HKUST Business School Magazine

East and West Ma says there is often a constitution and a set of written rules in the West, where things tend to be more structured. In the East, it often comes down to values that people understand but have not usually written down. “In the West, they live under a court system with a jury, but in the East we defer more to our values. Hong Kong is a very interesting place because there is a convergence of these two ways of doing things,” he says. “The challenge going forward results from this clash of ideas, because the next generation has been very well educated, and many of them have studied overseas.” To deal with the different ways of looking at things, Ma’s family set up a Family Forum. They wrote down all the things that the family stood for, established what they believed in, and ensured that all the stakeholders met once every two months to remind themselves of these values. Ma noted that this method was particularly useful as the family began to grow. He is proud of the fact that today the Family Forum is not just him and his brother, but boasts another five “next generations”. It has become a cohesive and unifying force that helps guide the family in their business decisions. Ma believes that the secret of the Forum’s success rests on three factors: clarity, consistency, and constancy. Clarity is what the family name stands for, consistency is about the actions the family members take, and constancy relates to the time everyone takes to do things. Ma equates it to branding, noting that the process is very similar to building brand credibility. It’s about agreeing on the same values, and ensuring that everyone acts the same way. You need to define ‘true north’, and you need to have a magnetic needle which points you in the right direction Maximilian Ma Chairman of Lee Heng Diamond Group Family Forum of the Ma family A unifying force that helps guide the family in its business decisions and aligns members to the family’s values Rests on three factors for its success, namely clarity, consistency, and constancy Family’s Compass Biz@HKUST 22 Cover