From Boys To Men

Under the guiding hand of their father Datuk Wira Eric Tan, Dato’ Colin Tan and Dato’ Edwin Tanare spearheading Hatten into a glorious future.

Succession in family businesses is an intriguing beast. It may be almost a given for sons and daughters of successful entrepreneurs and tycoons to take over the reins when they come of age or experience. If the pieces of the puzzle fit well and coalesce favourably, this passing of the baton can go on to create a legacy, or a dynasty.

FAMILY BUSINESS

“I never had a doubt that they would join my company,” says Datuk Wira Eric Tan, the 62-year-old Chairman of property developer Hatten. “But I’d always hoped that they would both become better than me. In the business, I treat them both as my partners, not my sons, and we have a lot of respect for each other and how each of us thinks, even if we sometimes disagree.”

Datuk Wira Eric is, of course, talking about his protégés, Dato’ Colin Tan, 36, the Managing Director of the company, and Dato’ Edwin Tan, 37, the Deputy Managing Director, his two sons who joined Hatten whilst it was in the midst completing its first project in Melaka, taking over an abandoned site and transforming it into the now iconic Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall.

Officially, this was around 2004 although Dato’ Colin says that both he and his brother had been helping out “here and there” since they were kids. “Child labour,” he jokes – both Dato’ Edwin and Dato’ Colin are university graduates in finance.

“My dad has always been very entrepreneurial, so I guess we always had in our minds that we would eventually help him in his businesses,” says Dato’ Colin. “He never forced us to join him, but it was subtly instilled in us. He would sometimes bring us with him to his office for business meetings when we were young, and even some of our family holidays were actually work holidays for him so all this became a norm for us.”