Welcome to Season 14 of the Troubleshooting Innovation podcast. Trina Bediako, CEO of New Horizons Baking Co., shares how she balances generational wisdom and youthful disruption to expand a family bakery business in unconventional ways. Sponsored by Coperion.
In Episode 4, Trina talks about succession planning and the future of leadership beyond the bloodline.
Learn more about this season here, and tune into Troubleshooting Innovation on Apple or Spotify.
Joanie Spencer: Hi, Trina, welcome back.
Trina Bediako: Thanks. Joanie.
Spencer: Okay, I’ve absolutely loved these past few weeks with you. I just I love learning from you about leadership and bakery operations and just current events. It’s been great. Thank you so much. So, I want to start this one — we’re going to be looking at the future a little bit more — but I want to kind of take a step back and go back to episode two really quick.
We looked at the generational transfer and what you learned from your dad and how you pass that on to the next generation of the Brown family. There are also, though, New Horizons is a little bit more than a family-owned bakery. I mean, I think you guys are just like a family-owned bakery with a twist. There’s just all these little things that really are unique to you all. And one of those things is that there are big players in the company who are not in that Brown bloodline. So as CEO and the second generation, how do you fit it all together?
Bediako: I’m second gen. I have children, adult children. Two of my three adult children work for the company. Out of 700 employees, we have seven family members who work for the company. The bloodline is one thing we’re proud of and happy about. But this is a business, and we want the absolute best people to lead the business. Now, in a perfect world, I would hope that that’s all my people, right? But it might not be, and that’s okay. So, we just try to lead this business the absolute best way that we can. I will always present opportunities to my children and my family if they have the desire. But I don’t feel like our success is just based on the seven of us. That would be real short minded. So again, I can provide opportunity to anyone — family, non-family — um, they’ve gotta bring the passion and the energy and the commitment.
We’ve stayed over the years with people that have been loyal to the business. Some folks started with my father and have left. Some folks started with my father and are now working with me. Some folks started with my father, left and came back. I mean, we’ve had a a mixed bag of nuts here and and it’s been just fine. We just want the absolute best people to work for us, people that can respect us, people that are committed, people that understand the business and the industry and want to be here.
We all, all of us, spend more waking hours at work than we probably do at home and with the people we really like, right? So you better like what you’re doing every day. You better have a purpose for getting up out of bed each morning. And we really want New Horizons Baking Company, and all its facilities, to be a place that people want to get up in the morning and come and spend their time there and give their best.
Spencer: You know, it makes me think of something that you said last week, and that was, you want the company to be profitable, but it’s not so you can dance your way to the bank or go shopping. You want the company to be profitable so that you have resources to invest back into the equipment, the plants and the people. So, I like that you’re really putting what’s best for the company first and foremost. And the reason for saying what’s best for the company and making decisions about leadership and succession, when you base it on what’s best for the company, it’s because when you do that, you can invest back in and make something great, which, let’s not forget, you’re not making widgets. You’re feeding people.
Bediako: That’s right, that’s serious. And I tell you what. And so there’s, you have options. You know, I mentioned another interview that my dad turned 80, and I’ve joked and said, ‘I’m not going to work that long,’ you know. But under the right circumstances, I probably could. But however I leave — whether I leave and my children lead, or I leave and someone else here takes on — I want to leave the company in a good place. I want my staff to have saved in their 401K. I want my executives, when they retire, to to have a life after New Horizons.
I’ve gotta leave this place better than when I came in, and it was pretty darn good when I came in. And I’m working pretty hard to maintain it so that it can be as well received when I’m gone.
Not too long ago, one of our sanitarians retired. She had been with the company over 30 years. I came in very early one morning, and she was finishing up, and she said, you know, ‘Trina, I’m retiring on the 11th.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe you’re leaving.’ And she said, ‘You know, I want you to know I worked for your father, and then I worked for you, and it’s all been great.’ And that just made me feel great. I had to send my dad a text in Las Vegas at like, 4 in the morning his time to let him know, you know. But that’s what I want.
You know. we’re feeding the world. We are supporting families. The responsibility is tremendous, and the more we change, the bigger it becomes. So I want to leave it in a in a good place.
And again, the bloodline is one thing. It’s the work you do. It’s the image you leave. It’s what people feel when you walk out the door after you talked about a five-year plan. Those things matter. You know that you can continue to make payroll, that the benefit program is strong, that you can walk in the plant and someone say, ‘Hey, how you doing?’ There’s some good things that their spouses know you and say, ‘Thank you for helping our family and for giving my husband or my wife a good place to work.’ Those are the things that matter. You gotta look yourself in the mirror and say, ‘Not perfect, but I did good today.’
