Alice Liu Takes the Helm in Golden ABC
(First of two parts)
Uber-entrepreneur Bernido “Bernie” Liu founded Golden ABC, the company behind fashion brands Penshoppe, Memo, Oxgn and other household names (see my columns on Jan. 9, Jan. 16 and Jan. 24, 2020). His spouse Alice Tio Liu is his longtime partner not only at home but also at work, serving as president and COO since March 2024.
Starting this New Year, Alice succeeded Bernie as CEO. (Full disclosure: Alice is my college batchmate, and the cousin of one of my best friends.) While succession within the family is a common (if not defining) characteristic of family businesses, it is rare that a founder of a huge company is succeeded by their spouse.
“Bernie is so humble, and that’s something I really admire in him,” says Alice. “It takes a lot of humility for a husband to say, ‘I’ve done enough, now it’s time for new blood.’ He got that from his dad, who turned over the reins [to Bernie] at the age of 60.”
“Alice’s management style is different from Bernie’s. “Bernie is captain of the ship—you do this, you do that. At meetings, people from different departments would present to Bernie, and he would comment, while everybody would listen and absorb. This is typical for early-generation leadership, especially from founders; for a long time, we had a very strong leader in Bernie to whom we could look for direction.
“My style is different, because I am not an expert in [all tasks]. At meetings, I always ask people to speak up: ‘What do you think? I want to hear from you. Do you agree? Not agree? Let’s have that disagreement here, in public.’”
I tell Alice that she is the perfect in-law, given the fact that in-laws are often depicted as outlaws in family enterprises. “Previously, in our family constitution, in-laws beyond our first generation were not allowed to work with us. But as an in-law myself, I asked the family council why we are preventing in-laws from contributing to the business. Why deprive the company from getting great talents that can contribute? They took a vote, and now it’s allowed.”
The essential key is values alignment. “In-laws are often demonized as being entitled, hard to control. But the key to making it work is being crystal clear about and aligned on company values. Not just in-laws, but also the younger generation (or anyone working in the company.) We should be able to have a professional relationship.”
Alice says, “My goal is to be a transition leader to the next generation: to set them up for success. While our kids are in the company and they have a head start, I am careful to engage not only our own kids, but also nieces, nephews, and all of the third generation.”
“I don’t want to be that type of character on [the HBO series] ‘Succession’ (see my columns on March 31, April 7 and April 14, 2022) that only takes care of their own interests, since I know that everyone must work together for the company to succeed. As a family, we owe it to our workforce to be good owners and leaders.”
“The first few years were not a [simple] adjustment, because people would tiptoe around the younger generation and try to be so accommodating that it wasn’t healthy,” Alice says.
This is a common problem for children of business owners—being handled with literal kid gloves that prevents them from learning the business and getting valuable feedback so they can grow. Alice gets ahead of this problem: “I asked their bosses to give them honest, sometimes hard feedback, and I had talks and check-ins with these bosses to make sure they felt empowered to do so.”
The third generation sits in on board meetings, so they can see the state of the different businesses, understand the industries and their challenges and opportunities. Alice meets the third gen every month to reflect together on what can be fixed within the company. She tells them, “You are employees, yes, but also business owners. What concerns do you think we need to discuss?” She reassures them that if they have any questions—“Bernie and I are just here. You don’t need to figure everything out on your own.”
