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To be a knowledge leader in Asian-centric family business research and education, and help business families build sustainable, impactful enterprises across generations.
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To strengthen the ecosystem of entrepreneurial business families and stakeholders in their creation of sustainable impact through SMU’s core competence as a thought leader.
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Research
Thought leadership and insights with rigour
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Education
Learning through
innovative pedagogy
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Engagement
Ecosystem support through impactful and global networking opportunities
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Family Office Management Work-Study Elective
Period: August - December 2025
The Family Office Management Work-Study Elective is a credit-bearing course for SMU students that provides students with internship opportunities with family advisory firms and family offices. For family offices looking for SMU talented interns, please connect with us via email.
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Navigating Family Dynamics and Wealth: Insights into Complex Cases and Strategies for Resolution
Date: 23 September 2025
In partnership with Mishcon de Reya LLP
The panel provided valuable insights into the legal, financial, and emotional complexities of various issues, including cross-border trust litigation, succession and tax planning, marital disputes, and alternative dispute resolution. The discussion offered practical strategies to help families navigate these challenges while maintaining harmony and ensuring a successful transfer of wealth across generations.
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BFI Case Jam 2025
Date: 30 August 2025
Over 120 students, 17 universities, 9 countries—one unforgettable BFI Case Jam 2025! Now in its fourth year, the BFI Case Jam has become a flagship event that equips future leaders with essential skills needed in today’s workplace. Unlike traditional case competitions, the BFI Case Jam offers a high-energy, fast-paced experience. Teams are formed randomly and given less than six hours to solve real-world challenges faced by family-owned businesses.
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Family Entrepreneurship Programme (FEP) in Shenzhen: Transforming Family Businesses Through AI and Innovation
Date: 9 - 11 July 2025
Over the course of three days at the FEP in Shenzhen, participating families undertook a comprehensive exploration of advanced digital strategies, AI-driven innovations, and sustainable growth models. Through insightful, expert-led sessions and exclusive visits to industry leaders such as Tencent, Huawei, and DJI, they gathered practical perspectives that will empower them to effectively transform their family enterprises for future success.
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Family Business Visit to Kim Hock-Vyncke Biomass Plant
Date: 10 April 2025
BFI brought together over 30 family business leaders for an immersive visit to the Kim Hock-Vyncke Biomass Plant - a brilliant example of how sustainability, innovation, and intergenerational leadership can drive real change.
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Workshop on The Challenge of Risk-Taking in Social Innovation
Date: 25 February 2025
BFI and Lien Centre for Social Innovation co-hosted this engaging workshop. Prof. Johanna Mair, Professor of Organisation, Strategy, and Leadership at the Hertie School of Governance, and Dr. Christian Seelos, Co-Director of the Global Innovation for Impact Lab at Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society co-led the workshop.
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Masterclass on Trusts: Creating and Administering a Trust
Date: 14 February 2025
The final session of our three-part series with Mishcon de Reya LLP focused on real-life scenarios and issues of creating and administering a trust, providing insights into:
- Funding and structuring the trusts for the family's succession goals
- Choosing the right trustees
- Defining the powers and duties of trustees and other decision-makers
- Managing assets within trusts
- Addressing family dynamics and conflicts
- Navigating disputes in trust administration
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Period: August 2024 - January 2025
We marked the conclusion of the second cohort of the Family Office Management Work-Study Elective. This credit-bearing course provided SMU students with a valuable opportunity for a five-month extended internship with family advisory firms and family offices. Participants also benefitted from secondments to external asset managers and mentoring sessions with senior industry professionals.
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Date: 6 - 8 November 2024
The FEP brought together family business leaders from Singapore, Malaysia, and Taiwan, representing industries such as manufacturing, food and beverage and real estate. Highlights included workshops on family office trends, panel discussions on intergenerational transitions, and visits to Thai President Foods and Thai Wah Group. It also covered investment, taxation, and digital transformation, helping participants navigate the landscape of family business management.
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Date: 9 October 2024
We proudly launched the BFI Next-Gen Club and hosted our inaugural event featuring a fireside chat with Olympic gold medallist and venture investor Joseph Schooling! The Club aims to address the unique challenges of growing up in an entrepreneurial family, offering customised events and programmes for students from Singapore universities who are part of business families.
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Trusts in Focus: The Role of a Trust and the Trustee Within a Family Governance Framework
Date: 12 September 2024
The session was a deep dive into a crucial part of the Family Governance Journey. Key insights included an overview of contentious trust cases presented by Vincent Sim and Stephanie Lim Pierce, along with a Live Case Discussion featuring Ruth Beaven and Prof. Yip Man, addressing questions like how to choose and work with a trustee and how to draft a relevant trust. The Q&A session clarified many doubts about the use of trusts, and the roles of Trustees and Protectors.
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BFI Case Jam 2024
Date: 30 - 31 August 2024
Now in its third year, BFI Case Jam continues to bring together family business leaders, industry partners, and SMU faculty collaborate to help students hone essential skills. This year, we hosted teams from eight international universities and, for the first time, included postgraduates, offering them valuable networking opportunities with employers.
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Fireside Chat with Mr. Ho Kwon Ping: The Art of Managing Up and Managing Down in Business Families
Date: 26 July 2024
Our fireside chat with Mr. Ho Kwon Ping was a unique opportunity to gain insights on managing up and down in business families. The session, moderated by Assoc. Prof. Kenneth Goh, covered many topics pertinent to business families, including getting the next gen involved and handing over, evolving parent-child relationships, working with professionals, succession planning, innovation, and responding to setbacks.