Spencer: I love that. And you know, we’ve talked about faith a couple of times this season, and it just makes me think of, well, my Christian upbringing, that my pastor says that the goal is at the end, when you’re welcomed into the Kingdom, you’re told, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’
Bediako: You got it. That’s it. That’s it.
Spencer: And so I feel like you are, you are doing that. Like you are truly a servant leader, and I feel like you give family companies a good name. So thank you.
Bediako: Yeah, thank you. And I tell you, so as this world evolves, right? You know, we have this battle about the holiday cards, or the Christmas cards, you know, what do you say? You know, I don’t want to offend so we have, we have a management Christmas party every year, and I said to the team, ‘No matter what your faith is, you’ve gotta admit we’ve been blessed as a business, and that’s a good thing.’ So you can speak it any way you want to speak it. You can define it any way you want to define it, but we’ve been blessed as a business, and I can’t hold back from speaking that and acknowledging that. And they didn’t kick me out, didn’t throw any rolls at me. So I think we’re all right.
Spencer: I love that. Okay, yeah, it must’ve been good, so you get an A. So we kicked this off talking about the different histories of the workforce, how some worked for your dad and worked for you. Some worked for your dad and left. Some left and came back. And so I’m speaking specifically of Mike Porter, and he’s had several roles in the company. He left for a couple of years, and then he returned in 2021 and now he’s president and COO. Why is it important, in your opinion, to keep the door open for people to be able to come back? Because I know there are companies who have a ‘no return’ policy.
Bediako: So I think I mentioned in another one of our interviews that, in my opinion, the industry is small in numbers, but close in relationships. So it is important to keep those doors open; you just don’t know. So how you leave has value. It makes it easier to come back if you leave in the right way.
My father presented opportunities for me. I was president and COO. So I did 16 years learning, learning, learning and shadowing him. And then one day, opportunity presented itself. And yeah, I took it, and then President COO came about, and I took it, and I I did some work there. And then, then it was CEO. And the question from my dad was, ‘Well, who do you want to be your president, Trina?’ The only person I could think of was Mike Porter, who has been a friend and a colleague for a lot of years.
When I came on board 23 years ago, Mike was a production supervisor. I was in human resources. I presented a couple job offers for him over the years that helped broaden his ability or his his experience, but Mike is a unique individual.
When I became president of the company, my first couple years I lost three key executive team members. Mike left, my HR director left, and my CFO left, all for different reasons. Now, I’d be hard pressed for me not to think, ‘Was it me?’ But they did, they all had different reasons. And since that time, two of the three have come back, and the third asked if she could come back, and it just wasn’t a place for her. So, people come and go in this world, but the relationships that you have, if they’re solid, you can work through it.
What Mike and I have is a distinct respect for one another as individuals, personally and professionally, and that makes all the difference. Not everyone could do what we do. I am the CEO. He is the president, COO. I respect what he brings to the table, and he respects what I bring to the table, and together there’s a very comfortable check and balance. Where he’s good, maybe I’m not as good and vice versa, but we work well together, and that’s important. I lead the company. I present the vision and the long-term plan. Mike puts all the pieces that he needs to do from an operational perspective. Our CFO brings what he brings financially. And we say, ‘Yep, we can do this’ or ‘No, we can’t.’
Mike and I are both committed to doing all we can for our families. I have children that work for the company. Mike has children that work for the company — a son and a daughter for both on both of us, as a matter of fact — but our business is a family business. All across the board, there are multiple families that work here, and that’s good. But at the end of the day, Mike Porter is my friend and a colleague, and we respect each other, and we have a very similar vision about what we want for this business. We can disagree, get through it and come back to the table and do what’s best for the business. If there’s one thing in common about us, it’s that servant leadership perspective that we care about the future of this company, and we want it to to thrive and go on, and so we work hard at that every day.
Spencer: I know Mike as well, and I would agree with you 100%. And he is one that never says no one else to serve in any capacity in this industry. And he is a really good guy. He’s a good man.
Bediako: He’s a good bun!
Spencer: He is a good bun! Okay, so can you do me a favor and give me a little vocabulary lesson on how the titles and responsibilities that go with those titles differ? Because I hear president and CEO as one position very often, but at New Horizons, you have president and COO, and a CEO. So, can you tell me how that dynamic breaks down?
