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Case Study

Indorama Ventures PLC: Charting its own path to success

By Joachim Schwass, Anne-Catrin Glemser and Martin Králik

10 pages

October 2014

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Reference: IMD-7-1604

The case charts the past 30 years in the history of Indorama Ventures Plc, an ethnic Indian-owned family business expanding into Southeast-Asian markets including Thailand. The company has continually drawn on and reinterpreted its story of past adversity as a powerful source of personal, family and corporate leadership. This makes its story stand out, particularly in a cultural context that is typified by a strong preference for looking into the future rather than the past as well as a tendency to gloss over past mistakes and misfortunes. Indorama Ventures’ track record of cultural sensitivity and social responsibility allowed it to start the ongoing process of building a truly global brand. In addition, the company set down clearly articulated, long-term ownership rules which entrust the next generation of the family business owners with investing rather than just managing roles.

Learning Objective

This case is part of a series featuring Southeast-Asian family businesses that exemplify best practices in family, ownership, succession and business governance. It portrays a new type of ethnic minority-owned company whose regional expansion has been driven predominantly by business rather than political considerations. It invites the reader to reflect on and anticipate the company’s choices in steering the business onto a path of continued internationalization and fast growth while grooming the next generation of owners and disseminating its own set of family, cultural and management values.

Keywords

Family Business, Manufacturing, Succession Planning

Settings

Asia, Thailand
Indorama Ventures, Manufacturing, Chemicals, Manufacturing
1st Half 2014

Type

Field Research

Available Languages

English

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