Taking the reins in an era of economic uncertainty
By Yang Jian |
June 18, 2012, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
IT'S often said that the first generation makes the fortune and the second squanders it. I didn't find that to be the case on a two-week trip through six Zhejiang Province cities.
Many of the younger generation born with silver spoons in their mouths there seem to be working hard to build on the successes of their fathers.
They are around 25 years old, and they are facing the pressures of a rapidly changing, complicated world. One of the most common phrases I heard on the trip was "the best of times is over." This attitude, no doubt, reflects the global economic slowdown, sluggish export markets and rising domestic labor costs.
These young people are entering an era when agility, innovation and rejuvenation will become the calling cards of traditional businesses bent on survival. The task of keeping family enterprises afloat has fallen on sons and daughters, many of whom were lucky enough to get good educations at home and abroad.
Many of them have sacrificed opportunities away from home to stay and work in family businesses.
Like Chen Yipeng, whose father owns the biggest badminton and tennis racquet factory in Fuyang. With labor cost increasing, his father sent him to poorer Jiangxi Province to open a new factory there. The younger Chen had to abandon the chance to study abroad and suffered a break-up with his girlfriend to take up his father's challenge.
Young Chen is not bitter. "I wanted to study abroad," he said with a smile, "but my younger brother can go in my place. It makes no difference."
Clad in a T-shirt and sports shoes, Chen hardly cuts the figure of a billionaire's son.
"My father is 50, and I have to take over the company eventually so that he has more time to relax," he said.
His words touched me. I had never thought of my father in that way.
Yu Jiangbo is another of the second-generation whiz kids. He will one day take over his parent's company, with assets of about 2 billion yuan (US$314 million).
His parents started the business from a small home workshop making ornaments and later expanded into real estate investment.
Ornament-making has become the least profitable part of the family business, but Yu insisted that it should be kept alive and took responsibility for it himself.
"The original industry is more reliable than real estate investment and could become a back stop for the family business," Yu said.
On a sadder note, Yang Xiaoqiang, the heir apparent to a paragliding field in Fuyang, died in a paragliding accident two weeks after I met him. I can still remember his earnest expression when our photographer took pictures of him training.
The 19-year-old was the favorite apprentice of Li Tiemin, boss and chief trainer at the field, which is part of the city's diversification into leisure sports. Tourists pay to paraglide from a 400-meter-high mountain. The business has been thriving with customers from across the world.
Yang may be gone, but the spirit he embodied lives on in others of his generation. The industries in the Yangtze Delta cites may face some tough times ahead, but many of them seem to be in very capable young hands for the rough ride.
Many of the younger generation born with silver spoons in their mouths there seem to be working hard to build on the successes of their fathers.
They are around 25 years old, and they are facing the pressures of a rapidly changing, complicated world. One of the most common phrases I heard on the trip was "the best of times is over." This attitude, no doubt, reflects the global economic slowdown, sluggish export markets and rising domestic labor costs.
These young people are entering an era when agility, innovation and rejuvenation will become the calling cards of traditional businesses bent on survival. The task of keeping family enterprises afloat has fallen on sons and daughters, many of whom were lucky enough to get good educations at home and abroad.
Many of them have sacrificed opportunities away from home to stay and work in family businesses.
Like Chen Yipeng, whose father owns the biggest badminton and tennis racquet factory in Fuyang. With labor cost increasing, his father sent him to poorer Jiangxi Province to open a new factory there. The younger Chen had to abandon the chance to study abroad and suffered a break-up with his girlfriend to take up his father's challenge.
Young Chen is not bitter. "I wanted to study abroad," he said with a smile, "but my younger brother can go in my place. It makes no difference."
Clad in a T-shirt and sports shoes, Chen hardly cuts the figure of a billionaire's son.
"My father is 50, and I have to take over the company eventually so that he has more time to relax," he said.
His words touched me. I had never thought of my father in that way.
Yu Jiangbo is another of the second-generation whiz kids. He will one day take over his parent's company, with assets of about 2 billion yuan (US$314 million).
His parents started the business from a small home workshop making ornaments and later expanded into real estate investment.
Ornament-making has become the least profitable part of the family business, but Yu insisted that it should be kept alive and took responsibility for it himself.
"The original industry is more reliable than real estate investment and could become a back stop for the family business," Yu said.
On a sadder note, Yang Xiaoqiang, the heir apparent to a paragliding field in Fuyang, died in a paragliding accident two weeks after I met him. I can still remember his earnest expression when our photographer took pictures of him training.
The 19-year-old was the favorite apprentice of Li Tiemin, boss and chief trainer at the field, which is part of the city's diversification into leisure sports. Tourists pay to paraglide from a 400-meter-high mountain. The business has been thriving with customers from across the world.
Yang may be gone, but the spirit he embodied lives on in others of his generation. The industries in the Yangtze Delta cites may face some tough times ahead, but many of them seem to be in very capable young hands for the rough ride.
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