Secrets Of Longevity Family Businesses

Family business in western developed countries

According to a survey by BusinessWeek, 177 of the standard & Poor's 500 index companies belong to family businesses.

Hu Run rich magazine has released a list of the oldest family businesses in Hu Run's world, with 100 family businesses in the world.

At the top of the list is the famous Kong Gang group, a famous temple building enterprise in Osaka, Japan. It has a history of more than 1400 years, and has passed to the fortieth generation.

Japan: single inheritance system

Japanese enterprises such as Mitsui, MITSUBISHI, Sumitomo and Yasuda are all famous family businesses in Japan. They all have centuries of inheritance history.

One of the important reasons for supporting their long-term survival and sustainable development is that these Japanese family businesses basically carry out the "monarchy inheritance system" (or "separate inheritance system"), which is similar to the succession of ancient Chinese kings, that is, family businesses will only be passed to one member of the next generation, while other members will be swept away.

The purpose of doing so is simply to prevent "internal struggle".

In general, the successors of Japanese family businesses will be the younger generation of the next generation, or the offspring of other powerful founders.

But if the founder thinks his son does not have the ability to take over the business, or his son is unwilling to take over the business, he will find a young man with the strongest ability in the company's young people, marry a daughter to him, and hold a ceremony to make him a "foster son". Then the son in law will become the head of the family and take charge of the enterprise.

For example, Yasuda Yojiro, the founder of the chaebol of Yasuda, though he had a son, chose his son in law as his successor. The founder of Panasonic, Konosuke Matsushita, gave the company to the "son in law" Matsushita Masaharu (the name is Ping Tian).

Europe and America: perfect managers

Compared with the "mono inheritance system" of Japanese enterprises, enterprises in Europe and the United States, through the continuous improvement of the rule of law system of managers, realize the management of the family to the enterprises owned by them.

Chen Zhao said that the degree of marketization of European and American enterprises is high and the relevant laws are relatively perfect.

The family businesses in Europe and the United States generally do not emphasize too much on their daily management and management because they are the owners of the family.

If the family "successors" are not suitable for taking over the business, they will choose professional managers to manage the enterprises.

Or adopt a similar way of "entrust", that is to set up a team composed of lawyers, bankers and professional managers to assist successors in managing enterprises.

In fact, many of the family businesses in Europe and the United States, many of them are not fully ruled by a certain family, but are controlled by majority interest.

For example, WAL-MART and Ford ranked second in family businesses, Walton and Ford share 38% and 40% respectively.

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