APAC Global Family Business Brand Change Research & Models features in Academy of Management

In line with AGA’s purpose to build legacy through Change, we are pleased to share that Our Founder CEO and Chief Change Catalyst Wong Mei Wai’s research paper with INSEAD titled "A Psychodynamic Perspective on How Family Businesses Can Approach Brand Change to Build Legacy" has been selected to be presented at the 82nd Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management taking place August 2022 in the 82nd Annual Meeting in Seattle, USA. Our Founder, CEO & Chief Change Catalyst Wong Mei Wai and Organisational Change Scientist Pisitta Vongswasdi (WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management) will present her paper to an international audience of academics, industrialist and thought leaders at the AOM annual meeting held in Seattle, USA on 6 August 2022.

Academy of Management is Grounded in top-tier research, the AOM leads the discussion on the world’s most prominent organizational and management issues with the development including: equality and discrimination, innovation, leadership, diversity, risk management, work-life flexibility and balance, corporate social responsibility (CSR), women in the work place, business policy and strategy, motivation, entrepreneurship, workplace behavior and well-being and more.

We increasingly see Family Businesses making significant positive impact socially and economically through having built a strong legacy.

“The research paper aims to help family business owners and cross function leadership teams understand brand change journeys to navigate both ‘Outside’ and ‘Inside’ brand changes in order to build their bespoke end to end change strategy through new models. Our Organisation Change Scientist, Dr Pisitta Vongswasdi and myself are excited that this paper will be part of the AOM 2022 and hope the research and reservoir of experiential knowledge will help experts and family businesses reflect on their current and past brand change journey and to have access to a platform to engage and plan how much brand change they need to build legacy. I am excited to exchange views and learnings with the AOM’s global network and add new finding from my model and research to Brand Change and family business”, Mei Wai shared.

Mei Wai’s research paper also demystifies the causes of suboptimal and superficial outcome associated with marketing measurements that hinders transformational change and brand legacy building - which can happen despite brand building investments and efforts. Billions are being spent behind brands - which often do not address the fundamental factors hindering growth and change due to lack of understanding of the interaction between and causes of conscious and unconscious change within an organization. At a national policy level - governmental agencies will need to appreciate this reality to understand why (for example) funding/grants are not delivering the intended results.

Wong’s models will help brand change by shining the light on often unexplored areas. She aspires to continue to take the development of research forward to enable other family businesses to build legacy via brand change. For example, the paper examines how family businesses incorporate varying degrees of “Outside” and “Inside” brand change elements to implement brand change to build legacy.