Chapter 1573 Inheritance

The issue of enterprise life is a heavy topic for entrepreneurs with ideas.

Because our country has only been reforming and opening up for a few decades, and there are still some twists and turns in the middle, our country's statistics may not necessarily be convincing.

But the statistics of the United States should be very telling.

In the United States, where the business system is mature, about 62% of enterprises have a life span of no more than 5 years, and only 2% of enterprises can survive for 50 years; the average life span of small and medium-sized enterprises is less than 7 years, the average life span of large enterprises is less than 40 years, and the average life span of general multinational companies is 10 to 12 years.

No one will feel optimistic when looking at such data, and it is precisely because of pessimism that we have to think about it.

According to Tata's experience, whether it is social responsibility or rewards for employees, Feng Yiping feels that he can do as well as Tata.

Then what follows is naturally the issue of the helmsman, and this issue is also a question that he has not yet figured out the correct answer to.

Perhaps someone will say, how simple it is, isn't it better to find a professional manager?

Things are really not that simple.

Feng Yiping does not necessarily want his career to be inherited by his children in the future. He believes that his decision on this issue in the future, such as handing over the company to professional managers after retirement, will also be widely supported.

However, we all know that family culture is one of the prominent characteristics of Eastern culture in the economic field. This is true in India and our country is no exception.

The few time-honored brands that have survived in our country to this day, such as Wanglaoji, have always relied on family inheritance.

Others such as Zhang Xiaoquan, Tongrentang, Liubiju... are also the same.

The country with the most time-honored brands in the world may be RB, with several companies that have been passed down for more than a thousand years. There are tens of thousands of companies like Tata that have been passed down for nearly 150 years.

These tens of thousands of companies that have been operating for more than a century and a half have also been family-run.

Cartier and Auchan in Europe, DuPont and Ford in the United States... are also the same.

That is to say, looking at the world, from Asia to Europe, including the United States, most of those long-lived companies are family businesses.

We will not discuss the adverse effects such as lack of innovation and class solidification that may result if there are too many long-lived enterprises. We will only consider from our own perspective that family inheritance, with the descendants of the founder as the person in charge, is a backward way that may not necessarily have no advantages in extending the life of the enterprise.

It may be because, when a family business headed by the direct descendants of the founder encounters adversity, the blood bond and the connection of family affection will bind all the people in their entire family tightly together, share honor and disgrace, and share the same misfortune and happiness, and jointly maintain the foundation created by their predecessors.

The biggest concern of everyone about this approach is that the father is a hero, but the son may not be a hero. If the company is handed over to the descendants to manage, a second-generation ancestor who cheats his father and spends money will appear. The building you worked hard to build may be demolished by him in a few years.

This is indeed a problem.

But objectively speaking, this situation will also occur among professional managers.

It is conceivable that there is no possibility of repetition between Jin Ling and his partners. Jin Ling regards Feng Yiping's career as his own career.

But for other professional managers, the adjective "professional" in front of the word "manager" naturally means professional, but it should also mean that for many professionals, "manager" is just a profession.

Since it is a profession, it is inevitable that they tend to their own interests on some issues. If they don't do well in this company, they can go to the next one. You can't expect all professional managers to treat their work as a career.

This is still good. There are also extreme people who take over your career and turn it into his industry.

Like Gome, which has already become famous, it is more common to meet Mr. Chen who colluded with insiders and outsiders to calculate the interests of major shareholders, or sacrificed the interests of major shareholders to make his own pockets fatter.

Also, for example, Apple hired so many first-class professional managers and expelled Jobs for this without hesitation, so what? The result is still getting worse and worse.

That was in the United States, Apple could think of inviting the head of Coca-Cola to be the CEO.

But in China, even if the founder's descendants do not take over, they usually look for successors within the company. This range is actually only slightly larger than that of a family.

The ones selected are also likely to be mediocre.

It can be seen from this that whether it is to have one's own descendants take over or to let professional managers run the business, it is not the most perfect solution. This is also the problem that Feng Yiping wants to learn from.

"I can only talk about our experience," said Ladan. "From our experience, the successor does not have to be one's own direct descendants, but can be other members of the family with outstanding abilities."

"You are the nephew of Mr. IRD Tata," Feng Yiping said with a smile.

"You are right. This way, the range of choices is much larger," said Ladan.

Who knew that Feng Yiping smiled bitterly after hearing what he said, "In our country, family planning is a basic national policy,"

He does not have a nephew.

Oh, there are still distant relatives, like Feng Wenhua and others.

There are also the children of my cousins. Judging from their current performance, I am afraid that I cannot count on them. With my own conditions and my own children, their comprehensive abilities should be stronger.

"Oh, then we can only consider professional managers. Of course, the premise is to firmly grasp the decision-making power of the company. In addition to our way, you may be able to learn from Ford's way in the United States. You are actually familiar with this way, that is, the dual-class share structure. The Ford family, no matter how much they hold, always has 40% of the voting rights in Ford."

He also shook his head gently, "We are now facing the problem you are worried about. I don't want to work until I am in a wheelchair. After I am 70 years old, I will definitely retire. But at present, there is really no one in the family who can take over. It seems that my successor can only be an external professional manager."

"Thank you," Feng Yiping was not much relieved. On this issue, Tata could not provide much reference.

…………

Just when Feng Yiping and Ladan were chatting enthusiastically, many big figures in Mumbai and India were talking about him.

Among them, Reliance Group, which often replaces Tata Group and becomes the leader of Indian private enterprises, is the group founded by the old Ambani, a corporate hero in India in the 1970s.

However, after the death of the old Ambani, the eldest son Mukesh, who later became the owner of the world's most luxurious mansion, and the youngest son Anil, immediately separated.

But even after the separation, there have been constant disputes, and they have become clear recently.

Their fight has even attracted the attention of the Indian government. The Ambani family is called the Rockefeller family of India. This is not just talk. Among Indian stockholders, one in four people on average holds their family's stocks.

At this time, the two brothers who had a lot of disagreements were talking about Feng Yiping in a rare agreement.

Similarly, the Birla family, the most influential industrial and financial family in India that produces a genius every other generation, and the genius who is now in power, Kumar Birla, is also listening to his subordinates' reports on Feng Yiping.

He is now more upset than the Ambani brothers.

In July, the chairman of the M.P. Birla Group, Priyavana Birla, the widow of his cousin M.P. Birla, passed away. She left a will that caused a sensation: she announced that the company would be inherited by her right-hand man, accountant Lodha, and all the group's assets would no longer belong to the Birla family.

Even though the couple had no children, such a will was not only incredible, but also made the respected Birla family a laughing stock in India.

The story behind this will became the main topic of gossip in all walks of life in India.

For this reason, they had to file a lawsuit in court, demanding that the will be declared invalid and the M.P. Birla Group be placed back under the family...

It can be said that the problems that Feng Yiping was worried about are now happening to them.

The head of the Mittal family, Lakshmi Mittal, known as the King of Steel, is also paying attention to Feng Yiping.

He was more relaxed. He inherited his father's business and had already trained his own successor, his eldest son, Andy Mittal.

At this time, these Indian bigwigs had a very consistent attitude towards Feng Yiping. They waited and saw, letting him talk to the Tata family first, and saw what this young Chinese man who had become famous in recent years would say at the University of Mumbai this afternoon.