NANYANG EXECUTIVE MBA

Passing the Baton: Two Successors Share Their Nanyang EMBA Journey

After decades of leading Indonesian shipping firm PT Pelayaran Nelly Dwi Putri (Nelly), Koh Tji Beng Vincent (a.k.a. Ambran Sunarko) recognised the need for new perspectives. Enter his daughter, Cynthia, who had her own independent career in finance; Mr. Koh recognised her talent and her potential to infuse fresh ideas into the enterprise.

Similarly, Joseph Ang had planned to follow a more traditional route after National Service when the 2008 financial crisis struck. The subsequent talent shortage left Khoon Engineering—the construction firm founded by his father Ang Jui Khoon—scrambling to fulfil projects. Deciding to lend a hand, what began as a short-term arrangement for Joseph quickly turned into a commitment that would transform both his life and the company.

Cynthia’s and Joseph’s stories are part of family businesses’ surprising return to form.

For the last 15 years, 43% of family businesses reported double-digit sales growth. Notably, 73% of these growth rockstars possessed a clear set of values and common purpose. In other words, family succession is not just a question of bloodline, but one of who’s prepared to uphold and even transform the business for the future.

We spoke with Cynthia, Joseph, and their fathers to find out how they’re balancing family while positioning their businesses for the future, and how the Nanyang Executive MBA (EMBA) equipped them to transform legacy into innovation.

Stepping in, standing up

Succession often starts as an unspoken question: Who’s ready to take this further?

The question wasn’t something that Khoon Engineering Founder Ang Jui Khoon had initially thought about. Growing up in hardship, Jui Khoon was singularly focused on growing his business from the ground up.

“I didn’t even plan to be a boss,” said Jui Khoon. “My boss encouraged me to start a business after seeing how hard I worked, but honestly, I was scared to strike out on my own.”

Converting fear into forward motion would shape Khoon Engineering’s scrappy culture, where intuition was favoured over SOPs. But as the company expanded and projects grew more complex, Jui Khoon realised that a new approach was necessary. “There’s a limit to how much one person can handle,” he shared. “We needed new structure and ideas.”

Meanwhile, joining Khoon Engineering’s executive team was never part of Joseph’s plans. “I didn’t think of staying because this wasn’t my line of study,” he admitted, “But we were having a hard time recruiting younger staff because construction is an industry where talent ramps up slower. I’d say it takes about 3 to 5 years for fresh graduates to build a foundation.”

Unlike Joseph, Cynthia had fewer reservations about returning, having felt called to pull her weight long before her father raised the question. “My thought process was, it’s our business anyway,” Cynthia explained, “And I hadn’t been contributing as much as my siblings, although I did think about it.”

For the Sunarkos, appointing Cynthia was a strategic move. Her father valued her background in insurance and finance — fields that had equipped her with strong fundamentals, logical thinking, and experience with numbers. He felt that a new leader could push Nelly’s rank-and-file to rethink how things were done.

“Nelly is a publicly listed company,” Vincent said. “I needed someone who could help build it to last. Cynthia had experience working in KPMG and the right financial foundation, so she was a natural choice.”

He also pushed Cynthia to sign up for the Nanyang EMBA, in hopes that it would prepare her to scale the business. “Strategic planning skills from the Nanyang EMBA would guide her towards more systematic problem-solving,” he explains. “I think that that should be very beneficial.”

Earning trust as second-generation leaders

Second-generation leaders face a double challenge: proving themselves internally while managing external expectations. Both Cynthia and Joseph met initial scepticism and had to earn their stripes the hard way.

At Nelly, Cynthia had to navigate a hierarchical company culture, where senior staff were not accustomed to taking instructions from a younger leader. “Even if I had the authority on paper, I didn’t have it in practice,” she said.

Instead of pushing back, Cynthia leaned on concepts of cultural intelligence and systems thinking learned from the Nanyang EMBA. These frameworks helped her to articulate the root causes of intergenerational conflict. By unpacking these conversations at monthly meetings, Cynthia was able to instill a culture of accountability, shifting the team’s attention from personal disagreements to a unified focus on problem-solving.

“You don’t change culture with an org chart,” she explained. “I had to build belief, not just restructure processes.”

At Khoon Engineering, Joseph faced a different kind of challenge: nudging a team of seasoned stalwarts away from entrenched practices towards modern practices without overstepping boundaries.

“To the older generation, computers were very foreign,” he explained. “To avoid resistance, I allowed them to continue using hard copies while I quietly scanned documents into the system. They eventually warmed up to file sharing once they saw how easily I retrieved information they couldn’t find. Looking back, fixing systems and witnessing the impact may have been the turning point for me. Because it felt like I was building something worthwhile.”

From business legacy to trusted leadership

Today, both Cynthia and Joseph are recognised not just as successors, but credible leaders who brought something new to the table instead of replicating their parents’ approach.

Understanding of organisational dynamics from the Nanyang EMBA helped Cynthia focus on listening and understanding long-standing dynamics before introducing structural changes such that younger workers could be integrated without alienating the old guards.

Today, Nelly employees take the initiative and move together in a united front. In many ways, Cynthia has achieved her father’s long-term vision of moving towards “Nelly100”, building a company that can last for generations. “They used to come to me for every decision,” said Vincent. “Now, they talk to Cynthia first. I can see they trust her.”

Joseph, for his part, rolled out a phased adoption strategy through newfound communication skills picked up from his EMBA. Admitting to having doubts about being surrounded by classmates from MNCs in the beginning, Joseph ultimately found how to apply the tools he learned for effective decision making.

“Traditional construction culture does not emphasise language delivery,” he said. “For example, there are many aspects to a construction project, but some may be more interested in financing, or others in supply chain. It all depends on who you’re talking to.”

With Joseph’s new approach and the support of a dedicated team, Khoon Engineering and its related companies have grown to a combined revenue of over SGD 100 million, with over 200 employees. The group was recognised with the Enterprise 50 award in 2018 and listed on Forbes Asia’s “Best Under a Billion” in 2020. In 2024, Khoon Development received the Top Landed Development award at the EdgeProp Singapore Excellence Awards, reflecting a collective commitment to quality and innovation.

When asked about his son’s Nanyang EMBA experience, Jui Khoon noted the transformation with pride. “Joseph thinks differently now,” said Jui Khoon. “He uses old ideas with new thinking — that’s why people follow him.”

About the Nanyang Executive MBA

For second-generation entrepreneurs like Cynthia Sunarko and Joseph Ang, the Nanyang Executive MBA offers more than business fundamentals. It equips leaders with the frameworks, global perspectives, and strategic confidence to shape the future of their family businesses.

Designed for senior professionals, the part-time, 13-month modular format allows participants to balance work and study, applying insights directly to real-world challenges. Whether you’re preparing for succession or leading transformation, the Nanyang EMBA is built to support your next chapter.

Visit the Nanyang EMBA website or download the brochure to learn more about the programme and available funding options.

Download the Nanyang Executive MBA brochure

Click here to learn more about the Nanyang Executive MBA programme or contact us at execmba@ntu.edu.sg.