中國家族企業面臨傳承危機

China has a problem with family businesses: a sizeable number are preparing to hand over control to the next generation. However — in a development that some say will hurt and others think might help the world’s second-biggest economy — some may not stay in business at all.

中國的家族企業面臨的一大問題是：相當多的企業家正準備把控制權交給下一代。然而，有些第二代可能根本不會繼承家業——有人認爲這一趨勢會損及全球第二大經濟體的發展，另一些人則認爲這對中國的經濟發展有益。

More than half of the children of the wave of entrepreneurs that built China’s export economy after former leader Deng Xiaoping opened the Communist nation to free market capitalism in 1979 do not want to succeed their parents as bosses of their family firms, surveys and academic studies suggest. Instead, they would rather work for themselves or in fashionable industries such as banking, investment and technology.

中國前領導人鄧小平1979年將共產主義中國的大門向自由市場資本主義開放後，中國涌現出來一大批企業家，是他們打造了中國的出口型經濟。現在，調查和學術研究結果顯示，這些企業家的後代有一半以上不願接替父母掌管家族企業。他們寧願自己創業，或在銀行、投資和科技等熱門行業工作。

“What China is facing is a big social and economic loss,” says Joseph Fan, co-director of the centre for economics and finance at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “A lot of productive business will stop,” adds Prof Fan who estimates that founder-run businesses contribute over half of China’s GDP, with much of the rest of the economy comprised of state-owned enterprises.

“中國正面臨巨大的社會和經濟損失，”香港中文大學經濟及金融研究所主任範博宏(Joseph Fan)指出。“很多高產值的企業將會後繼無人，”範博宏補充說。他估計創業第一代經營的企業貢獻了中國國內生產總值(GDP)的一半以上，剩餘部分主要來自國有企業。

Observers of the trend pin the cause on factors from the individualism of Chinese millennials to the fact their business-owning parents have worked so hard to succeed in a business they neglected to involve their children in their companies. Children of entrepreneurs who sent them to school or university in the West can also return home inspired to start their own venture that is based on experiences they had abroad.

觀察人士把出現這一趨勢的原因歸結爲，中國千禧一代的個人主義傾向，以及作爲企業主的父母忙於把企業做成功，忽略了讓子女們參與到公司經營中來等因素。那些被送到西方接受教育的第二代，回國後也可能受他們在國外的經歷啓發自己創業。

“In my expert opinion, it is more than six in 10 children of business owners who are unwilling to take on the family business,” says Prof Fan, who says he speaks to more than 100 Chinese entrepreneurs each month for his academic research and in his practice consulting business founders on succession planning.

“從我作爲一名專家的角度看來，6成多企業主的子女都不願接管家族生意，”範博宏說。他表示，爲進行學術研究，以及在爲創業第一代提供企業傳承計劃諮詢的過程中，他每個月都會和100多位中國企業家面談。

Professor Jean Lee, co-director of the Centre for Family Heritage at the Shanghai-based Ceibs, China’s top-ranked business school, cites three widescale research projects on family business succession that have been carried out by Chinese universities since 2011, which show that less than half of the would-be second generation of family business leaders are willing to take up the reins.

位於上海的中國頂級商學院中歐國際工商學院(Ceibs)的家族傳承研究中心聯席主任李秀娟(Jean Li)教授，列舉了2011年以來中國的大學開展的三個家族企業傳承大型研究項目，這些研究結果顯示，不到一半的家族企業的準二代掌門人願意接管家族生意。

“China’s family business sector has lacked that culture of raising and educating the children in the ways of the family business and the family business culture,” says Prof Lee. She explains that busy entrepreneurs “do not groom their children to take over”. Many are “raised by grandparents and then they are often sent to the west for boarding school and university”, she adds. “The bonding with the family is not very strong, and those who return to China come back full of new ideas and aware of other career options.”

“中國的家族企業缺乏以家族企業的方式和文化撫養和教育子女的文化，” 李秀娟說。 她解釋道，企業家們太忙，“沒有讓孩子做好接管家族生意的準備”。很多孩子“由祖父母養大後，通常被送到西方國家上寄宿學校和大學，”她補充說，“他們與家族的關係並不是十分牢固，那些回國的第二代滿腦子都是新想法，同時也看到了其他的職業選擇。”

Li Xin, a 26-year-old who earned his masters degree from Warwick University in Britain last year and has returned to mainland China, is a prime example of this trend.

26歲的李欣（音）就是個典型的例子，他去年在英國華威大學(Warwick University)獲得碩士學位後回國。

Mr Li says his father, who is now 58, has run a successful construction business since 1997. But the younger man, who like most other Chinese people his age does not have any siblings, says he has no intention of stepping into his father’s shoes. Instead, he is starting his own business in Suzhou, an affluent city about 100 kilometres north-west of Shanghai, which will teach personal trainers popular Western exercise disciplines such as CrossFit, catering to China’s burgeoning new market for health and fitness. “I guess it was my experience studying in Britain that inspired me to do this,” he says of his start-up company, which he has called Flex New Body Culture. “Also I travelled to the US in 2015 to see what was going on in the fitness industry, as I had an idea by then that I wanted to do this.”

