经济学人 | The lure of the family business 家

文章来源：《经济学人》Apr 8st 2023 期 Business栏目  The lure of the family business

Family business makes for compelling drama. Just ask anyone tuning in to the final season of “Succession”, which has recently begun airing on HBO. This Bartleby prefers “Buddenbrooks”, Thomas Mann’s chronicle of the decline and collapse of a German merchant family over the course of four generations. That novel, first published in 1901, drew heavily on the author’s personal experience. The dilemmas of working for an organisation which an immediate family member runs or in which they own the majority sound alarming enough in fiction, never mind real life. And nepotism can be plenty dramatic even without the plot twists.

家族企业造就了引人注目的戏剧性。只要问问正在收看最近开始在 HBO 播出的《继承》最后一季的观众就知道了。巴托比更喜欢托马斯·曼的《布登勃洛克一家》，这本书记录了一个德国商人家族四代人的衰落和崩溃。那部小说于1901年首次出版，大量取材于作者的个人经历。在一家由直系亲属管理或由自己持有多数股权的公司工作，这种两难境地在小说中听起来足够令人担忧，更不用说现实生活了。即使没有情节转折，裙带关系也会非常戏剧化。

These days it is frowned upon—most publicly listed companies and professional firms ban it. Still, family businesses make up more than 90% of the world’s enterprises. Many of them, quite literally, are mom-and-pop shops. Some are large-ish businesses in smallish economies, like the one in Athens where this guest Bartleby, straight out of university, was put in charge of managing relations with institutional investors. A handful are giant global corporations: think of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire (which allegedly inspired “Succession”) or Bernard Arnault’s $460bn luxury conglomerate, LVMH (which, as it happens, has grown by acquiring other family firms, such as Bulgari and Fendi).

如今，这种做法不受欢迎ーー大多数上市公司和专业公司都禁止这种做法。尽管如此，家族企业仍占全球企业的90%以上。其中很多，毫不夸张地说，是夫妻店。有些是小型经济体中的大型企业，比如在雅典的一家企业，大学毕业的巴托比就被派去负责管理与机构投资者的关系。少数是大型全球企业: 想想鲁珀特·默多克的媒体帝国(据说是《继承》的灵感来源)，或者贝尔纳·阿尔诺价值4600亿美元的奢侈品集团LVMH(该集团正好是通过收购其他家族企业(如宝格丽和芬迪)而壮大)。

Regardless of size, all family companies face common challenges. Filial loyalty and multi-generational thinking can morph into resistance to change, and if a firm has outside shareholders, clash with their interests. The process of generational transition can be particularly draining and frustrating to the staff members who are not family, raising uncomfortable questions about social mobility, or the lack thereof.

无论规模大小，所有家族企业都面临着共同的挑战。子女的忠诚和几代人的思维可能演变成对变革的抵制，如果公司有外部股东，就会与他们的利益发生冲突。对于不是家庭成员的工作人员来说，代际过渡的过程尤其令人疲惫和沮丧，从而引发了关于社会流动性或缺乏社会流动性的令人不安的问题。

For the corporate heir, meeting family expectations and continuing a legacy while achieving personal fulfilment can generate a mass of contradictions, as Mann splendidly illuminated. Even in companies that insist they are meritocratic, no amount of skill will convince all your colleagues that you have actually earned your job. Any pre-existing domestic frictions might make their way into the business. And vice versa: disagreements over the business can breed feuds, often between siblings. In India, the bitter dispute between Mukesh and Anil Ambani over their inherited empire, Reliance Industries, lasted for years after their father died without leaving a will.

对于企业继承人来说，满足家庭期望和继承遗产，同时实现个人成就，可能会产生大量矛盾，可能会产生大量矛盾，曼精彩地阐述了这一点。即使在那些坚持精英管理的公司里，再多的技能也无法让你所有的同事相信你的工作是应得的。任何已经存在的家庭摩擦都可能影响到生意。反之亦然: 在业务上的分歧会滋生不和，通常是在兄弟姐妹之间。在印度，穆克什•安巴尼和阿尼尔•安巴尼之间围绕他们继承的信实工业帝国的激烈争执持续了数年，他们的父亲去世时没有留下遗嘱。

No wonder some heirs decide to hold on to their shareholdings, perhaps a board seat, but pursue a career elsewhere. Not all Waltons work for Walmart; it is hard to find Hoffmanns among executives at Roche, the Swiss drugmaking giant founded by their forebear in 1896. They thus avoided being accused of belonging to the “lucky sperm club”, as Warren Buffett calls those who might well possess the managerial skills to lead a large organisation but never had to jump through the same hoops as everyone else. Hilton and Marriott, two of the world’s biggest hotel chains, as well as Lego, a toymaking giant, are examples of companies which did not produce a strong successor and eventually ended up in the hands of professional managers.

难怪一些继承人决定保留自己的股份，也许是董事会席位，但在其他地方发展事业。并非所有沃尔顿家族的人都为沃尔玛工作; 在霍夫曼家族的祖先于1896年创立的瑞士制药巨头罗氏公司的高管中，很难找到霍夫曼家族的身影。因此，他们避免了被指责属于“幸运精子俱乐部”。沃伦•巴菲特称这些人很可能拥有领导一个大型组织的管理技能，但从未像其他人一样经历过重重考验。世界上最大的两家连锁酒店希尔顿和万豪，以及玩具制造巨头乐高，都是没有培养出强大接班人，而是最终落入职业经理人手中管理的例子。

For those who nevertheless decide to take an active role in the family business, it does not have to be a poison. Some of the logic that historically made family firms de rigueur continues to stand. For example, designated heirs—like Mr Arnault’s five children, all of whom now run parts of LVMH—are groomed early on, so by the time they are ready to take over they have already acquired some industry knowledge by osmosis.

对于那些决定在家族企业中发挥积极作用的人来说，并不一定是一种毒药。历史上使家族企业成为惯例的一些逻辑仍然存在。例如，像阿尔诺先生的五个孩子这样的指定继承人，他们现在都管理着LVMH集团的一部分，他们都是很早就开始培养的，所以当他们准备接手时，他们已经潜移默化地掌握了一些行业知识。

At the personal level, work is not solely about money but also about empowerment and prestige. Your name on the door may bestow a sense of purpose. Preserving the legacy of an empire can be rewarding, so long as the heir displays passion and persistence. They can probably forget being one of the gang when it comes to office gossip, but they can earn their colleagues’ and subordinates’ respect with modesty and hard work. The serious heir knows that showing up simply because it is easier than venturing out on their own doesn’t cut it.

在个人层面上，工作不仅关乎金钱，还关乎权力和声望。你的名字出现在门上可能会给人一种使命感。保留一个帝国的遗产是值得的，只要继承人表现出激情和毅力。当谈到办公室八卦时，他们可能会忘记自己是一伙人，但他们可以通过谦虚和努力工作赢得同事和下属的尊重。认真的继承人知道，露露脸比大胆独立站出来更容易，但是露露脸不能解决问题。

Ultimately, being entrusted with a business by people who share your DNA is something you ought to earn, not expect. As the adage goes, “A family business is not a business you inherit from your parents, it is a business you borrow from your children.” Disregard for this nugget of wisdom is what makes “Succession” such riveting television—and Waystar Royco so dysfunctional.

说到底，要想让和你有相同基因的人把公司委托经营于你，是你应该争取的，而非是去期待着。俗话说:“家族企业不是你从父母那里继承来的，而是你从子女那里借来的。”对这一智慧的忽视是《继承》如此吸引人的原因，也是Waystar Royco传媒帝国如此失衡的原因。