Tolaram, the Singapore-headquartered family business, has global interests in logistics, consumer goods, and technology. Family members Mohan Vaswani and Sajen Aswani discuss the company’s values-based system of meritocracy, the family’s move to...
In family businesses, it’s not uncommon for the dining table to become the boardroom. This was certainly the case for Mohan Vaswani, Chairman of the family trust of Singapore-based enterprise Tolaram. He recalls hearing decisions being made over meals when he was just 10 years old.
“We were not allowed to sit at the same table, so we used to sit two and a half meters away and listen while my father and uncles did business. They would have a small whisky, some food, and talk and talk until midnight.”
This proximity to business insights served Vaswani well. He and his then 12-year-old sister would help their father in the family’s four-by-four-meter small textile shop in East Java, Indonesia. Nine years later, he took over the reins of the growing family business.
The company’s founder Khanchand Vaswani fled Sindh with his family in 1947 during the partition of India and settled in Malang in June 1948 with just 4,000 guilders (the equivalent of $2,200) to their name. Khanchand started a small business and named it after his father, Seth Tolaram. Over the next 75 years, the company would grow into a billion-dollar empire, operating in Africa, Asia, and Europe. It has now diversified into logistics, consumer goods, and technology, with businesses as varied as Indonesia’s first neobank, a deep seaport and free-trade zone in Nigeria, and a consumer goods company that has partnered with household names across the world. The family enterprise maintains large local footprints in each of the geographies they work in, something of which they are extremely proud. “We never leave the countries that we do business with. We travel back and forth and ensure we leave a presence in each of them,” explains Sajen Aswani. Tolaram moved its corporate headquarters to Singapore in 1975, which became the launchpad for exploring new industries and markets. Nigeria was one of them, and it was there that Aswani drove the growth of the business alongside other family members until returning to Singapore to take the helm of the family-owned enterprise in 2000.
A lot of people came forward to help me, and together, we evolved into the business you see today. It was both a grace and a helping hand. Our family has always been down to earth and humble; it is something we are very proud of.
Despite their success, both leaders remain modest and are keen to emphasize that success and failure do not depend on just one individual but rely on many parts coming together. “Some call it luck, others serendipity, but I like to use the word confluence,” says Aswani.
From settling in Malang in 1948 to being told by his father in 1957 that he was now responsible for the business, Vaswani recalls the family ‘experiencing a lot of turbulence’. Working all hours and enduring the daily journey from Malang to Surabaya, taking anywhere between two to four hours a time, he spoke of a lot of ups and downs, a period he wouldn’t have survived if it was not for others. “A lot of people came forward to help me, and together, we evolved into the business you see today. It was both a grace and a helping hand. Our family has always been down to earth and humble; it is something we are very proud of.”
Humility is the golden thread throughout the family enterprise, and it has been instilled in all four generations of the family, along with the values of trust, respect, commitment, and courage. “My grandfather said that trust is elementary in any business, and if you lose trust, you no longer have a reason to be in business. These values lived before us, and we codified them ten years ago to carry them forward to future generations,” Aswani adds.
The family enterprise likes to ‘walk the talk too’ as Aswani says. “Our human resources systems are centered around our family values, and we reward employees based on their ability to demonstrate these principles. We like to call it values-based meritocracy. We exercise very great care in the selection and promotion of individuals who live by these values. This helps our businesses achieve success and maintain continuity with the family.”
Tolaram offers a fascinating example of how an enterprising family can achieve cohesive success across a growing empire. Tolaram has over 20,000 employees working across three continents, and despite their tremendous growth, the family has ensured their values are embedded in each of their businesses. This has been further upheld through the creation of a family constitution, council, and office.
In 2015, worried about the fate of their family business, amid the collapse of several other prominent family enterprises, the family set out to create a framework for their growing company.
In 2015, worried about the fate of their family business, amid the collapse of several other prominent family enterprises, the family set out to create a framework for their growing company. The pair recall the move to institutionalize being surprisingly simple, taking just two days of discussions and two more months of deliberations with other family members. Something they attribute to the whole family being aligned on the need to bring in a more formal structure.
“We now have a structure that ensures family members play to the same set of rules,” says Aswani. It’s this notion of playing to the same rule book that he believes is imperative in the alignment of family objectives across generations. “We adopted a principle that separated the player from the referee. The fundamental idea was that if we were all players, we would argue and fight over strategy, governance, and management, but if we were all on the same side, as a coach and referee, then the expectations and long-term objectives would be aligned.”
This was around the same time that the Ishk Tolaram Foundation was established. The name comes from the names of Vaswani’s parents, Ishwari and Khanchand, and his grandfather, Seth Tolaram. Vaswani speaks of a giving culture in the family, thinking back to the time when the business was just a small four-by-four-meter shop in Malang where he would create educational ‘goodie bags’ for children filled with pencils and paper. His uncle and parents would visit local retirement homes and schools, ensuring they took the next generation of family members with them, instilling the importance of philanthropy.
“From as early as I can remember, we were taught that everything we have must be shared. I remember being 25 and knowing that whatever Tolaram became and whatever it would be worth, the communities we serve would ultimately become shareholders,” says Vaswani. “I wanted to put 30% towards that aim, and when we restructured, it was the right time to put this into practice.” The foundation now has a chief executive, a board of directors, and full staff working to provide quality education, healthcare, and skills training to underserved individuals.
“These structures were put together to give us an even chance of survival and longevity. It allows Tolaram to have a greater purpose, beyond being a family business for the sake of profit, but a bigger end – a legacy,” adds Aswani.
Vaswani wants Tolaram to be a forever brand. He attributes the family enterprise’s 75-year legacy in the making to storytelling and asking for help. Their tales as a family have been brought together in a printed book and animated movie so future generations have a clear understanding of their heritage. Aswani likes to believe the next generation has courage, “it’s in their DNA,” he says, and, in his eyes, it is what will continue the Tolaram legacy for years to come.
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