Family Business Succession The Lack of Career Choices for the next-generation

Family Business Succession: The Lack of Career Choices for the next-generation

     Among many values, the concept of family has always been on the top of Chinese societies. It is normal for Chinese people to put much importance on family, and fight and pursue for the felicity. Therefore, it is a natural idea for Chinese people to pass down the ownership of the business to the next generation of one’s own family with the hope of keeping their family flourishing. However, when it comes to succession, it would be a significant works. How to transmit the faith one keeps to the children, and how to raise them to be competent to take over the business and other many problems that need to be tackled to meet the expectation during their growing time. And since the mass expectation and pressure coming from parents or relatives, the child who is chose to success the firm has little freedom to decide his own road to walk.

     
     Taking my own family as example, about twenty years ago, my parents scratched from nothing and established their own factory producing golf poles for their passion for playing golf. With the environment becoming harder and harder, they transferred the factory to China while the one in Taiwan was kept but those Taiwanese employee were replaced by migrant workers, but in the end was still shut down because of financial problem.

    
      When I was in elementary school, once I lied in bed without falling asleep, I heard my mother was talking seriously to my order brother about his future because he was indulging in online game that time and failed the exam to high school. There was a word from my mother that transfixed me:” Did you know how much weight your father puts on you? The name of the firm ‘Wei Li’ in China was set especially for you!” (One of the name of my brother’s is “理”, and the firm name means “for 理”, though they are different words.) Then, I heard they were weeping. That was the first time for my brother to know the existence of the responsibility he has to bear.

    
      Since then, my brother would go to China when in vacation between semesters to learn everything he has to from every details like how the pole were made to the way of socializing with other business men properly. He then majored in Machanism in the university, and without going for the degree of Master because my parents think that it’s more important to get practical experience, he joined the army, and now stays in China with my father, preparing to take over the business.

     
     Before my brother went to China, I once asked him that is it really his will and does he really wants to go there and success the firm? “I am much luckier than others, my classmates. I haven’t to experience the difficult time to find a good job in environment like now.” He answered calmly.

     
     For my brother, he seems to accept the fact that his life was set before he could consider carefully, because it seems to be a good enough arrangement, comparing to his peer. However, it is not fair to the children at the very first. The pressure to success their family business narrows their thinking of different possibilities of their own life. While once they make decisions that do not meet the family expectation, the fight is usually inevitable.