Ceding control of a family business is never easy, particularly when the business has over 50,000 employees and a turnover of nearly $10 billion, putting it on a par with firms like Nike and Colgate-Palmolive and just slipping it into Fortune magazine's list of the 500 biggest companies outside America. At the beginning of this month, Rahmi Koc (pronounced "Kotch") handed over the chairmanship of Koc Holding, a sprawling conglomerate, to the eldest of his three sons, Mustafa-on the left in the picture, with his father on the right. As he did so he said, "Knowing when to pull back at the right time is a virtue." It is a virtue demonstrated by too few parents, be they occidental or oriental, running family businesses or dynastic dictatorships.
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