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“富不过三代”之忧催生“家族企业基本法”

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2018年01月11日

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Family businesses are acutely aware of the danger they face. Most do not make it beyond two generations: power struggles between successors and dispersion of wealth and control are just two ways in which a budding dynasty can fall.

家族企业强烈地意识到了自身面临的危险。多数家族企业都“富不过三代”:继承者之间的权斗、财富与控制权的分散,都可致一家崭露头角的企业王朝倾覆。

More such companies are drawing up family constitutions, also known as charters or protocols, to help them prosper and endure. These are statements that set out a family’s values, strategic goals and governance.

更多家族企业正在制订“家族基本法”(也可称为宪章或协定)以确保企业兴旺发达、基业延绵。基本法中的表述罗列了一个家族的价值观、战略目标和治理模式。

They are not new — the Mitsui merchant family of Japan created one in 1722 — but their use has expanded, especially in the past ten years. The financial crisis brought disputes over asset allocation and the direction of businesses, and helped boost their popularity. Other factors to have spurred the growth of constitutions include volatile oil prices, political turbulence and the spread of family wealth out of China and India.

家族企业基本法并非新生事物——日本三井(Mitsui)商人家族1722年便草拟过一部——但其使用范围有所扩大,尤其是在过去10年。金融危机带来了围绕资产分配和企业发展方向的争论,帮助提高了此类基本法的受欢迎度。刺激此类基本法增多的其他因素包括波动的油价、政治动荡以及中印两国国内家族财富的流出。

“Where the goal of the family is to continue to manage the family business or the family wealth collectively across the generations, a constitution can be very helpful,” says Bernard Rennell, head of family governance at HSBC Private Banking.

“家族的目标是代代相传地对家族企业或家族财富进行管理,在这方面,基本法非常有帮助。”汇丰私人银行(HSBC Private Bank)家族治理主管伯纳德•伦内尔(Bernard Rennell)说。

The proportion of family-owned businesses whose owners have a written constitution ranges from 63 per cent in Finland to 4 per cent in Japan, according to a survey of 2,800 family enterprises by PwC. In India the figure is 36 per cent, Germany 19 per cent, US 18 per cent, UK 14 per cent and China 8 per cent.

普华永道(PwC)对2800家家族企业进行的一项调查显示,企业所有者已制订成文基本法的家族企业的比例,从芬兰的63%到日本的4%不等。在印度,这一比例为36%,德国9%,美国18%,英国14%,中国8%。

Companies whose owning families have adopted constitutions include India’s GMR Group, an infrastructure and manufacturing business founded by GM Rao; Carvajal, a publishing and packaging multinational based in Colombia; and the Dachser logistics business in Germany.

持有人家族已采用基本法的企业包括:GM Rao在印度创立的基础设施和制造业企业GMR集团(GMR Group);总部位于哥伦比亚、从事出版与包装的跨国公司Carvajal;德国物流企业超捷(Dachser)。

China’s Sun family adopted a family business constitution in 2005 after Sun Dawu, founder of the Dawu agricultural business, spent six months in jail for a grain deposit scheme judged to have misused public funds: it concentrated his mind on the need for a governance system to ensure the company’s survival.

2005年,中国的孙大午家族通过了一项家族企业基本法。此前,因向农户借款的计划被判定滥用公众资金,河北大午农牧集团创始人孙大午在狱中呆了6个月:这一经历让他明白了需要一种治理制度确保公司的生存。

Typically, a constitution will set out issues such as a family’s values and vision, its criteria for selecting the business’s leaders and rights and responsibilities for family members involved in the business and those who are not. They differ in detail, however.

通常而言,一部家族企业基本法阐述的包括一个家族的价值观和愿景、遴选企业领导者的标准,以及参与和不参与企业经营的家族成员的权利和责任。然而,不同家族企业的基本法在细节方面并不相同。

“They don’t really have a typical length or form or content and they are entirely bespoke,” says Mustafa Hussain, partner at law firm Taylor Wessing, who has written a lot of constitutions for families in the Middle East and Asia. These have ranged from six pages to 30, depending on the circumstances.

