The 79-year-old co-owner of Herschend Family Entertainment Corp. believes sticking to the company's core values will ensure its survivability, in the same way it has since the seeds of the corporation took root in the early 1950s.
Peter Herschend points to HFE's mission statement - creating memories worth repeating - as the lifeblood of the company that now comprises 26 business entities in 10 states, including Dollywood, Stone Mountain Park (Atlanta), Showboat Branson Belle and its flagship park, Silver Dollar City.
"I don't know what our mix will be 20 years from now and I don't care," Herschend told a packed house this morning at Hilton Garden Inn for Springfield Business Journal's first 12 People You Need to Know breakfast of the year. "What will make or break our company isn't the properties we acquire, it is the values we keep.
"As long as our company keeps true to its values ... as long as we keep true to our corporate mission statement ... we'll be just fine. If we lose that, we won't."
Twenty years ago, Herschend said he couldn't have predicted the acquisition of the Harlem Globetrotters, HFE's newest portfolio addition. HFE, which he owns with his brother Jack, purchased the team last November for an undisclosed amount from eight-year owner Shamrock Capital Advisors. Though some questioned the move, according to Herschend, he said the purchase fits with the core concepts of HFE.
"The Harlem Globetrotters are in entertainment. Herschend Family Entertainment is in entertainment," Herschend said. "The Harlem Globetrotters are creating memories worth repeating using a basketball. That's the only difference. We use craftsmen and shows and setting to create memories worth repeating."
Herschend said he believes sticking to core values is important for any organization and he has applied them to his other roles, including State Board of Education president and former board member of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Herschend said the Missouri chamber broke a core value in late August, when the business organization sponsored Rick Perry's visit to the Show-Me State, during which the Texas governor pitched his state to Missouri businesses. The move - which Herschend said would be called a memory-breaker within HFE - led to Herschend's resignation from the board.
"I'm not angry, just disappointed," he said of his decision to leave the chamber board in September.
On the state education board, Herschend is pushing for mandatory and beneficial early-childhood education, as well as stronger leadership for failing schools.
Of the roughly 1 million children in the Missouri education system, Herschend said 65 to 70 percent do not get quality early-childhood education.
He said he also believes failing and underdeveloped schools could be improved by building leadership and giving them more autonomy, which would take control out of the hands of central offices.
Herschend's term as president is up June 30, and he said he would likely step down from the board at the end of his current office term on June 30, 2015, after 24 years.[[In-content Ad]]
