Family Chain of Command: Kin Before Outsiders

“The cotton magnate and first Parsee baronet, Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, once declared emphatically that 'the chief cause of David Sassoon's success was the use he made of his sons'. He trained them to be chorus masters, with himself as conductor. Dressed in the flowing robes and turbans of Baghdad and always moving respectfully behind their parent, they looked hardly distinguishable. But differences in age and status were soon reflected in personality.”

“This triumvirate preferred to accept crushing personal burdens rather than delegate to strangers. Their meagre staff of warehouse clerks was recruited exclusively from ex-Baghdad Jews who would seldom be taken into private counsel. Many an ambitious employee, even when related to the family by marriage, would discover painfully that 'David Sassoon & Sons' meant precisely that. In policy and business routine, the young men reacted to their father and each other with almost a conditioned reflex. Physically, however, they had little in common except the hereditary mouth which turned down at the corners and often gave strangers an unfortunate impression of disdain.”