When Tiah Joo Kim arrived at the Manhattan headquarters of the Trump Organization to pitch a hotel and condominium project in Vancouver, British Columbia, he expected the famous company with ventures across the globe to come with capacious offices and a staff of hundreds. Instead, he was led through a mere 2 floors with what appeared to be no more than a few dozen employees. “Lean,” Mr. Tiah, a young Malaysian developer, remembers thinking as he walked the halls.

The first stop was a conference room, where Mr. Tiah was required to sell his vision to the boss’s 3 oldest children. Only after securing their support did he advance to the inner sanctum, with its sweeping views of Central Park.

Mr. Tiah was not sure what to expect from the man whose face was beamed around the world through the reality television show “The Apprentice,” but the conversation that afternoon in 2012 was casual and warm. Donald Trump spent more time showing off a Shaquille O’Neal shoe and a Mike Tyson championship belt - prize artifacts from his display of sports memorabilia - than interrogating Mr. Tiah on the details of his business plan. “You’re a good-looking guy,” Mr. Tiah recalled Mr. Trump telling him as he gave the project his blessing.

Then Mr. Trump’s trusted lawyers and other top executives swooped in to play hardball - working alongside Donald Trump Jr. to negotiate the confidential agreements that would allow the Vancouver development to be branded with Mr. Trump’s name and managed by his company. The talks consumed 16-hour days for nearly a week, Mr. Tiah said, explaining: “It was tiring. They’re tough.”

That is the way business has been done at the Trump Organization, a relatively small company with a big reach and a bigger self-image that has come under intense scrutiny as its chief prepares to become president of the United States.

With extensive entanglements around the world, many packaged in a network of licensing agreements and limited liability companies, the Trump Organization poses a raft of potential conflicts of interest for a president-elect who has long exerted such control over his company that, as he told The NYTimes in a recent interview, he is the one who signs the checks. “I like to sign checks so I know what is going on,” he explained.

Mr. Trump - owner of all but the smallest sliver of the privately held company - has said that, while the law does not require it, he is formulating plans to remove himself and his older daughter, Ivanka, from the company’s operations. His sons Donald Jr. and Eric, along with other executives, will be in charge, the president-elect wrote on Twitter in mid-December, adding that “no new deals will be done during my term(s) in office.”

But in recent weeks, amid rising pressure, Mr. Trump and his advisers have been intensely debating further measures. Among other things, the president-elect has agreed to shut down his personal foundation, has ended some international development deals and has reviewed a plan for an outside monitor to oversee the Trump Organization.

Yet an examination of the company underscores the complex challenges of taking Mr. Trump out of Trump the organization.

His company is a distinctly family business fortified with longtime loyalists that operates less on standardized procedures and more on a culture of Trump. Mr. Trump may leave the details of contracts to his deputies, but his name - and influence - is stamped on every deal the company does.

• Mr. Trump explained that he approved new ventures based on his personal “feel.”
• While his 3 oldest children have taken on more of a leadership role, Mr. Trump has the final say, sometimes weighing in on the most minute design details of planned hotels, golf courses or other properties the company owns or manages.
• His other top executives - many of them natives of Queens, where Mr. Trump grew up, or Brooklyn, where his father, Fred, expanded a housing empire many years ago — have secured power not necessarily through fancy pedigrees or impressive credentials, but through decades of devotion to their boss.
• Allen Weisselberg, the organization’s CFO, started off as an accountant for Mr. Trump’s father.
• Matthew Calamari, the organization’s COO, was recruited in 1981 after Mr. Trump saw him eject some hecklers while working security at the U.S. Open tennis tournament.

For some executives, there appears to be little division between their service to the company and their service to the Trumps. “We’re not a publicly traded company. At the end of the day, I work for the Trump family,” general counsel Alan Garten explained. “That’s how I view my job. Whether it’s protecting their business interests or protecting their personal interests. I am here to assist them and represent them in any way they need.”

When asked to elaborate, Mr. Garten said that in any job, “you want to be as helpful as you can,” but that “obviously the interests of the Trumps and the interests of the company are two distinct things.”

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