Walter Wang brought his idea of using pipes instead of wells to economist Jeffrey D. Sachs, who led the Millennium Villages project, in 2006. Pictured: villagers unloading pipes for an installation in Uganda in 2011. “You can only service a small community by the well, but if you have piped water, you could go anywhere,” Wang said.
Credit: JM Eagle
Others have been more receptive to his offers, he says. JM Eagle, for instance, helped local engineers design two service lines using polyethylene pipes after Honolulu’s Waikiki beach was forced to shut down in 2006 after a sewage line ruptured, dumping 48 million gallons of garbage into the ocean. Internationally, the company says it has donated almost 400 miles of plastic pipe to eight African countries including Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, as part of the Millennium Villages Project spearheaded by Columbia University’s Earth Institute between 2005 and 2015 to provide access to clean water.
When Y.C. passed away in 2008, it was unexpected, despite the fact that he was 91. “I think he expected to live to a hundred,” said Wang, which meant that he didn’t leave a will. This won’t happen in their family, both Wang and his wife say. About five years ago, Wang started bringing his three kids (who are now in their 20s) to the plants to talk about how they are managed. They also started discussions about a family constitution and how they feel about inheritance – in an effort to break away from the Asian cultural tradition of not talking about succession. “Does the spouse need to sign a prenuptial? If there are relatives, should we hire them into the business? If we do, how should the process go?” he says, rattling off questions they discussed.
Wang says he has a “multigenerational mentality” when it comes to the business, to which he attributes his success. “I’m not in this business for five or 10 years,” he tells Forbes. “I’m in it for life.”
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Publish date : 2024-10-10 23:30:00
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