Dato' Loy Piece
By: Atty. Raz
L
ast June, we had the privilege of being addressed by Dato’ Loy Teik Ngan, the President of FBN Asia, at the Asian Family Enterprise Excellence Conference.
He spoke to us of what it takes to successfully handle transitions in a family business. Dato’ Loy was the eldest of four siblings and took over the helm upon their father’s death.
He encapsulated for us three key lessons in three maxims. The first lesson was, “Start before you are ready.” Succession was compared to a relay race wherein at some point both the runner passing on the torch and the runner receiving the torch must run together. This point is when coaching and mentorship must happen. For an efficient transition, the runner that is to receive must begin before his hand even touches the torch.
The second lesson was the question, “Do you want to be King, or to be Rich?” He framed this question for us by narrating that it was originally asked of him by his Board of Advisers, to his confusion. After sufficient musing, he understood that they were presenting to him the issue of a business owner choosing to hold on to control over prioritizing performance and results. He soon learned that the more control we keep to ourselves, the less successful the succession will likely be. Letting go can sometimes be our best chance at retaining wealth.
