Forget piano lessons and art classes. These days, parents are exposing their children to the finer things in life at an early age. We feature three such services for the scions of wealthy families.

Giving them the drive
Lesson plan : Mercedes-Benz Driving Academy Kid’s Driving Experience
The student : 10-14 years old standing at least 1.5m tall
Fees : £205 ($475), excluding airfare and accommodation

Participants get first-hand experience in Mercedes-Benz A-Class. Under the watchful eyes of a personal trainer, they will try various driving manoeuvres on a private circuit for three hours in Surrey, UK. With a taste of driving a real four-wheeler, students will also learn the physics of driving and safety on the roads. Teenagers between 14 and 17 can also attend a more rigorous five-hour course — still on closed roads — that prepares them for local driving licence tests.

Dealing with wealth
Lesson plan : Financial education
The student : 17-26 years old
Fees : By invitation

Financial institutions like Standard Chartered Private Bank, Societe Generale and UBS offer introductory crash courses in wealth management to the children of their top customers.

The depth and duration of these courses on offer vary with each bank and are conducted by in-house experts and invited speakers. SG, for example, offers a two-day crash course designed to give participants an introduction to the financial world, as well as familiarise the client’s children with the host of services they offer.

On the other hand, StanChart’s three-week approach is more comprehensive. It covers wealth management principles, philanthropic issues and personal development skills.

Developing a gourmet palate
Lesson Plan : Cooking and food appreciation
The Student : Six years and above
Fees : About $50 per session

For kids between the ages of six and 12, At-Sunrice’s “Big Brain Birthday Parties”, provides young guests with the opportunity to pick up some basic baking skills in preparing their own party goodies. For those a little older, is conducts cooking workshops at local schools, imparting culinary know-how as well as nutritional tips. Palate Sensations, another home-grown cooking school, provides single-day sessions under their “Kidz Paradise” banner, focusing on healthy, easy-to-make and kid-friendly dishes such as mini-pizzas and cupcakes.

With an Olympian task ahead of him as the completion of Marina Bay Sands integrated resort races towards the finishing line, its CEO, Thomas Arasi, tells The Peak what it’s like to be watched by an audience of millions.

The new CEO of Marina Bay Sands, Thomas Arasi, is an interesting choice. Highly experienced in hospitality operations and real estate, the Cornell-graduate has one major lacuna in his otherwise impressive curriculum vitae: he has never run a casino before.

But despite his assurance that his familiarity in mixed-use projects makes up for what he lacks, the figures prove more difficult to ignore. According to projections by parent company Las Vegas Sands, revenue from the gaming floor is expected to ring up about 75 per cent of Marina Bay Sands’ earnings.

Starkly put, that positions Arasi as Marina Bay Sands’ — and indeed, Singapore’s — greatest gamble. Should he fail, Singapore’s economic masterplan for the decades that follow, and 45,000 jobs that the two integrated resorts are expected to create, are on the line.

Yet, Arasi remains unfazed. His first priority was to create what he calls, “a team of excellence. I seek out strong business leaders who are subject matter experts,” he reveals of his management style. “I try to be the glue that holds that together — while not trying to run everything myself.”

It is a textbook example of quid pro quo: Singapore opens the door for Marina Bay Sands to set up shop, Marina Bay Sands provides the investment that will boost Singapore’s reputation as a tourist destination nonpareil. It’s all a balancing act, and Arasi is mindful of his obligations to the stakeholders involved.

Amid the debate in the public sphere about whether casinos have a place in a largely conservative society such as Singapore, it is easy to forget that the integrated resort isn’t all about gambling, a fact that Arasi frequently reiterates. “We’re positioning ourselves for people to come for an overall experience,” he explains. “You can come to our property and get the best experience of anything in Singapore and never step foot in the casino.”

THE PEAK speaks to a quartet of fourth-generation family businesses to find out whether it’s true that family wealth cannot last three generations.

To find the answer, we approached four fourth-generation family businesses — Tuck Lee Ice, Tan Chong International, Royal Selangor and Eu Yan Sang — and asked them how they kept going when others have failed.

Consensus was found in several areas. First, all agreed that those at the top must be qualified for the job — there is no place for blind nepotism in today’s competitive commercial arena. Common among this generation of family business leaders is a university education, usually from a prestigious institution overseas. Some have accrued outside working experience. These are invaluable assets to bring back to the roost, providing head honchos with the necessary analytical and management skills to take their businesses to the next level.

Once the right people are in place, the next step is to identify and address the weaknesses of the business. There’s a tendency for the newly installed to maintain status quo: if the company has been performing well over the years, why rock the boat? Therein lies the danger of stagnation. For a business to grow, new ideas have to be injected throughout all levels of management. Processes have to be modernised, and products and markets, diversified. This was a course of action shared in the four businesses that we examined.

Finally, a passion for the preservation of the family name is essential. Going forward, experts agree that a solid succession plan is crucial for continued control and success of the family business.