This third-generation Malaysian family conglomerate had diversified interests spanning palm oil plantations, property development, retail, and hospitality, with combined annual revenues of approximately MYR 1.8 billion and over 6,000 employees. The founding patriarch's generation had built the business on personal relationships; the second generation had professionalized with formal governance; and the three third-generation family members — all educated abroad and in their 30s — were pushing for AI-driven modernization.
The generational divide was creating strategic paralysis. The second-generation chairman viewed AI as expensive technology experimentation, while the third generation saw it as essential for survival. Decision-making relied on monthly management meetings that consumed three to four days because data from different business units was manually compiled, often inconsistent, and always late. The conglomerate's palm oil trading desk was making hedging decisions based on weekly reports while competitors used real-time market intelligence.
Previous technology initiatives had soured the second generation on digital investment. A failed ERP implementation three years prior had cost MYR 8 million and was abandoned after 14 months. The family's advisory board warned that the conglomerate's operational inefficiencies and resistance to technology were depressing its potential valuation by 15-20% for any future transaction or IPO.
Pertama Partners designed a family business-specific engagement, beginning with separate confidential sessions with each generation to map concerns, aspirations, and red lines. Our AI Readiness Audit was framed as an operational efficiency review rather than a technology project — language that resonated with the second generation. We assessed data flows, decision-making processes, and operational metrics across all four business divisions.
The audit uncovered MYR 42 million in quantifiable annual inefficiencies: duplicate data entry consuming 4,200 staff hours monthly, delayed reporting causing missed palm oil hedging opportunities worth MYR 12 million annually, overstocked retail inventory of MYR 8 million, and manual property development feasibility analysis that took six weeks per project versus a potential two days. Presenting these findings in ringgit rather than technology jargon was critical to securing unanimous family support.
Our AI Pilot Program selected three high-impact, low-risk initiatives: a real-time management dashboard replacing the three-day manual compilation process, an AI-powered demand forecasting system for the retail division, and a market intelligence tool for the palm oil trading desk. Executive Training sessions were designed as family workshops — creating shared AI vocabulary and establishing a family AI charter governing investment thresholds, risk tolerance, and decision rights for future AI initiatives.
"My grandfather built this company on instinct and relationships. Pertama Partners showed our entire family that AI does not replace those values — it amplifies them. For the first time in years, all three generations agree on where we are heading."— Tan Jia Wei, Third-Generation Managing Director
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