Synopsis:
Mr. JM, the Managing Director (MD) as well as the owner of 5Ds, stared at the figure walking through the door of his office. “It’s time to go boss,” said the staff to signal the close of work. JM nodded in admittance and boded the staff farewell as he watched him go through the door again. It was almost sunset on a bright but windy day in September 2018 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. JM peeped through his office window and watched as the sun disappears into the clouds; filled with tears he repeatedly says, “it’s time to go!”. JM knew that as a 74-year-old who has just survived stroke in a country where the life expectancy is 72 years; retirement and death were quite near.
The experienced JM built 5Ds enterprises from the scratch to a successful family business with a sales turnover of over two million (> RM2 million) Malaysian Ringgit and ten (10) employees operating on five (5) connected shop lots in Ampang AU3 at the heart of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, dedicated to the designs of steel grills, windows, doors, house/office cabinets and other related services. He was an extraordinaire entrepreneur with fabulous patriotic drive to mentor and create entrepreneurs. He believed and preached that for the country to progress comfortably into a developed nation, there was a need to constantly create and aid entrepreneurs who will not only provide employment but power the economy to greater heights. Entrepreneurship was his passion and in recognition of this, the Malaysian government sent him for a short course on entrepreneurship in one of the universities in United Kingdom about three decades ago. Since he came back, he had mentored many successful small and medium scale entrepreneurs. He knew as he had always warned his mentees; succession was a very challenging issue in business. Going through the company files on his table and looking at his office walls he asked, “How prepared am I for succession?”
The case study is developed and prepared for undergraduate students undertaking human resource management, entrepreneurship, business management and business strategy related subjects. The case is designed through primary data collection on 5Ds Enterprise, whereby in-depth interviews were conducted with the owner and his family members, and employees of the enterprise