Corporate couples

Do married couples make good business partners? There are many examples in corporate Malaysia of couples who have built a marriage and business together. Mixing business with pleasure, indeed.

MARRIED to your job. For quite a few in the country’s corporate arena, this rings true in more ways than one. There are many examples of married couples who also manage large corporations as business partners in Malaysia.

In some cases, the co-pilots have together built a thriving business while for others, there have been setbacks from such partnerships.


Some of these business duos in Malaysia, which largely involve family-owned enterprises where husbands and wives are dominant partners include Supermax Corp Bhd’s Datuk Seri Stanley Thai and his wife Datin Seri Cheryl Tan, Crest Builder Holdings Bhd’s Yong Soon Chow and wife Koh Hua Lan, Reliance Pacific Bhd’s Datuk Gan Eng Kwong and his wife Datin Irene Tan, Freight Management Holdings Bhd’s Chew Chong Keat and his wife Gan Siew Yong to name a few.

They are all successful partnerships, but unlike most couples, they face the added and, at times, daunting task of keeping the peace both at home and at work, juggling a meaningful relationship at home with their jet setting careers.

Interestingly though, the principles that apply to these couples both at home and at work do not vary greatly – such as good communication, respect, managing expectations, clearly setting out each other’s roles and responsibilities and so forth.

Of course, that’s easier said than done, and especially so when it involves millions (or billions) of ringgit.
In such business partnerships, probably more so than in others given the conflicts that could potentially arise, it is crucial to have a corporate code of conduct to ensure that there are adequate checks and balances.

Growing a financial partnership

Marriage has many features that are similar to running a business – they both need to be transparent, value adding to both parties, and managed with foresight to be successful.

Like a chief executive officer and a chief financial officer, each partner has precise job functions and should do a job that he or she is most qualified to handle.

A business would certainly run into problems quickly if its CEO did not treat his fellow board members or employees with respect, trust and consideration.

“When an employer treats his employees with respect, he gets in return more than what is expected of them. In the same way, when we regard our spouse with respect, we gain their respect and even more,’’ says NewAsia Capital associate director Sherilyn Foong.

And when the CEO needs to take the day off when he or she’s not well, or for whatever emergency, his or
 her “next-in-line” should be able to carry on running the business until the CEO can resume duties.

for more story click here 

By TEE LIN SAY
linsay@thestar.com.my