As a multi-generational family business with a 100 year history in industrial engineering, the Nash Engineering Company had turned many challenges into opportunities. But in the late 1990s, the market for their products collapsed. The family and executive managers were faced with several options. Should they try to continue as a stand-alone organization?

Harry McNeely Sr started a storage and transport company with his brother-in-law in 1916. Whereas his sons, Don & Harry Jr, were taken into the company, Harry Sr made provision for his two daughters to be financially independent but gave them no stake in the family business.