Conflict
In Hong Kong, the man and woman on the street show more interest in the lives of the city's tycoons than perhaps anywhere else in the world. On Tuesday, Walter Kwok, who, following a dispute with his brothers and sisters, lost his stake in one of the world's most valuable property companies, Sun Hung Kai Properties, said that he had been offered HK$20bn ($2.6bn) to settle the dispute, but that it was not enough.
The family-controlled public companies of Hong Kong are characteristic of the Asian model of management, say observers. The Asian public company is often an extension of the founding family. Asian business people typically trust an inner circle, which starts with the family. Moreover, in developing countries, the personal contacts between founder and family are more important than they are in the west.
The disputes between the JO two Indian billionaire brothers, Mukesh and Anil Ambani of Reliance Industries, over the past few years have been on an epic scale. In 2009, the younger brother, Anil, even flew from Mumba.i to the Himalayas seeking the god Shiva's help in the hope of resolving his dispute with his brother. The problem, says Joseph Ngai, who heads the Hong Kong office of McKinsey, the consulting firm, is that in the typical familyrun business, family, ownership and business issues are mixed
together. "The more you can separate these three, the longer your family business will last," says Mr Ngai.
Still, change is happening, so even in countries like India, long dominated by family companies. The founders of lnfosys Technologies, the Bangalore-based software firm, were so determined to create a professionally-run company that they ordered that none of the founders' children would be allowed to work in the business.
1 Look through the whole article. Which headline (a-c) could be used?
a) Family-run Asian companies and their problems
b) Family-run companies around the world
c) Family-run companies in India
2 Look through the whole article and find the names of:
a) a very rich property developer in Hong Kong.
b) the name of the company in which he had a stake.
c) two Indian billionaire brothers.
d) their company.
e) a god whom one of the brothers went to 'see' in order to help solve a dispute.
f) a consulting firm with an office in Hong Kong.
g) someone who works for it.
h) an Indian IT company.
3 Find words and expressions in paragraph 1 that mean the following.
a) ordinary people t........................................... (7 words)
b) very rich business owners t ............................ .
c) a conflict d........................
d ) the percentage of a company that someone owns s....................... .
e) a verb used to talk about ending a conflict s........................
4 Read paragraph 2 and decide if these statements about expressions are true or false.
a) Something characteristic (line 17) of something is typical of it.
b) A model (line 17) is a way of doing something that is not copied by anyone else.
c) An extension (line 20) of something is another part of it.
d) In a company, the boss's inner circle (lines 22-23) consists of people that he or she doesn't know.
e) Your personal contacts (line 25) are people that you don't know.
f) Someone who takes over a company is its founder. (line 26)
5 Answer these questions about paragraph 3, starting your answers with the words given.
a) Have the disputes between the Ambani brothers been on a small scale? - No, they ...
b) Did one of the brothers seek outside help to resolve the dispute? - Yes, he even ...
c) Why are disputes so difficult to resolve in family-run businesses? - Because many different issues ...
d) What is the best way to resolve them ? - By ...
e) What happens if you can resolve family business disputes?- The longer the business ...
6 Complete the table with words from lines 40-58 in the form they are used in the article.
verb noun
head
separation
change
domination
found
order
7 Now match the nouns in Exercise 6 with related points from the article (a-f).
a) dividing family issues from business issues
b) the boss of McKinsey in Hong
c) the position of family businesses compared to other businesses in India
d) the instruction that the founders' children should not take over lnfosys
e) the way that even in India things are not the same as before
f) the brothers who started lnfosys Technologies
Over to you 1
Why are family disputes, even non-business ones, so hard to resolve?
Over to you 2
What advantages do professional managers have over family members when running a business?
Djaneta
ОтветитьУдалить1. b
2.
ОтветитьУдалитьa) Walter Kwok
b) Sun Hung Kai Properties
c) Mukesh and Anil Ambani
d) Reliance Industries
e) Shiva
f) McKinsey
g) Joseph Ngai
h) lnfosys Technologies
3.
ОтветитьУдалитьa) the man and woman on the street
b) tycoons
c) dispute
d) stake
e) settle
4.
ОтветитьУдалитьa) true
b) false
c) true
d) false
e) false
f) true
5.
ОтветитьУдалитьa) No, they dicputed on an epic scale.
b) Yes, he even flew from Mumbai to the Himalayas seeking the god Shiva's help in the hope of resolving his dispute.
c) Because many different issues are mixed
together.
d) By the separation of family, owneeship and business issues.
e) The longer the business will last.
6.
ОтветитьУдалитьverb. noun
heads head
separate separation
change change
dominated domination
found founders
ordered order
7.
ОтветитьУдалитьa) separation
b) head
c) domination
d) order
e) change
f) founders
8.
ОтветитьУдалить1) Because when resolving disputes in a family, it is very difficult to come to the right decision without hurting someone's opinion. In any case, at least one member of the family will be against the general opinion, but he will have to agree with the rest. Therefore it is very important in the family to learn to listen to everyone, and in the end try to come to a decision that will include part of the opinion of everyone.
2) The advantage is that they bear all the responsibility themselves, while in the family everyone is responsible for their actions. They can make decisions about their own business, connect with other people or refuse them.