SMU’s Business Families Institute (BFI) was established in response to the growing needs of business families in Asia. This column profiles business families and how they approach issues of governance and stewardship. Entrepreneur Nichol Ng shares how she and her brother Nicholas Ng built a network of companies to serve the food & beverage industry, focusing on smaller enterprises and hawkers, to give them a leg up in an extremely competitive market. Through it all, the siblings also manage The Food Bank Singapore (FBSG), a charity whose outreach has grown tremendously in Singapore. Despite ranking among the most food-secure nations in the world, two out of five Singapore households experience food insecurity at least once in the past 12 months. This was based on a 2019 study by the SMU Lien Centre for Social Innovation, in collaboration with FBSG, published last year. SMU Assistant Professor of Strategic Management (Education) and Interim Academic Director of BFI Kenneth Goh said, “Familial and commercial concerns are often intertwined in family-owned enterprises. Successful family enterprise owners have cultivated skills, mindset and structures so that these concerns become mutually reinforcing.” He added, “Through thought leadership and education, BFI aims to catalyse meaningful societal impact through the family enterprise.”
13 Jul 2021
