Zayed Al-Hussaini Group: the road ahead for the family business in the UAE Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Home >> Human Resource Cases >> Zayed Al-Hussaini Group: the road ahead for the family business in the UAE

Zayed Al-Hussaini Group: the road ahead for the family business in the UAE

Introduction:

Zayed Al Hussaini group is a family business established by Zayed Al-Hussaini at the beginning of 1940. The whole family was initially involved in the business of Pearl Diving. The family earned money by selling pearls worldwide. With the passage of time, the Pearl Diving business faded as people found a substitute of pearls with artificial pearls. After evaluating various alternatives, Zayed decided to start his own shipping business. He involved his younger brother in the business as well. After the formation of United Arab Emirates (union of different emirates), the shipping business started prospering as the new emirates started doing businesses with each other.

The organization diversifies its business by entering a long-term contract with MNC operating in FMCG business through a joint venture; having 51% of ownership with the company. The company further expanded its business by entering into fashion brands after 1990. The group does not limit itself to these brands and further expanded into machinery, automobiles, fast food, real estate, construction and financial services companies.

Problem Identification:

A problem was faced by the nephew of Zayed Al-Hussaini, Ahmed who left his family business and went abroad for higher studies. The group was running successfully in all the operations until the death of Zayed's son, which led the business in jeopardy. Coming back home after eight years; created a huge gap among the family members. Further, Ahmed was facing difficulty in managing the family and business together as he was unable to set the priorities for his business and family. In addition to that, he has to make a decision about the succession planning of the family business as it is the core value for the growth in family businesses.

Analysis:

Family Structure:

Strengths and Weaknesses of a business:

Infrastructure:

After the separation of Zayed and Ali, the company was renamed as Zayed Al-Hussaini. Maryam took the position of General Manager. Zayed's younger daughter Zainab took the position of Managing Director and Hamdan took the charge of all the franchises. The infrastructure in the company was informal yet innovative, flexible and entrepreneurial as well. In addition to that, infrastructure of Zayed Al-Hussaini becomes confusing and unclear. Moreover, it creates a lack of management practices as everything becomes so informal.

Involvement by family:

As the whole family is involved in the business matters, the decision-making becomes quick because of the ease of communication. Further, employees became more loyal and committed because of the strong bond in the family. On the other hand, the members of the family found it difficult to differentiate between the business and family matters which often resulted in family and business related conflicts.

Succession Planning:

In the family business, the company can easily start succession planning on a very early basis. Maryam trained Fatima and Khaliq so that they can soon join the business. Similarly, Zainab trained her children Majid and Jawad to handle the business matters. On the other hand, when companies has to decide about the succession planning, family issues frequently came in the way and the management failed to choose a successor as they have to justify the decision as well. In the case, Zayed chooses Ahmed as the new General Manager which makes Fatima and Majid very upset..............

This is just a sample partial case solution. Please place the order on the website to order your own originally done case solution.