Brian Perry knows what it takes for a smaller regional processor, like the one his great-grandfather founded in 1918, to survive in this age of industry consolidation: corporate professionalism. "Our company, unlike so many other family-owned regional businesses, has been able to grow to the next level of professional management," says Perry, executive vice president and vice chairman of Akron, N.Y.-based Perry's Ice Cream. "A lot of times, family members of the older generation want no part of that. They're stuck in their ways and don't want to change and, won't hesitate telling their employees who signs the checks. They can never get from the entrepreneurial stage of the first generation to setting up departments and giving department managers the autonomy to make decisions."
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