Technology should feel effortless. Like magic. At comcast, its my job to develop, apps and tools that simplify your experience. My name is mike, im in Product Development at comcast. Were working to make things simple, easy and awesome. Good morning. Coming up on msnbcs your business his father fired him 20 years ago, but now hes back running his family owned model airplane business. Well tell you what hes done to move the company forward. Kiersten becomes a Business Owner by turning her love for whisky into a brand. And shopify tries to turn
Business Owners into selling their brands. Msnbc your business is sponsored by american express. Dont do business without it. Your business is sponsored by american express. Dont do business without it. Hi there, everyone. Im j. J. Ramburg and welcome to your business, the show dedicated to helping your growing business. This weeks biz star is more than a triple threat. She doesnt just write, act, produce on the cbs hit drama Criminal Minds shes a
to show him i was anxious. in my mind it solidified me, i ve got to come over here. it s such a special place. it can t change plans. lee joined his sister betsy who had already been working for atlantic as the general manager. she welcomed his decision to join the company. it s so surprising to really get an idea how much he was paying attention, but the more i think he came through here and saw us working and saw what app interesting business this was, i think we kind of hooked him. lee was never a stranger to the operation, but his arrival set the wheels of change in motion. i don t feel like an outsider. i ve come in and it is a transition because most of these employees have known me since i was 10, 12 years old. now coming in as their boss per se it s a little bit different interaction. there have been some strategic adjustments to the business model. roger used to run the company more like it was a hobby. lee now focuses on fine tuning production and the money making
you take your lumps along the way, right? after being fired from his family s business as a teenager two decades ago, the man who goes by his middle name, lee, has landed back at atlantic models. the company makes high quality model airplanes of all shapes and sizes including commercial and military jets. it s a lot to juggle at the same time. making model airplanes was a passion of mine. it was hard for me to get excited about making model airplanes until i started seeing the bigger picture. his parents, roger and carol, have run the miami florida company since they bought it in 1995. our most important goal is making sure that someone has a model that they love. every model is a story and it s very personal, from a pilot if they re in a bad weather situation and have a hairy trip and they safely land, they re bonded to that plane. roger was always wondering about lee s involvement in the
potential. we have some orders that have taken too long to fill. this is new and shiny, let s go do that. it was more the fun of it, right, is what the motivating factor was not the business part of it, where, look, we ve got bills to pay. and communication is crucial to everything. while his parents are open to new ideas, there are certainly times when not everyone agrees. we butt heads on some of it but we can explain our points openly and honestly and put the feelings aside and we ve said it a couple of times where you can remove the ego, focus on the facts and you can get a lot done. there have been many bumps in the road. lee has had to remind his father that the leadership has had to change. there is a new hierarchy to follow. i was talking to one of the fellas here about a project and he pulled me aside and he said, look, i don t mind you talking to the employees, but you need to let me know not to mess me up. i m thinking, geez, he s been here a week. he s been observ
than i ever gave him credit for. okay. do your thing. lee toyed with the idea of starting with a clean slate, but roger and carol know a lot about the business and he s still just learning. i know the different boeings, airbuss, all of that cool stuff, but i don t know how many times i ve put a model in or done something, roger said, no, wait a second. in 1972 this model had this transition. i m like, what are you talking about? if it was just up to me a lot of people would have gotten the wrong model or an airplane not quite right. though there s been a change in control, a lot of customers don t know there s a difference between father and son. when people call on the phone and they ask for roger, which roger? there s only one roger. what are you talking about? it s roger. make no mistake about it, this shift carries a heavy burden for everyone. they want to get this transition right. when you have a business of your own, you never lose sight of the fact that you we in