Different Paths to Succession

Annie Koh describes a succession process that is growing in popularity in Asian culture.

The problem is a lot of people, even with a mediator coming in and asking them to put a succession plan in place, would usually keep deferring it. Because like I say, many of our patriarchs does not like the idea of handing over the reins. But there are different ways to do it. I’ve started to see in many of our family businesses, the patriarch moves on to a chairman role and let the successor come in, either as CEO or COO. So he does not relinquish the reins completely, he’s still there, he comes in, he holds meetings, but he doesn’t do the day to day and there is one way in which many of the Asian businesses are moving towards succession.