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Building a Bridge to the future.

Article Excerpt
MELVIN VAN DE VEN PLANS TO CUT LOOSE IN IO YEARS FROM THE DAILY RESPONSI-BILITIES AT THE ACCOUNTING FIRM HE STARTED WITH HIS THIRD SON. THAT, HE SAYS, MAKES HIM "A VERY HAPPY CAMPER."

Even five years from now, if Mel is still at Van de Ven, LLC in Cape Girardeau, Mo., he doesn't want to be the one making the decisions. "I believe I'd rather hook my rainbow to a young person," he says.

Mel's rainbow already is "hooked" to a young person--his son Scott, who graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1991, returned to hometown Cape Girardeau and joined the accounting firm where his father worked since 1964 and risen to partner.

In January 2005, father and son left that firm and became founding partners in their own business. One of the first things they talked about? Succession.

"We're only a few months in," Scott says, "but on the front end, when we started the firm, it was understood that my dad eventually would reduce some of his work responsibilities and, 10 years from now, wouldn't be coming to work full time every day. We don't have all the details worked out on paper, but we've worked out some things and will reduce that to writing. It's high on the agenda because we're a large enough entity that I'll have to have other people come into the practice. I can't run it all on my own."

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Such vision is one of Scott's strengths, his father says. "I think all my kids have it. I don't know whether they learned it from me or it's just something they picked up through training or on their own. When they look at an issue, they not only look at what's in front of them; they look at what it's going to do to the universe."

Counting Scott, three of Mel's four offspring are accountants. His oldest son is in industry and his daughter is in consulting. Another son, in marketing, "is kind of the black sheep," jokes Scott, who Mel believes will be the only one joining him in business. "They're all well-established in other positions," Mel says proudly.

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Despite the family's apparent predisposition to accounting, Scott tried to resist the draw. "Like many college kids, I was confused about which way to go. But I have to tell you, accounting just comes naturally."

His dad felt the same way. The first in his family to graduate from college, Mel says, "I just kind of chose accounting when I went. It seemed like it came easily, and I enjoyed it."

Unlike Scott, however, Mel was not a standard college student. "I worked for six years before I started college. I worked in a furniture store, did construction and...

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