The Mitchell Family and Mitchells/richards

Mitchells/Richards is now a third generation family owned business. Key factors to the success of business are the personalities, experience, and expertise of the family members. The Mitchell family members are extremely important to the success of the business. Jack and Bill, the sons of the founder Ed Mitchell, still work for their company along with the most of their own sons. Six out of the seven sons hold senior positions and are greatly involved in the daily works of Mitchells/Richards. All the sons, having followed the family rule of working at a different company for at least five years of college, developed a variety of skills, expertise, experience, and contacts, which they brought over to their family business.

Russell, the oldest son and a co-president of the company, was brought into the company from IBM because he possessed significant programming experience and an “analytical finance mind.” Prior to him joining the company, Mitchells/Richards (then just Mitchells) lacked men who really understood finance. Not only did Russell fill this gap, but he also brought along skills and experience he had developed at IBM. Russell is responsible for store development and the technology pieces of the company. In 1989, the same year in which Russell joined Mitchells/Richards, Russell used the help of IBM and their As400 system to build a computer system that created a database of the customers. The advantage to having Russell implement this system was not only cost, but also the fact that he was able to customize the system to completely fit the needs and business model of Mitchells/Richards.