Cultural Influences on Family Values

Annie Koh describes the different cultural and religious values that guide many Asian Enterprising Families.

I think family values resonate very well in Asian culture, because many Asian family businesses are anchored by either a common set of philosophical values or religious values. So most Chinese families relate very well with the Confucius school of thought and the Confucian values. Many Middle Eastern, Malaysian and Indonesian families also have strong beliefs in the Muslim culture and the Sharia law of investing, so they also have a lot of the religious values. And of course the Christians have their Christian values. So family values reflect very clearly in many of our Asian family businesses. But we are in a transition stage for many of the Asian families and so you need to professionalize and you bring in a lot of professional help. In that process of professionalization, the reminder has to be there that what do our business family values capture, what does it reflect, and non-family members joining the family must understand what resonates with the family values. So if it’s a no-no to get into businesses that you are never comfortable with, it should be articulated very clearly. The business values must carry through because it’s part of the family values.