Dubai: Diving deep into the aspects of Family Business
“If an opportunity doesn’t knock, create a door” this is exactly what I have learnt by far from one of the best courses I’ve taken at Northeastern University. Being an entrepreneurship and Finance major at Northeastern University and also being a part of a family business in India, I wanted to learn more about family business and had opted to do both the family business courses that the university had to offer. Fortunately, I took the global family business course through which I had an opportunity to travel to Dubai and Abu Dhabi over the course of the spring break and had a chance to meet with some of the most successful businessmen and learn about their family businesses in the middle east region.
To look back, all the students in the class started the semester with a lot of excitement as we were going to travel to the middle east region and during the course of the class we dived deep into the culture, performance, and governance of the family businesses. Being a part of a family business myself, I could relate with it all and could focus more on how this would help me in the future. After learning different aspects of the family businesses, we were all assigned to research on each of the businesses that we were going to learn about in the trip. As the date came closer, the excitement amongst all the students increased and we were all set to travel to Dubai and meet some of the major influential businessmen of the region.
We met a lot of amazing businessmen which included, Sultan Olayan, Rohan and Yogesh Mehta (Founder and managing director of Petrochem Middle East) Ronaldo Mouchawar (Co-Founder & CEO of Souq.com), Pierre Choueiri (CEO & Chairman at Choueiri Group), Nabil Habayeb (PNT’19President & CEO for MENAT), just to name a few. We discussed some of the major aspects of family business with all the businessmen that we met and their words gave me a new vision to look at. Conversing with them, I realized that it’s not always easy to make a choice and that there are many factors that come into play when one is a part of a family business. One of the most important aspects of a family business that I have learnt in this course is governance and succession planning. Moreover, I had an opportunity to speak with everyone regarding this issue and I was very impressed by the broad perspective, different answers, and the different vision of their companies. All of businesses had different missions for their company regarding succession and professionalism.
Sultan Olayan was the first person we had an opportunity to meet on this trip and I feel the Olayan group was one of the best examples that introduced proper succession planning and implemented professionalization in the work environment along with setting up a family office. The company was founded by Sulaiman Olayan in 1947 as a contracting company in Saudi Arabia and is currently entering its third generation. During the meeting with Sultan Olayan who was looking to join the family business, focused more on the professionalism side of the business. It was mentioned that for any family member to join the business, he/she must have a high School diploma, must have completed Masters or MBA program and also be a CFA or CA. Along with this, a five-year work experience with at least two promotions was also required. This shows the extent of the professionalism in the family business. Not only a person had to comply with all the above mentioned criteria but also be introduced to the outsides which was the external board who would then select them on the basis of merits. He had mentioned that he was currently working outside the family business but was soon looking to join the family business as he had successfully completed all the requirements. Professionalism in the work culture was also discussed when he had mentioned the importance that the business gives to its employees and the exposure employees achieve after working in the business. Along with this we were interested to hear that they had also erected a family office for the regular meeting and get-to gathers of the family members as it was very important for a family to be united to run a family business successfully.
This meeting with Sultan Olayan opened up a new perspective for me as I have learnt the importance of a professional environment in the family business. Being a part of a family business, I could relate to everything as my family business did not have such a professional workplace and I would look to implement it when I join the business. This meeting also taught me the importance to work outside of the family business for a few years as this would give a new exposure and a new sense of perspective towards running a business. For me, this meeting was one of the most interesting and important meetings and one of the major highlight of the trip as I feel proper succession planning and professionalization in the work environment are the keys to success for a family business and this meeting focused on exactly those points.
To summarize the trip, I genuinely enjoyed this trip and I would really want to take more courses like these at Northeastern University as it not only teaches you the theoretical part of a business aspect but also gives you a new vison and a practical knowledge while meeting major successful people from all over the world. This class gave me a lot to reflect on and being an entrepreneur, I learnt that sometimes you have to create your own way into this world and there is nothing called as impossible and it only exists till you find a solution. I would like to end by thanking Northeastern University and our Professor Mr. Gregory Collier, without whom the amazing journey of this course would be impossible.
To summarize the trip, I genuinely enjoyed this trip and I would really want to take more courses like these at Northeastern University as it not only teaches you the theoretical part of a business aspect but also gives you a new vison and a practical knowledge while meeting major successful people from all over the world. This class gave me a lot to reflect on and being an entrepreneur, I learnt that sometimes you have to create your own way into this world and there is nothing called as impossible and it only exists till you find a solution. I would like to end by thanking Northeastern University and our Professor Mr. Gregory Collier, without whom the amazing journey of this course would be impossible.
