The Family Business Experience

Filling the Gaps: Family, Manufacturing, and AI with Kevin DiGilio

This episode features a conversation with Kevin DiGilio, founder of KMD Technology Solutions and spin‑off AIBI, on how a highly technical software company unexpectedly grew into a multigenerational family enterprise. Kevin traces the journey from a single project‑management platform built during an internship at LORD Corporation to a secure system now supporting hundreds of complex engineering and manufacturing projects around the world. The discussion explores how his daughter Courtney became the platform’s lead tester, trainer, and de facto product owner, and how his son Nathan joined during COVID through a programming co‑op, helping prove that powerful AI models can safely run on local hardware inside regulated facilities. Together, they now use structured data systems and air‑gapped AI to clean decades of “messy” manufacturing information, automate documentation, and surface insights engineers never had time to find. For family businesses and manufacturers alike, the episode illustrates what it looks like when next‑generation talent brings AI, automation, and fresh thinking into an existing enterprise while a founder focuses on mentoring, setting guardrails, and making the company flexible enough for them to take it in new directions.

NAVI-gating A New Era W/ James C. Bly

In this episode, we sit down with James Bly, Managing Director of Family Enterprise Business Services at EY, to talk about what the next 40–50 years will look like for family business heirs. James explains why the post‑World War II era of globalization and efficiency effectively ended early with COVID‑19 and how we’ve entered a new “S‑curve” defined by de‑globalization, geopolitical fragmentation, rapid digital change, and demographic shifts. We dig into what he calls a NAVI world, nonlinear, accelerated, volatile, and interconnected and why owners can’t simply train the next generation for the business as it exists today. James walks through his “four quadrants” of positioning, 11 core performance factors, and the 10 exponential technologies (from AI and quantum computing to biotech, robotics, and renewables) that will reshape business models in the coming decades. If you’re thinking about long‑term succession, board and owner governance, or how to give heirs the strategic literacy to steward your enterprise into the next S‑curve, this conversation is a roadmap for where to start.

Growing Deep Roots: Three Generations at Ron Jones Hardwood

In this episode, we sit down with Steve and Nate Jones of Ron Jones Hardwood, a multi‑generation hardwood lumber company rooted in northwestern Pennsylvania. Steve shares how his father Ron launched the business in 1983, built a reputation strong enough to put his own name on the door, and gradually transitioned ownership to Steve over many years as the industry, product mix, and markets shifted again and again. Nate joins to tell the third‑generation story: from childhood trips to the yard, to a formative journey to China at 18 where a customer pulled him aside and sold him on the future of hardwoods, to graduating into COVID, going through lumber‑grading school in Memphis, and being pulled into sales when demand exploded. Along the way, we talk about what it means to grow up watching your dad sell, work side‑by‑side in the office, and still have a grandfather who calls regularly just to ask, “What’s going on in the industry today?” If you’re in a family business, this conversation is a great window into generational mirroring—how Ron mentored Steve, how Steve now mentors Nate and his brother Isaac, and how each generation is trying to honor the name on the sign without locking the next one into something they don’t love.

Reinventing a Family Manufacturer: Tom Tredway of Erie Molded

When Tom Tredway moved back to Erie to join his family’s plastics company, he walked straight into a crisis: the bank dropped them, 60% of their business had disappeared offshore, and his dad was asking if it was time to shut the doors. Instead of liquidating, they doubled down on a new niche, stock threaded caps for the packaging industry and spent the next decade grinding through a complete rebuild of Erie Molded Packaging. In this episode, Tom shares: * How his dad went from Montreal banking to San Diego sandwich shops to buying distressed plastics equipment in Erie. * The brutal five‑year stretch where globalization wiped out most of their contract manufacturing work. * The “Night Flights” beer conversation where father and son chose to risk retirement savings to pursue a new vision. * How landing Utz Quality Foods became the launchpad for a focused packaging strategy. * Why simplifying products, joining peer groups, and open‑book management became their levers for survival and growth. If you’re in a family business facing headwinds, Tom’s story is a masterclass in pivoting, communicating with your team, and rebuilding trust, from the shop floor to the bank.

30 years, $750 million, and the CRIZ Authority W/ Brian Polito

What if Erie could keep more of its own tax dollars working here at home? In this episode, host Jacob Jones sits down with Brian Polito, Executive Director of the Erie CRIZ Authority, to unpack how the City Revitalization and Improvement Zone (CRIZ) works, why Erie fought to secure it, and what it means for local and family‑owned businesses. Brian explains: * What the CRIZ is and how it captures state and local taxes for reinvestment in Erie * Where Erie’s CRIZ zones are located and the kinds of projects they can support * How the program helps close funding gaps on projects that “almost” pencil out * What business owners need to do (and not do) to participate * Early projects already moving forward—and what they signal about Erie’s future If you’re a business owner, developer, or community member who cares about Erie’s next 30 years, this conversation will help you see where the opportunities are and how to get to the table early. Erie CRIZ Authority * Address: 100 State Street, Suite 700, Erie, PA 16507 * Phone: (814) 679‑CRIZ (2749) * Email (general): info@eriecriz.org [info@eriecriz.org] * Website: https://eriecriz.org [https://eriecriz.org/] Executive Director – Brian Polito * Email: brian@eriecriz.org [brian@eriecriz.org] * Phone: (814) 679‑2749 This podcast is sponsored by Zac Wild CFP, CEPA [https://www.edwardjones.com/us-en/financial-advisor/zac-wild] financial advisor with Edward Jones. Zac works for business owners who are interested in maximizing their investments in tandem with efficient tax strategies. this includes fully leveraging the benefits of 401k's, SIMPLE IRA, and other more unique tax advantaged accounts. Learn more about Zac by clicking here. [https://www.edwardjones.com/us-en/financial-advisor/zac-wild]