Bediako: Sure I think — and yes, normally it’s president/CEO, so that’s one person in charge of everything — but Mike leads our operations. So, the new projects that come to the table, and he’s absolutely a key decision maker. But I am the CEO and owner, and I’ve got final say. The way that we look at things is that I’m looking at the long term, you know, five years plus, broad picture where we’re going, and Mike is looking at the three to five. The, you know, what are we doing right now, the newer projects, and then our directors are leading the day to day. So, I don’t think Mike and I have job descriptions, and we don’t have all the details written down, but because as the chief operations officer, he’s leading operations, and that’s what we’re about. And then I dabble where I need to dabble. It’s my vision. It’s my mission, with the team’s execution, you know, and I represent the business for our family. I am the face, if you will. How Mike and I work together allows me to participate on different boards, although he has his own bucket of boards as well. It gives us a broader wingspan, and our egos aren’t in the way to cause trouble.
Spencer: That totally makes sense. And I think that you are a very dynamic duo, so to speak, because foundationally, you are so similar, like your values are so similar, but your personalities and sort of your go to markets, I guess, are very different. And I think you complement each other. Is that fair to say that you two complement each other?
Bediako: I’d like to believe that, yes.
Spencer: I bet he would agree with that.
So okay, I want to ask a kind of difficult question, but I feel like it’s important to have these conversations. You are a black woman in a white male dominated industry, and you are in a position of leadership, and the buck stops with you, so you have final say. That is a little bit outside of the norm in such a traditionally white male industry that a woman of color has the final say. From your perspective, I hate to be cliche as a journalist and say, ‘How does that feel?’ But can you help me step into your shoes and just describe what that’s like? I think it’s important for people to understand what it’s like.
Bediako: Sure. I think I think more about being a woman in this industry than being a black woman in this industry. But I don’t think about it a lot because I’m the CEO of a multi-million-dollar business that I have helped grow, that I have led, that my family has a legacy in, and I do my best each and every day. So, I try not — there are realities. Black, female CEO, white industry, I can say it million times if you want to say it. That doesn’t define me. It’s a fact. And something that I work within. You need to know who I am by the work that I do and what I bring to the table. You need to read our numbers and see where we’ve gone and recognize the customers we have and the growth that we’ve experienced, and know that I’ve led and been an integral part of that and will continue to be. You need to know that I’m nosy, committed, interested, passionate, and I’ll do all I can to leave a lasting legacy behind. When I’m 80 years old, and my kids are trying to figure out if they’re going to stay or not. So, it’s not easy. There are hard days. I talk loud so that people hear me. Sometimes I’ve got to clear my throat and stand tall, but I don’t run away. I’ll say it any day of the week. They may upset me, but they don’t get to kick me out. I’m not going anywhere. I’m here as long as I’m needed. I’m here as long as I bring value and strength, and I do my best each and every day. And I am a proud African American female CEO, and there can be more if people desire that to be, but no one runs me away.
Spencer: Okay, I want you to say that a little louder for the people in the back to hear. And I want, regardless of gender or race or any qualifier, I want everybody coming up in this industry to live as fearlessly as you. And when you say you’re nosy and committed and determined, those are all ways that I would describe you before I describe your gender or your race or ethnicity. And honestly, it’s what I try to do in my job, and I really enjoy meeting successful, intelligent women with great personalities that can answer the same questions that I would ask any man. And I just thank you for what you do. I know I’ve said thank you a million times, but I think everyone there could be a, you know, a young white man in the industry that just came out of college and doesn’t have a lot of confidence and second guesses himself. And to hear you say, ‘Stand up and clear your throat and don’t let them run you out.’ That is advice for anyone, and I love it. And I hope everybody, everyone hears that message and can make themselves a little bit stronger through that advice.
Bediako: Thank you. Thank you, Joanie. It’s been my pleasure, and I’m grateful for the blessings that I have. I want to do well. I want my team to do well. We talked a little bit about, you know, if it’s a win, it’s everybody. If it’s a lose, it’s, it’s, it’s the leader. I tell my team all the time, we win together, we lose together. We’re all in it. So, I’m going to be fabulous. Be fabulous with me. But I’m not going to come down.
Spencer: I’m with you. I am with you. Sign me up. Okay, I want to talk about, you know, Mike, you said he’s got his two kids in the business. You’ve got your two kids in the business. Like, this is a family business, again, in a different way than you traditionally think about it. So, when people work at New Horizons, and they bring their next generation in to work here, what does that say about the culture that the Brown family has created?
