Samsung's Jay Lee, on the other hand, repeatedly found himself in hot water even before finishing his Ph.D. at Harvard Business School. The most recent brouhaha erupted in late March when several Samsung Group companies purchased Lee's stakes in troubled Internet businesses that he started at the height of the dotcom mania. Samsung, which stands to take the losses, says the deals were mainly intended to free Lee from other commitments so he can concentrate on his new job. The Korean government is now investigating the complaints. Still, there's no argument that if you own enough shares, you are fully entitled to pass your company on to your offspring.
Nepotism is by no means a uniquely Asian phenomenon.
In America, a third of the companies on the Fortune 500 list are still family controlled. Many family-run corporations, moreover, are doing as well as if not better than professionally managed firms. If Korea's Hyundai Group represents one awful extreme, Taiwan's Koos Group exemplifies the other, better alternative. While feuding brothers have torn apart their father's life's work at Hyundai in a matter of months, close teamwork among relatives spanning three generations has strengthened the Koos Group from year to year. In fact, the old and new ways of doing business can complement each other, he believes.