The economist John Kenneth Galbraith wrote of the heirs of Cornelius Vanderbilt that they “dispensed their wealth for frequent and unparalleled self-gratification and very often did it with downright stupidity”. That stupidity seems to have been inherited by the daughters of Cho Yang-ho, chairman of Korean Air.
“I feel crushed by the immature behaviour of my daughters,” Mr Cho said on Sunday as he removed them from senior roles at the company. Heather Cho is notorious for having humiliated a Korean Air crew over how her in-flight nuts were served in 2014, while her sister Cho Hyun-min allegedly threw water at an advertising agency executive during a dispute.
Mr Cho has pledged to reinforce Korean Air with more professional executives, but his offspring are not done. Cho Won-tae, his son, is president of the company and may one day lead the Hanjin chaebol founded by Mr Cho’s father. It is difficult to curb the instinct to keep business in the family.