Bediako: Sure. I appreciate that. It says that it’s a good place to be, because if I want my family, my children, my husband, my wife, to be here, then that means I feel like it’s a good place, it’s a safe place, it’s a comfortable place. And that’s what we want. That’s what we want. We build programs so that people are interested in coming, and they tell their friends, and it’s a good thing. And that’s how my father brought us all up through here. He gave us a chance. He showed us what existed, and he allowed us to make the decisions about what we did and how long we stayed. So, I love that, that people want their children here. That says a lot. I’m grateful for that.
Spencer: Yeah, yeah. I think so too. I think it’s really cool, especially when you said, you know, we spend most of our waking hours at work, not with the people that we (finger quote) ‘like to be around.’ When those two things come together, that’s where magic happens, really.
Bediako: Yeah, I agree. I agree.
Spencer: Okay, so next week, we’re really going to talk about how this business has evolved, and some of the cool things that you’ve done with vertical integration. But for this week’s topic, I’m I just, I’m curious, as your business model has evolved over the past few years, has it — and how has it, I guess — how has it changed your view of business succession? Do you look at it differently as you’re getting, you know, getting into the ingredients side of things as well?
Bediako: I think so. I think that in my father’s season, you were a baker. Period. Just a baker. Today, you can be a baker, you can be a business person, and you can produce different things in food.
We’re doing a bit of rebranding. We want to be more than a baker: bakery, ingredients, beverages, specialized packaging. There’s just multiple things — all related, all connected in some way — but we needed to be, again, we needed to broaden our wingspan so that we could be more profitable, make a bigger mark, so that we can remain relevant. The industry is changing. Small already, but, you know, family businesses are getting even smaller. Private equity groups are coming in, buying out, you know. So, the traditional family-owned-business bakery is not what it was, you know, 30 years ago. So, you gotta do something different. You see that, you know, even with Crown bakery, for example. Not just buns, different products, croissants, you know, different things. So if you’re bold and broad enough, make the change relevant because the world is changing. You can stay the way you’ve always been. It’s been successful, but if you have aspirations to go a little farther, you’re gonna have to do something a little different. That’s what we felt.
Spencer: I totally agree with you, and I feel like you have it a little bit, I don’t want to say harder, but I think your view of succession has to be a little bit more complex than your dad. Because when your dad passed it on to you, like you said, it was, you’re a baker, you bake and you’re a baker. And it was a bun company, and you took over a bun company. And you just pass that on. But now you’ve got multiple facilities, multiple types of products, multiple categories.
Bediako: Yeah. Now you don’t get crazy. You stay, you stay in a bucket that makes sense. It’s food, ingredients, spices. We need ingredients, you know, so I don’t go and make tires today. That would not be a good thing, you know. We’re adding a pancake line to our Columbus facility, mini pancakes. Well, my guys tell me it’s, it’s very similar to making English muffins. Okay, well, we can do that, yeah, you know. So, you stay in, you know, vertical integration. Growth that makes sense complements the skill sets of your leaders so that it can get done. But it has gotten more complex, absolutely, absolutely.
Spencer: Well, I think that the company is in the right hands right now because you are such a strategic thinker. And I venture to guess your dad saw that, that he knew the way your mind works, and that you go about things strategically and look at the future. So, as you grow and you get into these different markets, you’re going to know it will reveal itself to you the right path for succession. And I think you always have your eyes open, and that’s key for carrying on a business, really. Because it’s not like when you’re done, ‘Okay, I’m done. So now everybody pack up and go home because I’m, I’m 80,’ or however old you’re going to be when you decide you’re done. It’s not like the company is done when you’re done. So, you gotta always be thinking about that. It’s really important to think about it strategically.
Bediako: Sure. And know that there’s more than one way to, you know, fork an English muffin, right? You know, it’s just you gotta, you can sell the business. You can, you know, have an ESOP. You can, your family can run it. You know, your president could run it, a PE could buy it. There’s so many things, so many things. I’m open to all of it. I’m doing all my best to train my children; if they want to stay on, they can do that. My leadership team, we have plans for them after I leave so that they can live a good life. We’ve entertained selling once or twice. No, not ready for that, you know. So, so we’ve got options, and I want to keep them all open. I am enjoying what we’re doing. I’m happy for what my team is doing. My father can enjoy some degree of retirement and be relaxed and know that things are taken care of; that’s all good, that’s all good. And as long as good Lord continues to bless us, we’re going to continue to push forward.
Spencer: I love it. I love it. Okay, and that’s, as previous weeks, that’s a perfect note to end on, Trina. So, we’ve got one more week left, and next week we are going to look into the future from just the business as a whole and really dive into the vertical integration and how the business model has evolved and what it means for the future of New Horizons. So, for this week, I say to you again, thank you, ma’am.
Bediako: Thank you, my dear.
