Case Studies

This family business case explores succession in hybrid families in Asia, where founders rarely retire with a clear succession plan and often prefer a coparcenary model, leaving the family susceptible to feuds. The Evergreen Group, one of the largest family-owned conglomerates in Taiwan, with a focus on shipping (Evergreen Marine) and airlines (EVA Air) falls into this category. It was founded in 1968 by Chang Yung-Fa. After his demise in 2016, the family discovered a will declaring the youngest son, who had a passion for flying, the overall Group Chairman and sole heir. In a dramatic turn, his three elder brothers staged a coup, ousting their youngest sibling while the latter was piloting a flight. Not discouraged, the younger son subsequently started his own airline ...

Hiap Hoe is a family-controlled property group, with its flagship company, Hiap Hoe Ltd., listed on the Singapore Exchange since 2003. Teo Guan Seng, the founder, involved several of his children in the business and tried to share his love and wealth with his expanding family as much as he could. However, in 2012, he found himself in the midst of a divisive family feud. Eventually, he saw no other option than to break up the family holding company, give up his ownership, resign as Chairman, and to withdraw from the group he had so painstakingly built in the course of six decades. Even worse, his family’s squabbles were widely discussed in Singapore’s newspapers, and he was personally criticized in the media and in court. ...

Hiap Hoe is a family-controlled property group, with its flagship company, Hiap Hoe Ltd., listed on the Singapore Exchange since 2003. Teo Guan Seng, the founder, involved several of his children in the business and tried to share his love and wealth with his expanding family as much as he could. However, in 2012, he found himself in the midst of a divisive family feud. Eventually, he saw no other option than to break up the family holding company, give up his ownership, resign as Chairman, and to withdraw from the group he had so painstakingly built in the course of six decades. Even worse, his family’s squabbles were widely discussed in Singapore’s newspapers, and he was personally criticized in the media and in court. ...

Malaysian palm oil company IOI Corporation Berhad (IOI) developed from a plantation company in Malaysia to become a vertically integrated manufacturing company with a range of higher value manufacturing businesses across Asia, Europe, and the United States. The rapid expansion into what the chief executive officer (CEO) called a “mini-multinational” placed greater demands on IOI and its leadership. The CEO had struggled to simultaneously achieve growth, innovation, control, and coordination, and the company had experienced a sustainability crisis in 2016. In early 2017, the CEO needed to decide whether to approve an ambitious growth strategy—proposed by IOI’s specialty oils and fats team, which led most overseas operations and handled IOI’s most innovative products—to be achieved by 2025. While he was eager to expand IOI and strengthen its position as a widely admired Asian family multinational, he also needed to weigh the constraints. He could not risk growing the company faster than the leadership’s ability to control it. For NUS Business School: (Faculty only) To obtain a free copy of the case, please contact Ms Kwok Siew Geok (bizksg@nus.edu.sg)

The Tan Group began as a small construction company in the aftermath of World War II. It made its name in hotels and grew into a well-known property company in Indonesia. But it struggled during and after the Asian crisis of 1998 and experienced nearly two lost decades. Four siblings of the third generation took control of the Tan Group after their father’s passing, but each had different ideas and interests on how to revive their family’s legacy. Yet, they had to make a decision on how to put the group back on a growth path while incorporating individual interests and complying with their father’s wish to continue the business together as a harmonious family.

In March 2017, Airbnb needed to make some important decisions regarding its strategy for the Airbnb Business Travel Vertical (ABTV) in Asia. Despite a short history of less than three years since the formal announcement of its launch, the ABTV had exhibited promising performance. The business travel market offered many attractive characteristics, including its large size. Despite the attractiveness of the business travel segment, two issues related to the choice of countries and the choice of segments were of concern. Another key issue related to identifying the specific corporate clients to approach—whether to leverage existing relationships with multinational customers or to approach Asian corporate clients directly. For NUS Business School: (Faculty only) To obtain a free copy of the case, please contact Ms Kwok Siew Geok (bizksg@nus.edu.sg)

The founder of bKash Limited (bKash), a successful mobile financial services (MFS) model pioneered in Bangladesh, built the company from scratch, targeting services at the lower socioeconomic segment of society and eventually acquiring 26 million customers. bKash has had a positive impact on the lives of countless poor people and has gained worldwide recognition for its innovative business model. The model required close collaboration with telecommunications operators, banks, non-governmental organizations, and regulators. In particular, the Bangladesh central bank supported the venture, allowing experimentation in MFS to address poverty through financial inclusion. By the end of 2016, the founder was concerned about future regulations and looking to strengthen the foundation of his disruptive business to make it more robust. How could the company continue to grow while maintaining its financial inclusion objective? For NUS Business School: (Faculty only) To obtain a free copy of the case, please contact Ms Kwok Siew Geok (bizksg@nus.edu.sg)

In June 2016, Illinois Tool Works (ITW), a fortune 500 manufacturing company in the United States, was at a critical juncture in its evolution. The company had identified a number of lofty goals in its 2015 annual report to be achieved by the end of 2017. These expectations included reaching over 200 basis points in organic growth above the market, a 23 per cent operating margin, a 20 per cent after-tax return on invested capital, 100 per cent free cash flow as a percentage of net income, and 12 to 14 per cent shareholder returns. Riding on the success of 2015, these targets had seemed achievable based on ITW’s performance and operational excellence. However, the U.S. and world economies faced a variety of challenges related to political uncertainty in the United States due to a presidential election and also in Europe because of the United Kingdom’s recent decision to exit the European Union. Additional challenges such as continued weaknesses in emerging markets and volatile currencies also affected ITW's outlook. ITW’s acquisition strategy had yielded excellent results over the past few years by effectively using diversification and decentralization strategies in its growth, but there was considerable uncertainty about achieving future goals. ITW had to make important choices about resource allocation across product groups based on their past performance and future prospects. The CEO also had to make appropriate decisions for continued superior performance. For NUS Business School: (Faculty only) To obtain a free copy of the case, please contact Ms Kwok Siew Geok (bizksg@nus.edu.sg)

In 2016, a personal threat was made against the managing director of Multistrada Agro International, an Indonesian industrial forestry firm. The permits for the firm’s new rubber plantation overlapped with an existing palm oil plantation and the activities of local villagers, and also drew concern from outsiders who claimed to have rights over the land or wished to protect the environment. In sum, the venture altered the delicate balance of conflicting local interests. The managing director knew that unless she managed to work with local stakeholders, she would never be able to successfully operate large-scale rubber plantations. How should she handle this latest threat? What tactics could she use to deal with a variety of stakeholders with divergent interests? For NUS Business School: (Faculty only) To obtain a free copy of the case, please contact Ms Kwok Siew Geok (bizksg@nus.edu.sg)

Adeline Ong is the new Independent Director of Lim Palm Co., a family business listed at the Singapore Exchange. During her second meeting the board approves an important strategic decision on an acquisition. Adeline realizes that input from independent directors does not seem welcome and that the board does not adequately fulfil its role. Rather, the company’s governance systems are shaped by family dynamics and hierarchies. Unable to contribute constructively in the existing situation, Adeline wonders whether she can add value to the Lim Group as an independent director, and if so, how.