Hwa Gung Tea (HGT), a premium tea brand founded in Taiwan, has a rich history dating back to 1918. For many decades, the family business has been producing and distributing alpine Oolong tea cultivated at above 2,000 metres on the famous tea-producing Lishan mountains. Having transitioned through four generations, HGT's unique value proposition was an end-to-end value chain integrator from tea cultivation, harvesting, production, and wholesale distribution to retail, including branding and marketing. Few tea companies in Taiwan managed the entire process chain as HGT did. Johnny Tu, the fifth-generation CEO, led HGT to become ISO 20000 and HACCP-certified, winning several domestic and international awards. Collaborations with prestigious names like China Airlines, Mandarin Oriental Hotel, and Michelin-starred restaurants also enhanced the brand's visibility. Besides his efforts to grow HGT as a premium brand, Johnny also believed that HGT can lead in creating social impact. He worked assiduously with the indigenous people living in the Lishan mountains and offered them job opportunities, fostered their skill development, and encouraged them to take pride in their vocations. By doing so, he wished to keep the indigenous community together with economic activities and preserve the artisanship of tea cultivation in Taiwan. In 2024, after nearly 20 years of managing the family business, Johnny faced the challenge of expanding globally while preserving HGT's legacy. Balancing tradition and innovation, he experimented and created new flavours while engaging the younger generation through his lectures about tea. Confronted by regulatory hurdles, food safety scandals, counterfeit teas, and skills crunch in tea-making, he contemplated the future of the family business. How can Johnny navigate these complexities while leveraging his inherited intangible assets as a family business successor, tea-making master, and educator?

Set in 2022, the case follows the sustainability journey of Jiu Zhen Nan, a 133-year-old Taiwanese pastry brand headquartered in Kaohsiung, the southern city of Taiwan. Jiu Zhen Nan specialises in gourmet traditional Chinese Han pastry, often consumed during major festivals, weddings, and religious celebrations. The century-old brand has an established stronghold at domestic airports, high-speed rail stations, and upscale department stores. Eric Lee, Chairman and the fourth-generation owner, had been at the helm of the family firm since 1996. Given the increased focus on sustainability issues in recent years, he had aligned sustainability priorities with the baked goods business, its core values, and its long-term purpose. Since the mid-2010s, he had led the firm to achieve considerable progress on several aspects of sustainability - food ethics, environmental sustainability, social participation, the promotion of Han pastry culture, and talent cultivation. Those efforts were duly recognised, winning the firm an Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility award from the CommonWealth Magazine twice, in 2019 and 2021. Lee conceded that realising sustainability goals needed time, given that it would not be a short-term pursuit but rather an ongoing commitment. As he mulled over the options for navigating the prevailing challenges amid the COVID-19 pandemic, he recognised that, at the same time, there was mounting pressure to take even more action toward reducing the business impact on climate change. What more could a food manufacturing business like Jiu Zhen Nan do for the good of the planet, the good of society, and its future success?

The case is an example of how a family can control a large conglomerate - TECO Electric & Machinery, a Taiwanese engineering business - yet with almost no ownership stake. Founded by five prominent business families in 1956, TECO has been run by Mao-Hsiung "Theodore" Huang for the past 50 years, the son in law of the former CEO and co-founder, who married into the dominant founding family and rose up the ranks. Theodore's eldest son, Eugene, is impatient take over the reins. However, he makes a discovery just before the Annual General Meeting in 2021 and reaches the conclusion that at 83, his father simply does not want his son to take over the leadership, and will control the company from behind the scenes via non-family professionals he has installed in the executive suite. The case highlights a dilemma facing many Asian family-owned companies dominated by octogenarians who don't know how to retire gracefully. It also addresses some of the ambiguities of bringing in non-family professionals when perhaps the ulterior motive is to avoid a change of leadership.

Many Chinese family businesses are facing a succession crisis due to the lack of succession planning. Contrary to this finding, Chen Koon-yaw, the fourth-generation owner of the Hop Lion Feather Works Corporation, had planned early and handed the leadership role over to the next generation well before his retirement age. Hop Lion is a supplier of processed down and feathers to well-known consumer brands specialising in beddings and winter coats, including Canada Goose, Moncler, The North Face, and many others. Founded in 1908 and headquartered in Taiwan, the century-old family business had faced multiple crises that threatened its survival in the early 1990s - family separation, employee betrayal, loss of major clients and a highly volatile business environment. Chen's experience of an abrupt takeover of the family business after the demise of his father had led to his decision of not leaving succession planning to chance, and grooming his son as the next leader well in advance. Even after officially handing over to his elder son in 2015, there were doubts on whether he would truly let go. At 61, he had stepped down earlier than most Taiwanese CEOs. Should he continue to exert control over his successor to influence decision-making?