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Family Entrepreneurship Programme (FEP) in Jakarta: Creating Sustainability For Long - Term Success In Family Business
Date: 22 - 24 April 2024
BFI held its inaugural overseas FEP in Jakarta, bringing together a diverse group of next-gen family business leaders. It focused on family governance, succession planning, and leadership, featuring insights from industry experts. Highlights included visits to PT Paragon Corp and Blibli.com, as well as discussions on CSR initiatives and regional collaboration.
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From Traditional Giving to Impact-Focused Investing: Stories from Business Families and Entrepreneurs
In partnership with LGT Bank
The event explored the transformative journey of venture philanthropy and impact investing, as shared by Chairman LGT H.S.H. Prince Max von und zu Liechtenstein. His invaluable insights shed light on the importance of intertwining impact assessments with traditional considerations, paving the way for a sustainable future and resilient businesses.
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Masterclass: Family Continuity - The Essentials
In partnership with Mishcon de Reya
Leaders of business-owning families shoulder the dual responsibility of guiding both their business and family stakeholders - two distinct social entities that demand different styles of leadership and management. Attendees of this masterclass had the opportunity to explore the intricacies and practical strategies required for fulfilling this multifaceted role.
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BFI 10th Anniversary Conference
BFI celebrated a decade of knowledge creation and insights on 10 November 2023 at its 10th Anniversary Conference. Over 200 business families, industry partners and academics joined in the conversation to explore the journey of crafting succession blueprints, for purposeful family legacies.
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Rethinking Impact: Operationalising ESG in Business Families
by Kenneth Goh, Esther Kong and Juliana Koh
In this study, the authors wanted to examine the broader Impact of the “business family system.” To do this, they went beyond a narrow focus of a check box approach of whether the business fulfilled ESG criteria and its materiality factors. Instead, an inside-out approach was adopted to examine how the business family system creates Impact and operationalises ESG.
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Circular Economy Principles for Family Business and Wealth Stewardship
by Philip Marcovici, Kenneth Goh and Iraj Ispahani
The authors propose a 'both/and' approach, allowing family members to pursue personal interests while contributing to the family business, adding meaningful value to both family and business interests. The book highlights the potential benefits of supporting family members on their paths to self-actualisation.
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The Sustainability Sweet Spot at Jiu Zhen Nan Taiwan Pastry
by Tan Hwee Hoon, Cheah Sin Mei, Esther Kong, Chung Hsi-Mei
This case traces the sustainability journey of Jiu Zhen Nan, a Taiwanese pastry brand. Under the leadership of Eric Lee, the company integrated sustainability priorities with its core values, achieving significant progress on various fronts. Despite COVID-19 challenges, Lee explored strategies to mitigate the business's impact on climate change.
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Higher operating costs are a stone in the shoe – even for the rich eyeing family offices
SMU Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship and Academic Director of Business Families Institute Kenneth Goh noted that private-banking products offering tax exemptions provide wealthy families a cost-effective alternative to establishing single-family offices (SFOs) and could serve as an intermediate step before eventually setting one up. However, Assoc Prof Goh added that long-term platform fees of private banks may eventually exceed SFO costs, and families might face a reputational risk if their bank encounters compliance issues.
Read more here ›
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From legacy to uncertainty
SMU Associate Professor of Strategy & Entrepreneurship and Academic Director of Business Families Institute Kenneth Goh noted that heritage restaurants often operate with legacy cost structures, operating models and business models that are deeply tied to a past era, which serves as a constraint.
Read more here ›
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Temasek Shophouse to reopen by end-2025, with more space for events with social causes
Commenting on what could spark public interest in philanthropy, SMU Associate Professor Kenneth Goh noted that people are often drawn to businesses not just for their overt social impact messaging, but for the social experiences and emotional connections these businesses create. Prof Goh made this comment in conjunction with the re-opening of the Temasek Shophouse on Orchard Road slated to reopen by Q4 2025, with expanded spaces dedicated to events supporting social and environmental causes.
Read more here ›
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The Next Icon Awards 2024
SMU Business Families Institute and ICON co-organised the second edition of The Next Icon Awards, with the objective of celebrating young leaders under 40 who are driving technological innovation within family enterprises.
Read more here ›
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Four category winners of the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2024 Singapore awards named
In its 23rd run since it began in 2002, this year’s awards features winners from a mix of “traditional industries as well as new sectors that emerged with the rise of the digital and sharing economy”. Tecity Group has also been named recipient of the EY-Bank of Singapore Family Enterprise Award of Excellence. It was jointly selected by knowledge partners, SMU’s Business Families Institute and the Insead Wendel International Centre for Family Enterprise.
Read more here ›
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Building a legacy: Banyan Tree founder on building a family business that lasts
Here are five insights shared by Mr Ho Kwon Ping that are pertinent to Asian family businesses and their leaders: 1) Be a family-held business, not necessarily a family-run one; 2) Understand and embrace the social dynamics within family businesses; 3) Branding and authenticity are crucial for Asian businesses to survive; 4) Prioritise purpose over passion and legacy; 5) Institutions focusing on family businesses play an important role in Asia’s future.
Read more here ›
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For generations to come: Applying concepts of circularity to governance and succession in family-owned firms
In Circular Economy Principles for Family Business and Wealth Stewardship, Kenneth Goh, Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, and his co-authors highlight how the application of circularity principles to family governance can sustain the generational growth and success of family businesses.
Read more here ›
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Singapore's flourishing family office scene pulls in fresh grads
A new work-study elective, which matches SMU students with family offices for internships, has attracted considerable attention, reflecting the increasing appeal of wealth management as a career path for recent graduates. Family offices, typically staffed by senior professionals, can benefit from motivated, adaptable, and responsible student interns to support the lean operating team too, said SMU Associate Professor of Strategy & Entrepreneurship and Academic Director of BFI Kenneth Goh.
Read more here ›
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