The 30th anniversary of Tommy Boy was recently commemorated in Sandusky, Ohio, with the first Tommy Boy Fest. I was sorry to have missed this event since the schedule looked like a blast, complete with Q&A with Director Peter Segal and Julie Warner (“prettiest gal in Sandusky”), a comedy show with Kevin Farley, and a Tommy Want Wingy throwdown. Although Tommy Boy was filmed in Canada, the movie was based in the city of Sandusky and if this festival becomes an annual event, my family will definitely be traveling there next year.
My kids love Tommy Boy (and Chris Farley) as much as I do and after a recent re-watch of the 1995 flick, I kept thinking about some of the smaller scenes with big undertones, particularly regarding the management of Callahan Auto Parts and the emphasis on it being family-owned.
Early in the movie, there is a scene with Tommy’s father, an auto parts tycoon known as Big Tom (played by Brian Dennehy), and he is sharing his plans for a new brake pad division while walking down a hallway with a few businessmen. Ron Gilmore, the town banker (played by James Blendick), is walking alongside him and seems concerned about the sizable bank loan that will be needed for this new endeavor. Big Tom, in pitching his idea, declares “Don’t tell me the bank thinks we need to wait it out. Any business that tries to wait it out will be just that: out. In auto parts, you’re either growing or you’re dying. There ain’t no third direction.” And Big Tom is right. Complacency and competitive inertia are the surest ways to lose any battle over market share in the business realm.
Big Tom’s statements are confident and convincing, but Gilmore is still concerned. “Tom, you’re talking about a huge loan. Maybe instead of borrowing, you should take on a partner.” An idea Big Tom quickly shoots down. “No, this always has been, always will be a family firm. My grandfather founded it in ’21. My father kept it running during the Depression. My Aunt Eileen ran it when he went away to war, and someday, my son will run it.”
In this short scene, several factors are at play, but for the sake of this article’s length, let’s just focus on the family business element. And to do so, some context is needed.
The Premise
Big Tom believed in the Callahan brand, and he lived well because of the success he achieved. Big Tom’s residence is one to behold: a huge mansion, gorgeous grounds, and a massive inground swimming pool (good enough for Bo Derek). And thanks to his wealth, Big Tom was able to support Tommy Boy’s elongated college education as well as guarantee him a job post-graduation. One of my favorite scenes in the movie is when Tommy receives his private office at his father’s firm, and Richard Hayden, an executive assistant (played by David Spade) alludes to the nepotism by sarcastically stating “You have a window! And why shouldn’t you? You’ve been here ten minutes.”
Other than a few quips from Richard throughout the film, employees at Callahan Auto Parts are featured as being unbothered by the family favoritism and don’t begrudge their employer’s lavish lifestyle. Actually, it is hard not to like the Callahan family. Big Tom is charismatic and appears to treat employees well, while Tommy is caring and kind, making it easy to disregard his mishaps and shenanigans. When touring the factory after returning home from college, Tommy greets all the workers by name and shows a genuine interest in the work they are doing.
Overall, Tommy’s strength (we won’t go into his rather obvious faults) lies in generating interpersonal connections, and when he needs to take charge after the sudden passing of his father, Tommy is well-received by most of the employees despite the lack of competency he has for his new role.
The Perception
What is truly interesting about Callahan Auto Parts is how the business is presented and perceived. Big Tom ran a big business, and it being family-owned was a big deal. While I can understand a father wanting to see his legacy live on through his son, I am always a bit perplexed why consumers should care whether a firm is family-owned. Yet, for some reason, in American culture, family businesses have positive appeal, and businesses heavily promote familial ties.
If you start paying attention to taglines, you’ll find that all types of firms market themselves as family-owned. One of my favorite examples is Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., which features at the top of its cans “Family Owned, Operated & Argued Over.”
When a successful business can be passed on to future generations, this is generally viewed as a good thing and something to be proud of. Some of America’s oldest and largest firms are family-owned: The Ford Motor Co., Koch Industries, Inc., The Kohler Co., S.C. Johnson, and Wegmans Food Markets to name a few. However, when a firm is perceived as being too big and too successful, those good vibes tend to fade away. Think the Waltons of Walmart or the Hiltons of, well, Hilton.
When we perceive a company as being too powerful or a family as being too high status, we are less enthused about the family aspect. But we must remember that business owners generate their wealth by means of the success of their business. And the success of a business depends on its efficacy in serving the market and its ability to cater to consumer interests. Walmart didn’t get big overnight, and consumers weren’t forced to shop at Walmart stores.
Moreover, some of the heirs of big businesses do great things with the wealth they have attained. Most notably and most recently, the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine inducted its first medical school class. Not only did the Walmart heiress, Alice Walton, fund the creation of a top-tier medical school, but, as featured in Time Magazine, she is also “covering tuition for the first five graduating classes.”
The Point
The next time you purchase a product or put your trust in a brand, try to assess all the signals being sent your way. Does it matter to you if the business is family-owned? Does it matter to you if the business is big or small? And if any of these factors do matter, ask yourself why. Also, ask if you might feel differently if you were the business owner.
The ‘shop small’ and ‘shop local’ mantras sound great, but we should remember that a lot of value is derived from big businesses that were once small. And while supporting family businesses certainly sounds nice, in reality, there is no way to know what goes on behind closed doors. The family that owns a business could be made up of horrible people. Or the founders could be coercing future generations to forgo their individual dreams to sustain the family’s brand name.
Just because a business is family-owned doesn’t automatically make it good, just as a business that is not family-owned isn’t inherently bad.
Fortunately for Tommy Boy, he came from a loving family, and he’s lucky that his father took great pride in the business being family-owned (since it’s unlikely Tommy could get a job anywhere else). And it’s a good thing for Tommy that his father’s company wasn’t the only big business competing in the auto parts realm. At the end of the movie (spoiler alert) Tommy is able to trick the owner of Zalinsky Auto Parts (played by Dan Aykroyd) into purchasing 500,000 brake pads. The big sale saves the company, and Tommy is able to return to Sandusky a hero. And, as stated at the start of this article, I look forward to visiting the real city of Sandusky someday since I know my kids would get a kick out of it.
The experiences I take part in and the investments I make are based on my preferences, my aspirations, and the future well-being of my family. Although I may not be able to set my kids up with an inheritance comparable to the fictitious Callahans or the real-life Waltons, I am doing my best to ensure they can be proud of the wealth we have attained.
I am also teaching my children that what constitutes wealth can come in a variety of forms, and it is up to them to determine what it is they truly value. And I’ll be reminding them that no matter their age, I will always be happy to re-watch Tommy Boy with them since there is always something to be learned from the energetic and entrepreneurial spirit present in this 1990s classic.
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