“It is imperative that family businesses embrace long-term thinking, support ESG practices and make impact investments to enact positive changes in business morality within the market economy,” Chavalit Frederick Tsao, Chairman, IMC Pan Asia Alliance Corporation.This year, the World Economic Forum’s central focus was the imperative task of “rebuilding trust.” I believe businesses need to step up to rebuild trust and take the lead to create solutions to today’s sustainability challenges.
The family business has more control over its future than big corporations. Conglomerates’ ultimate investor shareholders are often distanced from the business through layers of fund managers, whose shareholders or stakeholders may yet be another fund, making it difficult for them to think about long-term investing. Return on investment is used as the measurement of success and this shapes the behaviour of businesses.
In the new era, family businesses can build a collective legacy by collaborating and co-creating solutions that benefit humanity, promote well-being and foster a flourishing economy. They must initiate business reforms, return ethics and morality to the forefront of corporate decisions and catalyze the shift in the market economy.In this context, family businesses emerge as economic entities ideally positioned to lead in stewardship of ethical and sustainable practices.