As I have said many times before, Malaysia Today dabbles in the untold stories and the Naza Group is a success story that has largely thus far been untold. It started from a modest oil-stained auto showroom to become a global business conglomerate in only 30 years. (READ: S. Korea honours Naza CEO)
It is also a story about the importance of women in a family business and how they can be left exposed and vulnerable when factures begin to appear.
Malaysia Today offers exclusive insight into this company, which also provides a salutary lesson that any family business could learn from.
It must surely be the dream of many a small business-owner to grow his or her operation into a thriving, global and self-sustaining profitable enterprise. Whether Nasimuddin SM Amin (Nasim) had this particular vision in mind when he opened a business at the age of 19 to support his mother, brothers and sisters is a moot point. Nevertheless, he certainly achieved it.
In 1974, Nasim set up a garage by importing second-hand Japanese cars. At that time you need not be an Umno crony to get your hands on APs or import permits and I, too, dabbled in the second-hand car import business for a brief period until I got my hands on the Mercedes Benz dealership for the state of Terengganu.
Today, the Naza Group’s tangible assets are conservatively estimated to be worth £2 billion. If you add in brand value and other intangible assets the figure could well be a lot higher. (READ: Prudent path to success)
Nasim was a colourful character. He had three wives and eleven children, didn’t so much smoke heavily rather he chewed his way incessantly through cigarettes, made some bitter enemies but gained a lot more friends.
That is the predicament of successful Malay entrepreneurs. People hate you just because you are successful even if they have never once met you in their lives. And Nasim was not exempted from what the Malays call the PHD syndrome: perangai hasat dengki, the syndrome that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad used to say would be the cause of the downfall of the Malays.
Role of women
Nasim’s third wife was only ‘discovered’ when he died an early death at age 53 on May 1st 2008, inevitably of lung cancer. She turned up at the funeral alongside the second wife, who also made her first public appearance much to the surprise of observers — the then prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and former prime minister, Mahathir Mohamed, amongst them who also came to pay their respects.
However, Nasim’s story is not only remarkable for his tenacity and willpower — he faced many challenges, including how to convince customers to buy used cars when second-hand foreign cars were as popular as Umno is today — but it is also a story of the strength of family and, more darkly, the corrupting influence of money and power.
It is also the story about the place of women in a family business. They say behind every great man there is a great woman. In Nasim’s case it was four women — three wives and a modest, intelligent, and attractive younger sister, Norashikin S M Amin (Nora), who now lives in London under a sort of ‘exile’ from the family and estate.
Nasim’s wives, including his first wife Zaleha Ismail whom he married at 19 despite the age disparity, must have provide significant emotional and psychological support to Nasim in his early days of putting down his empire’s roots.
It appears that Nasim and Nora were very close — she played the role of confidante to her brother. Maybe they were the Malay version of Lisa and Bart Simpson. Nasim reposed significant trust in Nora to deal with his commercial, legal and personal affairs, but in return assumed a paternalistic and protective role in relation to her.
In her own way, Nora displays similar physical and characteristic traits to that of her brother — such as tenacity, wilfulness and ambition — and it was this that Nasim clearly saw. That was why he entrusted her alone with certain aspects of the confidential work involving the properties and litigation in the UK.
The strength of the relationship between Nora and Nasim illustrates what can be achieved in business when family members come together in a trusting and cooperative manner. In this manner, Nasim also collaborated with his brothers and expanded the Naza Group with Naza Kia and NZ Wheels. This is the value of family business. Help is there when it’s needed, because loyalty is never questioned.
But after his demise, where is Nasim’s family? Despite having more than four houses in London, Nora and her children are about to be evicted by the first wife Zaleha and her children. None of the brothers or sisters of Nasim is in the Naza Group business. No one knows the reason but it’s understandable that jealousy can be emotional acid that corrodes relationships and undermines self-esteem. Maybe it’s the same PHD syndrome or a sign of a power struggle and insecurity in the family echoing the clichés ‘the cause of the downfall of the Malays’.
The eviction news published in December shows how greed has taken over the family, and for reasons best known to the first wife and her family, Nora has been isolated and kept away from the estate. The trial of the case should be of interest to the Malaysian public, and the tax authorities in Malaysia and the UK. Maybe we could get more information of the MAS house and properties swap involving the ex-prime minister’s son, Kamaluddin Abdullah (READ: Naza family in tussle over London property).
Honouring the dead
Dark murmurings arose, whispers that the will had been changed a few days before Nasim’s death in favour of his first wife, Zaleha Ismail and her family, that the Naza empire was set to be carved up. (READ: Naza empire faces breakup over lawsuit in 2010)
In Muslim law there is legal provision for inheritance through Shariah but this has been ignored. There is also the matter of honouring the wishes of the dead. Nasim’s family members must be unanimous in their belief that Nasim would be appalled if he could see how events have unfolded due to the actions of the first wife Zaleha and her children.
Malay Drama
If anything, there is a salutary tale here for those who aim to grow their family businesses. Blood is thicker than water and generally you can rely on and trust family, which is a great blessing when building a business, whether it is a corner shop or an organisation that spans different countries. However, there comes a point when ownership, rights, duties and expectations must be nailed down legally.
As family businesses grow, especially through several generations, ties can become diluted, expectations become too high and collective ambition can wither on the jagged rocks of self-interest and greed.
Only about 30% of family and businesses survive into the second generation, 12% are still viable into the third generation, and only about 3% of all family businesses operate into the fourth generation or beyond. This, the Chinese believe, and usually the Chinese are well versed in such matters.
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