Family business rarely involves the entire family, but at
Comtronics, 820 Airport Rd., morning conferences are attended by the same people
who used to sit at the Campau breakfast table.
Phil Campau Sr., is the president of the 27-year-old business
and his management team is comprised of three sons Phil Jr., Joseph and John.
Their 18 employees include Campau’s wife, Temis who is the executive
secretary.
Campau bought out his former partner of the electronics company
in 1970 and changed its direction to concentrate on the security business. The
firm continues to work in communications, and has sold two-way radios to many of
the police, fire and school districts in the county. The company has also
installed alarm systems in City hall, the Jackson District Library and other
public buildings.
Joseph Campau came aboard in 1978, after working part-time for
the company while he attended college. He is vice president in charge of the
financial department and the firm’s comptroller. He oversees many of the
day-to-day operations of the firm.
Phil Campau Jr. joined the company in 1981, after a four-year
stint in the military. He is vice president of field operations, overseeing the
technical staff.
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Citizen Patriot · John Stewart |
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The
Campau family, left to right, are Joseph A., John A., Philip Sr., Philip Jr.,
and
Temis | |
John A. Campau, who graduated from the University of Michigan
in 1985, is vice president in charge of marketing, he handles the advertising
and brochures and helps to plan the future direction of the company.
Temis Campau, mother of the Campau children, worked part-time
as a secretary while the boys were growing up, and began working full-time two
and a half years ago.
“I guess it’s every father’s dream to have his sons working for
him. I was blessed that they all wanted to do that,” Phil Campau Sr. said. “If I
had any daughters, I’d expect they’d work for me too. I think the business will
carry on with their (his son’s) sons and daughters.”
Campau said it’s a myth that family businesses are a problem
because there is too much closeness. “At first I thought it would get stale
because we see each other too much, but I totally disagree now, after several
years,” he said. “I find we’re closer. Each one knows what the other is doing,
but everyone does their own thing.”
John Campau agreed. “Each of us has our own responsibilities.
We don’t think we have to run to Dad for everything,” he said “We give each
other privacy. The bottom line is that Dad is president, but we each have our
own individual tasks. We stay out of each other’s way.”
Phil Campau said all of his employees are treated in an
informal, personal way. John Campau said he would feel uncomfortable not
identifying the president as his father to new clients, a habit other family
businesses try to avoid for fear that it appears unprofessional.
John Campau, who worked for a North Carolina tobacco company
before joining Comtronics, said he gets more personal satisfaction from working
in the family business. “Now I feel all my efforts are going toward the family
welfare rather than to a company that I have no intimate ties with. My brothers
feel the same way – if we work real hard, we all benefit.” The Campau sons began
working at the company when they were teenagers, their father said. They used to
mow the lawn, burn trash and do odd jobs, he said.
“The benefit of working with family members is that you know
how everyone is – their personalities are never a surprise,” said Phil Campau,
who added that he could see only pluses in working with relatives. “But it only
works if you give everyone responsibility,” he cautioned.
The all-clan management approach seems to have worked for the
Campaus, who generally have a week’s backlog of work to keep them busy. Phil
Campau reports that the firm has grown every year from the beginning. He thinks
it is because people are growing more aware of the need for security.
“One of the great myths about this industry is that security
systems are for the wealthy only,” he said. “People now realize it’s so untrue.
The bulk of what we do are systems for everyday people.”
Comtronics’ customer base spreads from Kalamazoo east to Ann
Arbor, and from Leslie south to the state border. They also monitor systems for
small alarm companies that don’t have their own central station. Comtronics
opened the first privately owned central station in Jackson in 1970. It was the
27th company to be licensed by the Michigan state police, which has now issued
more than 1,000 licenses.
The security business is one of the most highly regulated
industries in Michigan. The state requires that each firm be licensed by both
state police and state fire marshal, and that employees have thorough background
checks, including fingerprinting, Campau said.
While licensing helps security firms appear honest, Phil Campau
says that one real advantage of family businesses is that customers tend to
trust them more, especially when family members have lived in the community for
a major portion of their lives. “You come off to customers in a more responsible
manner,” he said. “They feel good about working with you rather than a corporate
image they can’t identify with.”
Reprinted with permission from The Jackson Citizen
Patriot
Copyright February 1987
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