An Asian Family Business

Following my research and write up on Estee Lauder — A family in business, I received a phone call from another company. This time the firm’s name was a lot closer to my heart. It was an Asian company, and also a family business.

It was a call from Innisfree, and I quickly went into research mode. As I was reading, I realised to my surprise that Innisfree was also established post World War II. However rather than a husband and wife duo, it was founded by a lady in the 1940s and established subsequently by her second son, Suh Sung-hwan, in 1945.

Suh Sung-hwan would later go on to have six children, although only his youngest son, Suh Kyung-bae, expressed interest in inheriting the business. Kyung-bae joined the company in the year 1980, at the age of 17, after finishing his MBA from the University of Cornell. Before assuming the office of executive, Kyung-bae worked in various departments of the company. In 1997, at the age of 34, he became the chairman of the company. Later after the demise of his father in 2003, he took the company to an international level, selling its products to Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines, and the United States.

As I go through the history of Innisfree, I cannot help but draw parallels to the growth of Estee Lauder. Both companies had developed their companies with a focus on marketing, product development and taking their business to a global scale. It is also amazing that both of these companies were founded post World War II, a time of great economic and political instability. In addition, for both of these great companies, their children were the ones who brought the business to a whole new level through globalisation. As I look through the growth of these businesses, I can’t help but wonder how the next generation will contribute to the growth of these conglomerates.

In my next write up, I will focus on family busineses closer to home. More specifically, family businesses listed on SGX where we will look in-depth on the nature of the family business and how it contributes to the economy. Stay tuned.