Powering a positive family business unit
Siblings sometimes have to shed the heavy baggage of past rivalries and hurt to find an enterprising way forward based on mutual respect
"Why am I working 60-plus hours a week to grow this business while my siblings share equally in the dividends but don't have the responsibilities I have?"
This is a question that Johnston Wang, chairman and CEO of his family's manufacturing firm, has asked himself many times.
Benedict and Mabel, Johnston's two younger siblings, are also frustrated, saying they are not treated as adults or equal partners.
They respect that Johnston took charge when their father died 12 years ago but feel he makes all the big decisions without consulting them and then complains they don't contribute.
Benedict is even more direct: "I don't see why my brother, who doesn't have the education that I have and has never run one of our operating companies, should be totally in control of the family business. We are all equal 33 per cent shareholders."
Over the past five years Benedict has built the smallest division into a real profit-maker, and he thinks he could make a similar contribution to the entire group if his brother would allow him to take more responsibility. But when he proposed taking charge of the family's largest factory Johnston quickly rebuked him.