Inaugural Ngee Ann Kongsi Annual Lecture

The inaugural Ngee Ann Kongsi Annual Lecture was held on 9 January 2008 with Dr Sanjay Goel from the Labovitz School of Business and Economics at the University of Minnesota Duluth speaking about “Sources of Competitive Advantage in Family Business – Bringing the Family Back In”. The lecture was held in the Ngee Ann Kongsi Auditorium at SMU’s School of Accountancy/School of Law building to a full audience and included a panel discussion with Mr Richard Eu, CEO of Eu Yan Sang Group; Mr Andreas Sohmen-Pao, Managing Director of BW Shipping Managers Pte Ltd in Singapore; and Mr Robert Yap, Chairman and CEO of YCH Group. Representing the Ngee Ann Kongsi were Mr Teo Chiang Long, President, and Hon. Treasurer Dr Wu Chiaw Ching.

Dr Goel is an expert on managing family businesses and focused his lecture on the unique resources within a family business that many successful businesses use to their advantage. In particular, he discussed the resources that assist a family business when it is expanding internationally and how family businesses develop roots in foreign markets. Dr Goel’s current research interests are corporate governance and its affect on strategy and firm performance, especially in knowledge intensive contexts, comparative corporate governance systems and the affect of governance and firm level factors in knowledge acquisition in young firms.