Texas Tech University.”