SMU alumnus Mahesh Primalani was working for a consulting firm, out of a posh Raffles Place office. But the itch to return to his roots was “too much to tahan (withstand in Malay)”, the 34-year-old said. Six months into his first job as a human resource consultant, he quit to join Parisilk, a consumer electronics firm set up by his grandfather in 1952. Commenting on local family businesses, Director of the Business Families Institute at SMU Elaine Tan said, “Some of the emerging generations are expanding into new markets and diversifying into new lines of business.” Mr Primalani, who handles the business-to-business side of Parisilk, is one such example. “We’ve always done corporate sales but on an ad-hoc basis, until I found my way in the business and decided to make that my focus, he said.