Yangcheng Evening News reporter Hang Ying
After more than 40 years of reform and opening up, most of the enthusiastic entrepreneurs of the year are facing the problem of retirement, succession and inheritance.
When everyone is focusing on the shift of the second generation, there are also many entrepreneurs who have quietly launched the third generation and played the role of the backbone of the enterprise.
Among them, some are becoming the actual managers of the company, and some are short-lived, or start from scratch, or even "return to zero" in their own country.
Private enterprises are flourishing, and successors naturally have their own characteristics.
For family-owned listed companies, which account for 30% of the number of A-share companies, the first-generation founders who pioneered the land are slowly getting old, some have passed away, and the second generation is also facing retirement. Fresh blood is imminent.
How can companies break the "curse" of "the wealth is only three generations"?
From the perspective of the succession styles of the second and third generations, a glimpse of the leopard also represents the rise and fall of the enterprise itself and the first generation of private enterprises.
"Worker" Yao Jinlong: Only work without holding shares
On March 22, Yao Jinlong, Chairman of Meijin Energy, was selected as the "Most Strategic Insight Chairman" at the 17th "Golden Round Table Award" of the Board of Directors of Listed Companies in China.
In fact, Yao Jinlong, born in 1974, is an uncompromising third-generation successor.
Despite the outstanding performance, it is clear that the Yao family's fathers are much more cautious about the succession of equity than the letting go of management.
So far, Yao Jinlong has not obtained any shares in the company.
When Yao Jinlong was 10 years old, his grandfather Yao Juhuo founded Meijin Group with 100,000 yuan. He started out in the coal business in Shanxi, a place famous for coal mines. In 2006, Meijin Energy was successfully listed on the backdoor, and it was the only one in the limelight.
In 2014, the eldest son Yao Junliang took over the business after his father passed away.
Subsequently, Yao Jinlong, the third generation of the family and the grandson of Yao Juhuo, who has served in many companies under the group, continued to take over the baton and served as the chairman of Meijin Energy Group.
Compared with the gradually declining coal field, Yao Jinlong chose the outlet of hydrogen energy. Now it seems that his decision is wise.
Acquired Feichi Bus in Foshan and invested in hydrogen energy and fuel cells in Qingdao. When electric vehicles became popular, Yao Jinlong devoted himself to the development of hydrogen energy vehicles. In April 2021, Meijin Hydrogen Energy New Energy Commercial Vehicle was approved by the state.
According to the data, Meijin Energy is expected to make a profit of 2.5 billion to 3 billion yuan in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 260%-331%.
On March 28 this year, Shanxi Meijin Energy Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Meijin Energy Group Co., Ltd., reported that it recently signed a strategic cooperation memorandum with Toyota Motor (China) Investment Co., Ltd. in Beijing.
The Yao family, known as the "First Household in the Three Jins", will be listed on the Hurun Report in 2021 with seven members, making it the richest man in Shanxi.
According to data from Tianyancha, the shares of Meijin Energy are concentrated in the hands of Yao Junliang and his brothers and sisters, of which Yao Junliang holds 28.57% of the shares.
Yao Jinlong, a "worker" who does not hold shares, has performed well, but there is still a question mark on whether the controller's position is firmly seated.
Lu Thai-style succession: son in power, grandson in control
There are three generations of "professional managers" who work hard, and naturally there are also three generations who "do not work" with shares.
Lu Thai Group, located in Zibo, Shandong Province, was formerly a cotton spinning mill jointly established by Zichuan District and Thailand.
At that time, Liu Shizhen, the director of the factory, led Lu Thai to develop into one of the world's top-grade yarn-dyed fabric manufacturers.
On October 12, 2016, the listed company Lu Thai A issued an announcement that Liu Shizhen, the original actual controller, transferred 21% of the equity of the company's controlling shareholder Zibo Lucheng, namely 13.2846 million yuan, to his grandson Liu Deming. After the equity transfer, Liu Shizhen no longer held There are equity interests in Zibo Lucheng.
Zibo Lucheng holds 15.21% of Lu Thai A shares and is the largest shareholder of the listed company.
After receiving part of the equity of Zibo Lucheng, Liu Deming, the third generation of the family, will indirectly hold 29.4743 million shares of the listed company, accounting for 3.19% of the total share capital of the listed company, and become the actual controller of the listed company.
