Entrepreneurs: Legacy of Dreams

Second-generation immigrants are taking over their parents' businesses, adding modern flair--and American flavor

For Peter Kim, the call to join the family business came as a rude awakening. Snoring away a spring-break morning at the University of Southern California in 1994, Kim picked up the phone to hear his father Sang Hoon Kim shouting at him in Korean. "He goes, 'The company's got problems. Everybody's got to help out,'" recalls the younger Kim. The son did a lot more than that. At the time, office workers were no longer buying the polyester blouses the family company, Protrend, churned out. Sales were tumbling 50% every year. What's more, the father had invested in real estate...

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