中国家族企业面临传承危机

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.

中国的家族企业面临的一大问题是：相当多的企业家正准备把控制权交给下一代。然而，有些第二代可能根本不会继承家业——有人认为这一趋势会损及全球第二大经济体的发展，另一些人则认为这对中国的经济发展有益。

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.

中国前领导人邓小平1979年将共产主义中国的大门向自由市场资本主义开放后，中国涌现出来一大批企业家，是他们打造了中国的出口型经济。现在，调查和学术研究结果显示，这些企业家的后代有一半以上不愿接替父母掌管家族企业。他们宁愿自己创业，或在银行、投资和科技等热门行业工作。

“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.

“中国正面临巨大的社会和经济损失，”香港中文大学经济及金融研究所主任范博宏(Joseph Fan)指出。“很多高产值的企业将会后继无人，”范博宏补充说。他估计创业第一代经营的企业贡献了中国国内生产总值(GDP)的一半以上，剩余部分主要来自国有企业。

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.

观察人士把出现这一趋势的原因归结为，中国千禧一代的个人主义倾向，以及作为企业主的父母忙于把企业做成功，忽略了让子女们参与到公司经营中来等因素。那些被送到西方接受教育的第二代，回国后也可能受他们在国外的经历启发自己创业。

“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.

“从我作为一名专家的角度看来，6成多企业主的子女都不愿接管家族生意，”范博宏说。他表示，为进行学术研究，以及在为创业第一代提供企业传承计划咨询的过程中，他每个月都会和100多位中国企业家面谈。

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.

位于上海的中国顶级商学院中欧国际工商学院(Ceibs)的家族传承研究中心联席主任李秀娟(Jean Li)教授，列举了2011年以来中国的大学开展的三个家族企业传承大型研究项目，这些研究结果显示，不到一半的家族企业的准二代掌门人愿意接管家族生意。

“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.”

“中国的家族企业缺乏以家族企业的方式和文化抚养和教育子女的文化，” 李秀娟说。 她解释道，企业家们太忙，“没有让孩子做好接管家族生意的准备”。很多孩子“由祖父母养大后，通常被送到西方国家上寄宿学校和大学，”她补充说，“他们与家族的关系并不是十分牢固，那些回国的第二代满脑子都是新想法，同时也看到了其他的职业选择。”

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岁的李欣(音)就是个典型的例子，他去年在英国华威大学(Warwick University)获得硕士学位后回国。

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，他父亲今年58岁，从1997年开始经营一家建筑公司，生意很成功。像大多数同龄中国年轻人一样，李欣是独生子女，不过，他表示无意继承父业。相反，他正在上海西北约100公里的富裕城市苏州创办自己的企业，业务是教授健身教练CrossFit等西方流行的健身课程，以迎合中国蓬勃发展的健康和健身新市场的需求。“我想做这件事是受我在英国学习的经历启发，”他在谈到他的创业公司Flex New Body Culture时说。“2015年，我还去了美国，考察那里的健身行业最新潮流，因为那时候我已经有了做这家公司的想法。”

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.”

李欣在谈到父亲的公司时说：“也许在经营我自己的公司的同时，我会承担一些经营他的公司的责任。但我希望不会。我希望他找到一个出价够高的买主，或再找一位CEO，这样他就可以退休了。”

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.

出生于中国内地的刘洋是男士内衣公司JoeyWears的创始人，也是全球女性企业家协会SheWorx的董事。她说，在她的圈子里，很多年轻的中国创业者也都出生在家族企业家庭，但他们都选择了不为家族企业工作。

“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选择，” 她解释说。“他们在国外接受教育，并能选择接下来做什么。当能创办自己的公司或投资其他初创企业时，家族企业就无法让他们感到兴奋了。”

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年从澳大利亚来到中国的自然资源行业资深高管、曾担任全球矿业集团必和必拓(BHP Billiton)的中国区总裁一直到2009年的戴坚定(Clinton Dines)表示，这一趋势未必会发展成经济危机。戴坚定在过去几十年间见证了中国社会的发展变化，从“农民贩卖稀稀拉拉摆在地上的胡萝卜的”最早的“自由市场”，发展到催生了阿里巴巴(Alibaba)和腾讯(Tencent)等全球巨擘的当今科技热潮。他表示，“这些企业创始人的子女可能做出了明智的决定。”

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，在钢铁生产、造船和低技能制造业等“夕阳产业”中，中国存在严重的产能过剩。

“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.”

“不要绝对地看待这个问题，”他说。“如果这是一家规模较大的、非常成功的家族企业，那么家族成员就有无法抗拒的理由将其传承下去。但是，如果家庭富裕起来后，子女们去美国上学，并拿到了学位，他们对家族生产小商品的工厂不感兴趣，在这种情况下，他们或许应该做一些更适合的事。”

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.”

健身房创始人李欣说，他打心眼里赞同这种态度。“中国在不断发展变化，”他说，“当我爸爸创业时，中国可能没有足够多的大楼，所以我们需要建筑公司。但现在，我们面临不同的问题，如肥胖和糖尿病等慢性疾病。中国现在需要的是能够帮助人们保养好身体的公司，而不是建造更漂亮大楼的公司。我想解决这个新问题。”