A tour of Plochman Inc. in Manteno, Illinois, features many of the sights you might expect to find at a business whose sole purpose is to manufacture mustard. In addition to a loading dock stacked high with pallet after pallet of bright yellow bottles, there’s memorabilia galore —from a collection of antique mustard pots to posters from the Napa Valley Mustard Festival, where the company’s product has earned more than a few gold medals.

Less expected is the sculpture of a phoenix that graces the office of Plochman’s president, chairman, and CEO, Carl (“Terry”) Plochman. “The phoenix,” explains the reflective, soft-spoken Plochman, “represents the importance of renewal and change while honoring the past.” This perspective is integral to how he manages the nearly 150-year-old family business, purchased in 1883 by his great-grandfather, a German immigrant, when it was known as Premium Mustard Mills.

The Plochman recipe for stone-ground mustard, for example, hasn’t changed much in the last one hundred years, but the technology involved in making it demonstrates 21st-century expertise. “Things happen much more quickly,” says Plochman succinctly. Invoices and sales information are transferred electronically, and computers monitor everything from the arrangement of cases on each shipping pallet to the consistency of Plochman’s zesty brown Kosciusko mustard, one of eleven varieties enjoyed by mustard aficionados throughout the United States. There’s also the plant itself, a gleaming facility the company built five years ago that pumps out millions of mustard bottles a year, and a zippy Web site that invites visitors to join the Mustard Lover’s Club.

His decision to attend HBS, Plochman notes, was “a fairly radical departure” for a fourth-generation heir apparent to the family company. “It made sense to get a different perspective,” he says. “I studied agribusiness under Ray Goldberg, and he helped me see things as systems, rather than looking at them mechanically from one point of view.”

Getting a sense of the big picture has always been a priority for Plochman, who majored in psychology as an undergraduate at Brown University and continued to develop that interest through the study of hakomi, a method of body-centered psychotherapy. Until recently, he also volunteered in the Young Presidents’ Organization as coordinator of the association’s worldwide network of monthly peer-moderated groups, also known as Presidents’ Forums. The forums, he explains, allow participants to discuss business, family, and personal relationships in an open environment. “The idea is to help members find solutions through dialogue. It’s an opportunity to be uncertain, yet work to get some clarity and emotional support from a group of risk-taking peers.” Before his retirement from the YPO (mandatory at age 50), Plochman received the Ray Hickok Award, the group’s highest honor.

Plochman is philosophical when asked who might succeed him in the family business. The father of a daughter and two stepchildren, he prefers to keep the question open-ended for now and focus on the company’s continued growth and stability —a goal that’s sure to keep fans of the classic hotdog-and-mustard combo happy for generations to come.

—Julia Hanna