No sense of inheritance
How the second generation of Wenzhou’s privately owned enterprises choose their own career paths
As a highlight of China’s thriving private enterprises, Wenzhou, a commercial city in East China’s Zhejiang Province, boasted a total of 224,760 privately owned companies as of October 2018, up 14 percent from the previous year, according to Wenzhou Daily in November 2018.
Despite the achievements of previous generations of Wenzhou entrepreneurs, however, a key issue for them is the succession of their family-run businesses.
The question remains whether or not their descendants, who generally enjoyed better education opportunities and broader career options than the older generations did, would be willing to inherit the same line of work.
For those who chose to follow their parents’ profession, what are their strategies and visions for running the family business? For those who refused, what career did they opt to pursue? To gain insight into the lives and careers of the successors of Wenzhou’s private companies, the Global Times interviewed three young adults.
Lin Yufei (pseudonym), 28, worked for his father’s mechanical equipment company for several years after graduating from college. “But I just resigned. I don’t want to work for my father anymore right now, as I feel his company has his distinct personality, and there is big difference and sometimes disagreements between us,” Lin told the Global Times.
Lin said he hasn’t worked in any other fields apart from his family business, which is why he now wants to learn more about other professions. “I will consider taking over my father’s company many years later,” he said.
But for 27-year-old Chen Ruihao, who works in the architecture designing industry in Shanghai, he never had any interest in working with his parents. His father set up a domestic and overseas travel business with his uncle in 1997. But Chen, a Wenzhou native, said he does not want to get involved.
“As I grew up watching my father work in the travel sector, I just am not curious about that field,” he told the Global Times. “Both my parents know well of the competitiveness and difficulties of the service industry, so they want me to find a different job, like being an office worker.”
Like father like son
Similarly, 29-year-old Zhang Yong chose a profession that had nothing to do with his family’s business.
“After graduation, I entered the IT and internet sector because my major was Information Management and Systems. My family didn’t interfere in my decision,” he said, adding that in the short term he has no plans to take over the family business.
“One time I designed a company profile on Alibaba for my father’s business because he was ready to expand into Southeast Asia,” Zhang said, explaining that his father is the founder and general manager of an agricultural machine manufacturing company.
All of our interviewees admitted that they did in fact learn quite a lot from their parents about being good businessmen. For instance, many mentioned that their fathers worked tirelessly and pursued their goals regardless of difficulties.
“My father works extremely hard and is able to make decision quickly and stick to his choices. In most cases, I agree with his judgment and decisions,” Lin told the Global Times.
Likewise, Zhang said his father is always 100 percent dedicated to what he is doing and can bear many hardships while pursuing his goals. Chen recalled the hardships his father experienced in the early stages of his family’s business.
“He once traveled up to Beijing for market opportunities around 1998, but he was first perceived as a ‘fraud’ when approaching potential clients, because our company was newly established and the nationwide reputation of Wenzhou businessmen was awful at that time,” Chen conceded.
Call of duty
“To save money when in Beijing, my father only rented a basement and ate steamed buns with salted dry radish for his three meals,” Chen said. “After being declined by plenty of potential clients, one was finally touched by my father’s persistence. That client has been cooperating with him ever since.”
Notably, each interviewee told the Global Times that they would dedicate themselves to their family business if and when their family really needed them.
“Though I personally am not interested in entrepreneurship or operating a private business, I still want to help expand my family’s business because it contains the lifelong efforts of my uncle and father,” Chen said.
But do these young adults agree with their parents’ way of running an enterprise? What fresh ideas and new methods could they bring to their family business?
“My father has the experience to succeed, but now he relies on his past experiences too much and is too reserved to attempt to expand the business,” Zhang said. “I think he should apply more modern techniques on developing new products and opening more sales channels.”
Likewise, Lin said his father is more familiar with the traditional ways of the industry and lacks the global vision of the modern marketplace. “I’d be more interested in trying new business platforms, such as cross-border e-commerce,” he told the Global Times.
Chen said he is more sensitive about national policies than his father and would discuss and debate newly launched laws and regulations with his family. “Also, I am more attuned to new market opportunities. In the internet age, there are more cooperation opportunities among various platforms,” he said.
But Chen said he fully trusts his father’s management methods. “He is good at the art of placing certain pressure on his employees in order to get them to work harder while also making them feel they are part of our company,” he added.