“家族企业基本法真的没有统一的长度、形式或内容,完全都是根据各家族量身定制,”泰乐信(Taylor Wessing)律所合伙人穆斯塔法•侯赛因(Mustafa Hussain)说,他为中东和亚洲的很多家族草拟了基本法。根据情况不同,这些基本法的篇长从6页到30页不等。

Apart from the mission statement, Mr Hussain says the most important provisions are those to ensure the family portfolio stays together. “Keeping the wealth and the portfolio together protects you from the threat of ‘rags to riches and back to rags again in three generations’,” he says.

除了宗旨说明,侯赛因表示,最重要的是那些旨在确保家族全体成员团结的条款。“保持财富和家族成员的团结,可以避免‘富不过三代’后果,”他说。

Provisions are often unique to a company’s needs. For example, the Schurter family, which owns a Swiss electronic components business, commits to setting aside a percentage of revenues for innovation every year. India’s GMR constitution stipulates the make of car each family member is entitled to have.

有些条款常常是针对企业需求特设的。例如,旗下拥有一家瑞士电子配件企业的舒尔特(Schurter)家族,承诺每年拿出1%的收入用于创新。印度GMR集团的基本法规定了每名家族成员有权享有的汽车型号。

Constitutions are usually not legally binding though they must be drafted carefully to fit in with shareholder agreements and take into account structures such as companies, foundations and trusts. Mr Rennell says it is important to ensure that decision-making procedures have legal effect.

家族企业基本法通常没有法律约束力,但也必须周密地拟定,以契合股东协议,还要将企业、基金会和信托等组织机构考虑进去。伦内尔表示,确保决策流程具有法律效力很重要。

Family constitutions are a growth area for consultants, lawyers and wealth managers. Families often bring in consultants to handle discussions about creating a constitution, which can provoke arguments about control and what happens to wealth.

对于顾问、律师和财富经理而言,家族基本法是一个不断扩大的领域。家族经常让顾问介入,处理有关制订基本法(此举可能引发有关控制权和财富变化的争论)的讨论。

Once agreed, however, constitutions help to avoid conflict. “They tend to stick to what is in the document. In later years, when people wonder where they stand if one of them wants to buy out or one person wants to leave, they refer back to the document,” Mr Hussain says.

然而,一旦达成一致,基本法有助于避免冲突。“他们倾向于遵守成文的规定。将来,当一名家族成员希望买断或者离开而大家无所适从时,可以回头查阅基本法。”侯赛因说。

Advisers urge families to keep their constitutions up to date. The UK’s William Jackson Food Group, owned by the descendants of the man who founded it in 1851, drew up a constitution in the mid-1990s and reviews it every five years.

顾问鼓励各家族的基本法保持与时俱进。英国的威廉•杰克逊食品集团(William Jackson Food Group)上世纪90年代中期制订了一部基本法,以后每5年审查一次。这家创立于1851年的集团目前仍为公司创始人的后代所有。

“The bigger the body of people you are working with, the bigger the challenge. There is a need to have a very structured governance system,” Nicholas Oughtred, chairman, who is the founder’s great-great-grandson, told EY for a family business report.

“你与之合作的人员组织的规模越大,面临的挑战也就越大。我们需要拥有一种结构化程度很高的治理制度,”上述集团创始人玄孙、董事长尼古拉斯•奥特雷德(Nicholas Oughtred)对安永(EY)表示,后者正在撰写一份家族企业报告。

Elizabeth Bagger, executive director of the UK’s Institute for Family Business, says more first and second-generation families are opting for constitutions. She believes they can be advantageous, although the thing to avoid is maybe “being too rigid and prescriptive”. Adopting a constitution is no guarantee of avoiding conflict.

英国家族企业协会(IFB)执行董事伊丽莎白•巴格尔(Elizabeth Bagger)表示,更多一代和二代的家族正在采纳基本法。她认为,此类基本法可以带来好处,不过,需要避免的也许是“太过僵化和规范”。采用基本法不能保证避免冲突。

“You still have to talk, you still have to have relationships. Communication is a key element as well. A good governance structure combined with communication is important,” Ms Bagger adds.

“你仍须进行谈判,仍须建立联系。沟通也是一个关键因素。良好的治理结构加上沟通很重要。”巴格尔说。
 


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