Back From The Brink
Everybody knew grocer Stew Leonard as America's king of customer service--crowned by none other than Tom Peters. But Leonard went to jail for tax fraud. Now, for the first time, he talks about what everybody didn't know and what he's learned from his ordeal.
(FORTUNE Small Business)
By David Whitford
November 1, 2002

(FORTUNE Small Business) – Stew Leonard never expected it would be easy. For founders like Leonard--charismatic, bigger-than-life, take-charge kinds of guys--letting go of the family business rarely is. "Most fathers," says Leonard knowingly, "even when they are 85 and the kids are 63, are still saying, 'The kids aren't ready yet! Someday! But they got a lot to learn!' " Leonard views himself, in the end, as a lucky exception. He's 72 now, happily relieved of all management duties at Stew Leonard's supermarket chain, absolutely thrilled by the way things are going there under his eldest son, Stew Jr., and grateful for the peculiar set of circumstances facilitating the handoff. "This was a blessing," he says, "because it allowed me to do what all the books on family business tell you to do--let go and keep your nose out of it."