Looking old and tired, 71-year-old John R. “Jack” Williamson III climbed atop a table in the large lobby at Benson Electric, a rapidly growing $80 million family business in the Midwest. More than 200 employees stood waiting to hear what they already knew: R.L. “Buck” Benson, the second-generation CEO who had led the company since 1963, had died that morning of a massive heart attack. Williamson had been Benson’s closest friend.
A version of this article appeared in the January–February 1998 issue of Harvard Business Review.