At that time, Liu Zibin, the second generation of the family and the son of Liu Shizhen, who held a 0.02% equity interest in Lu Thai A and a 4% equity interest in Zibo Lucheng, took over the positions of chairman and general manager of Lu Thai A from his father Liu Shizhen in the same year.
According to media reports, Liu Deming, who was born in 1990, worked in Zibo Lucheng at that time, but did not hold the position of chairman or general manager, nor did he work in a listed company.
This wave of operations can be said to have let the market fall below the glasses.
From the perspective of ownership, the third generation of the family, Liu Deming, is the boss of the company, and his father, Liu Zibin, is working for him.
However, in the company's administrative position, Liu Deming, whose position is only the assistant to the general manager and the manager of the marketing department, is also the subordinate of the chairman's father.
Lu Thai A's situation of "son in power and grandson in control" is also known as Lu Thai-style succession by outsiders.
The successor "three generations" who were kicked out
There are Laoganma in the south and Shisanxiang in the north.
The two companies that focus on a single product have many similarities, for example, they both use the founder's avatar as their trademark, for example, they insist on not going public.
But there is also the difference that Lao Ganma is still choosing the second generation to take over, and the third generation of "Wang Shouyi Thirteen Fragrance" (referred to as "Thirteen Fragrance") has already taken over.
Wang Shouyi Thirteen Fragrance is located in Zhumadian, Henan Province, founded by Wang Shouyi in 1984.
In the 2021 list of the top 100 private enterprises in Henan, Shisanxiang has fallen out of the top 100 list.
The latest data shows that in 2020, Wang Shouyi's thirteen incense revenue was 2.42369 billion yuan.
As a condiment giant, Wang Shouyi's thirteen incense's revenue at this time is less than half of Laoganma's (5.4 billion yuan).
Looking at the fall of Shisanxiang, it is difficult not to be related to the strategy of the third-generation head.
At present, the head of Shisanxiang is the second generation Wang Yinliang. Although he is 70 years old, according to local media reports, he has no plan to train a successor.
Looking back on the reports of previous years, Wang Taibai, the son of Wang Yinliang's eldest brother Wang Tieliang and the eldest grandson, was designated as the successor of Thirteen Fragrances at that time.
Obviously, Wang Taibai has been kicked out of the succession by the second uncle.
Like many second and third generations, Wang Taibai was educated abroad when he was a student. In 2008, he spent tens of millions of yuan to buy more than ten houses while studying in Sheffield, England, but his assets shrank rapidly due to the financial turmoil.
After returning to China, he did not give up real estate investment and set foot in the real estate industry again.
According to public reports, Wang Taibai once set a goal of "earning enough 100 million before the age of 30".
In 2014, Wang Taibai was interviewed by the media and talked about his failure to start a business and taking over the family business and taking charge of the seasoning kingdom.
He said that he has transformed, and earning 100 million yuan is not his goal. It is his mission to inherit the family business. After all, his parents are old.
He said that he would unite his brothers and sisters, constantly absorbing new things, and striving to break the curse of "being rich for three generations".
Looking at it now, Wang Taibai did not let Shisanxiang go further, and even lost his right to speak.
In the hands of Wang Yinliang, Shisanxiang has gradually transformed from a family business into a modern enterprise management group. It has tried various crossovers, such as entering hotpot catering brands, crossover advertising companies, trading companies and construction equipment leasing companies, but most of them are cancelled. And finally.
After the diversification fiasco, Shisanxiang chose to stick to the main product, but the market has gone a long way.
Journalist's Notes
"Three generations" succession still requires long-term grassroots experience
Compared with the "second generation", the "third generation" has achieved some achievements in their family's businesses during their student days. Therefore, their concept of living a hard life is much weaker than that of the "second generation", and their material life is better.
It is undeniable that some successors are "accelerated training", but most of the "second generation" and "third generation" who perform well need to go through a long period of grassroots experience before taking the helm of a family business.
Yao Jinlong once said that after returning from studying in the United States in 2002, with the emergence of the company's listing plan, he began to offer advice and suggestions in high-level management, "It is mainly due to the trust of the parents, and more importantly, the actual accumulation of previous relevant theories. "Wang Taibai may want to transform the track to make the thirteen incense more fragrant, but it turns out that he wants to build a building without laying a good foundation, and the result can only be that the building collapses and returns to zero.