李欣表示，他父親今年58歲，從1997年開始經營一家建築公司，生意很成功。像大多數同齡中國年輕人一樣，李欣是獨生子女，不過，他表示無意繼承父業。相反，他正在上海西北約100公里的富裕城市蘇州創辦自己的企業，業務是教授健身教練CrossFit等西方流行的健身課程，以迎合中國蓬勃發展的健康和健身新市場的需求。“我想做這件事是受我在英國學習的經歷啓發，”他在談到他的創業公司Flex New Body Culture時說。“2015年，我還去了美國，考察那裏的健身行業最新潮流，因爲那時候我已經有了做這家公司的想法。”

Of his father’s company, Mr Li says: “Maybe I will take some responsibility to run his business as well [as my own]. But I hope not. I hope he finds an adequate buyer or another CEO so he can just retire.”

李欣在談到父親的公司時說：“也許在經營我自己的公司的同時，我會承擔一些經營他的公司的責任。但我希望不會。我希望他找到一個出價夠高的買主，或再找一位CEO，這樣他就可以退休了。”

Yang Liu, the mainland Chinese-born founder of men’s apparel company JoeyWears and a director of global female entrepreneurs’ association SheWorx, says many young Chinese business founders in her network were also born into family businesses that they now choose not to work for.

出生於中國內地的劉洋是男士內衣公司JoeyWears的創始人，也是全球女性企業家協會SheWorx的董事。她說，在她的圈子裏，很多年輕的中國創業者也都出生在家族企業家庭，但他們都選擇了不爲家族企業工作。

“When the family has money the kids have a lot of options,” she explains. “They get educated abroad and then they can choose what to do next. The family business does not really excite them when they can start their own company or invest in other start-ups.”

“富裕家庭的孩子有很多的選擇，” 她解釋說。“他們在國外接受教育，並能選擇接下來做什麼。當能創辦自己的公司或投資其他初創企業時，家族企業就無法讓他們感到興奮了。”

Yet Clinton Dines, a veteran natural resources executive who arrived in China from his native Australia in 1979 and was China head of global mining group BHP Billiton until 2009, says this trend is not necessarily the making of an economic crisis. Mr Dines, who observed China’s development from its first free markets, “which were basically farmers selling a few straggly carrots” to the more recent tech boom that gave rise to global giants Alibaba and Tencent, says “these kids of company founders could well be making good decisions.

然而，1979年從澳大利亞來到中國的自然資源行業資深高管、曾擔任全球礦業集團必和必拓(BHP Billiton)的中國區總裁一直到2009年的戴堅定(Clinton Dines)表示，這一趨勢未必會發展成經濟危機。戴堅定在過去幾十年間見證了中國社會的發展變化，從“農民販賣稀稀拉拉擺在地上的胡蘿蔔的”最早的“自由市場”，發展到催生了阿里巴巴(Alibaba)和騰訊(Tencent)等全球巨擘的當今科技熱潮。他表示，“這些企業創始人的子女可能做出了明智的決定。”

China, he points out, has a vast amount of industrial overcapacity in “sunset industries” such as steel making, shipbuilding and low-skilled manufacturing.

他指出，在鋼鐵生產、造船和低技能製造業等“夕陽產業”中，中國存在嚴重的產能過剩。

“There’s a relativity to it, “ he says. “If it’s a big and very successful family business there is a compelling reason for the family to keep it. But when the kids get some affluence they go to America and get their degree and they’re not that interested in the widget factory, perhaps they’ll go on to do something better.”

“不要絕對地看待這個問題，”他說。“如果這是一家規模較大的、非常成功的家族企業，那麼家族成員就有無法抗拒的理由將其傳承下去。但是，如果家庭富裕起來後，子女們去美國上學，並拿到了學位，他們對家族生產小商品的工廠不感興趣，在這種情況下，他們或許應該做一些更適合的事。”

This attitude, says the gym founder Mr Li, is one he holds wholeheartedly. “China is changing,” he says. “When my dad started out perhaps China did not have enough buildings, so we needed companies to construct them. But now we have different problems such as obesity and chronic diseases like diabetes. What China needs now is companies that can help people construct not better buildings, but better bodies. So I want to solve this new problem.”

健身房創始人李欣說，他打心眼裏贊同這種態度。“中國在不斷髮展變化，”他說，“當我爸爸創業時，中國可能沒有足夠多的大樓，所以我們需要建築公司。但現在，我們面臨不同的問題，如肥胖和糖尿病等慢性疾病。中國現在需要的是能夠幫助人們保養好身體的公司，而不是建造更漂亮大樓的公司。我想解決這個新問題。”