Speaking at the official launch of the Business Families Institute at SMU (BFI@SMU), SMU President Arnoud De Meyer said, “Since 2010, SMU has recognised the emergence of Asian business families and discerned that they require specifically contextualised thought leadership and applied knowledge.” “This is the gap that BFI@SMU will fill. Our philosophy is to work with business families, for business families.” Ho Kwon Ping, [Chairman of the SMU Board of Trustees] and Executive Chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings, noted that many Asian family businesses, founded on the ruins of World War II by the first generation and having been grown by the second generation, are now passing into the hands of the third. “Many Asian family businesses are now at the inflexion point, which is also a dangerous point. There is a very glaring absence of thought leadership,” he said, alluding to the common Chinese belief that wealth does not last three generations. To get BFI@SMU going, SMU also partnered Deloitte Southeast Asia to jointly undertake related research covering family businesses in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.