In 2016, the Levy family — husband and wife Max and Marilyn and son, Brad — were taking stock of their family’s longtime business, Allen’s Flowers & Plants in San Diego. Business was booming at Allen’s three metro area locations — and that was part of their challenge. Three years earlier, an illness had largely removed Max and also Marilyn, who needed to help care for him, leaving Brad to shoulder the burden of a multishop enterprise.

The Levys had big plans — they wanted to grow the business and try out new ideas — but they knew they needed to make strategic changes to take their already successful business to the next level, changes that involved technology, staffing, their physical spaces, and how they trained and communicated with staff. Read more about the business, its new design center and the family’s decision to hire a non-family GM in the July issue of Floral Management.