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Case Study

Tasly Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd.

By Denise H. Kenyon-Rouvinez and Nan Li

4 pages

November 2015

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Reference: IMD-7-1669

A pioneer in the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine, the publicly traded Tasly Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. was founded in 1994 by Yan Xijun and his wife Wu Naifeng in Tianjin, China. The couple who met while training as pharmacists at a military medical school, had developed a new method to extract the active substance from Danshen, or red sage root, an herbal ingredient known to be effective in treating heart diseases. The active substance presented as “dripping pills” became the main product of Tasly, capturing 36% market share of this proprietary Chinese medecine. In 2005, the couple’s son Kaijing joined the company and in 2014 took over from his father Xijun as chairman of Tasly. Xijun had planned and executed his succession with military precision, ensuring that a professional management team was put in place to head the group while he and his wife, the first generation, took their leave as planned.

Learning Objective

This case sets the scene for a discussion on succession planning and governance in a publicly traded family business.

Keywords

Family Business, Succession Planning, Family Ownership, Non-family Chief Executive Officer, Non-family Member, Public Company, Management Role

Settings

Asia, China
Tasly Pharmaceutical, Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals
1994-2014

Type

Published Sources

Available Languages

English

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