BRIAN KENNY: At Harvard Business School, we have a tradition dating back more than 20 years where we ask members of the graduating class to reflect on a question pose in the poem The Summer Day by Mary Oliver. The question is, “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” Put differently, that question might just as well be: what do you want your legacy to be? Without a prompt like that, most of us don’t dwell from day-to-day on our legacy. It’s not even something we give ourselves, but rather what we leave behind for others, through our actions, our values, and the relationships we form. About the best any of us could hope for is that we leave behind a legacy that others want to carry forward, that we’ve made a difference in the lives of others that’s worth continuing.
Today on Cold Call, we welcome Christina Wing to discuss the case, “Ghassan Nuqul and The Nuqul Group: Preserving a Father’s Legacy.” I’m your host Brian Kenny, and you’re listening to Cold Call on the HBR Podcast Network.
Christina Wing’s research focuses primarily on topics surrounding families and business, including family dynamics, operating companies, family offices, and legacy opportunities. Christina is a three or four-peat customer here on Cold Call.
Christina, it’s great to have you back.
CHRISTINA WING: Thank you. It’s great to be here, Brian.
BRIAN KENNY: These are always really fun conversations. We are really thrilled today to have our protagonist on the call, on the podcast as well. Ghassan Nuqul is the chairman of Fine Hygienic Holding and the protagonist in today’s case.
Ghassan, thanks for joining us.
GHASSAN NUQUL: Thank you, Brian. Good to be here.
BRIAN KENNY: I thought this case did a beautiful job of talking about that in the context of your family, Ghassan, and your company. We’ll dive right in.
Christina, I’m going to start with you and ask you to tell us what the central theme is of the case, and what your cold call is when you start the discussion in the classroom?
CHRISTINA WING: The central theme of the case is about a family, a country, and a business that all have had extreme resiliency. My cold call is if the title of the case is “Preserving Legacy,” how are we preserving legacy by selling and breaking up the company?
BRIAN KENNY: That’s a good one. That probably sparked great conversation right off the bat. How did you hear about Nuqul, and what inspired you to write a case about it?
CHRISTINA WING: I had been following the family for a while. I have a fascination with the Middle East. Seeing the growth that they were able to achieve over 70 years in a country that’s had a lot of hardship made me have to know the story because you can’t just be good at business, you have to have a lot of heart to be able to keep doing these things for that long. That’s why I wanted to go to Jordan and meet this wonderful family.
BRIAN KENNY: Yeah. We’ll talk more about the impact the business has had, which is really astounding as you look at it over the last several decades.
Ghassan, let me turn to you for a minute and ask you, for our listeners, to describe Nuqul Group. What’s the business that you’re in?
GHASSAN NUQUL: Sure. Thanks, Brian. We are a diversified family business started in Jordan in 1952 by my late father. Who was, as you know, a Palestinian refugee who came to Jordan, 1948, penniless without anything. He started trading in FMCG, fast-moving consumer goods. Then in 1958, was the first, if you will, industrial activity started producing hygienic paper.
I joined him in 1985. We had four companies. We expanded the group between 1985 from four companies to 26 companies by 1996. Today the group has different activities. The core business is the paper business. We are the largest tissue producer in the Middle East, with five paper mills all over the Middle East and converting plants. We are basically producing diapers, adult diapers, tissues, toilet, kitchen napkins, wipes, and so forth. But we’re also diversified, so we are in banking, insurance, edible oil, lifestyle, HR software, stationary, sleep solutions, real estate, and so forth.
BRIAN KENNY: Okay. And you’re into the third generation of the family, and we’re going to talk about how that’s working, too. That’s really, a lot of that’s at the heart of the case. But also, central to the case is your father’s story, which almost read a little bit like a screenplay. I could picture it playing out in a movie. Really remarkable what he was able to achieve, given where he started. What does it mean to you to carry forward his legacy? Especially you’re in the second generation, the leader of Nuqul Group. What does it mean to you to carry that forward?
GHASSAN NUQUL: That’s everything in my life. If you asked me, Brian, “What’s your story? What’s your mission? What’s your drive?” This is exactly it, frankly. It all revolves around this and the story of my father, as I mentioned. When I joined him, Brian, I felt I was fortunate. I was fortunate, given his story, that at one point …
