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Sima Qian, the father of Chinese history, said in "Records of the Grand Historian": "The world is bustling with people, all for profit; the world is bustling with people, all for profit!"

Sima Qian only needed this one sentence to become immortal, because he expressed the eternal truth of heaven, earth and human beings.There was a hustle and bustle, and two thousand people came and went.Many years ago, the world remained the same.

On July 18, 2024, the media was full of news that Zong Fuli had resigned from Wahaha. Then, on July 22, four days later, the news changed to "Wahaha: Zong Fuli continues to perform her duties." There may be more variables in the near future.

The reason why this incident has caused so much discussion is probably that we only knew one side of Wahaha before. In our eyes, Wahaha is a private national enterprise. When the head Zong Qinghou passed away some time ago, the Internet praised him, which deepened this impression. Because it is rare to see any chairman of a state-owned enterprise receive such praise.

As the eldest daughter of Zong Qinghou, Zong Fuli is a typical second-generation entrepreneur. However, judging from the company's equity, she is not the second-generation of the company. Back then, Zong Qinghou was the first-generation entrepreneur, which was different from many of our current startups. That's why there are so many misunderstandings on the Internet. Isn't Zong Fuli the second-generation successor? Doesn't it seem simple? Isn't it just managing the company like the father's generation?

This actually involves a very complex issue and adjustment process, which involves too many details and too many relationships that need to be handled.

As the saying goes: It’s time, it’s fate, it’s luck!

As for Zong Fuli herself, how much do you really understand about the soil in which the enterprise grows? When her father Zong Qinghou was alive, did he tell her some strategies for dealing with complex problems? I believe that when Zong Qinghou was alive, he would not have passed on so much pressure to his daughter. Thinking of the difficulties Zong Qinghou encountered when he started his business, he must have wanted to talk about it many times but stopped. It is unimaginable that starting a business is difficult, especially for the first generation of entrepreneurs.

In addition, how to quickly extract all kinds of knowledge in the enterprise? How to follow the trend? How to take advantage of the trend? How to follow first and then lead? How to improve leadership? How to improve the ability to win the battle? How to improve the ability to see the overall situation as soon as possible? How to improve the ability to control the overall situation?

All of this is not something that she, a young person who grew up under the halo of her father, can handle, nor can she accomplish it alone. It requires the power of a group of people to work on her; only in this way can she grow up.

The first priority of family business inheritance is the successor issue, because successors have always been the biggest problem faced by all companies. How can the second-generation successor successfully find "we" from "I"? With the help of "we", the second-generation successor will usher in a different life.

Lao Tzu said in "Tao Te Ching": "Tao begets one, one begets two, two begets three, and three begets all things." If we understand it according to Lao Tzu's words, Zong Qinghou's "Tao" gave birth to one "Wahaha". Can this "Wahaha" that has left the Tao give birth to two "Wahaha" that have "one yin and one yang, which is the Tao"?

That must be a difficult test for the head of the company.Because what Zong Qinghou's "Wahaha" needs is what the Chinese often say "constant self-improvement". For the second-generation leader, what is more important is what the Chinese often say "virtue and tolerance".

Continuously striving for self-improvement is the revelation of Heaven, and being magnanimous and broad-minded is the warning of Earth; continuously striving for self-improvement is Yang, and being magnanimous and broad-minded is Yin; the universe is determined by Yin and Yang.

Zong Qinghou is a local entrepreneur who grew up after China's reform and opening up. He relies on hard work and perseverance to win, and he also understands the Chinese way of life. The so-called way of life refers to the Chinese worldview. Human feelings are yang, and worldly wisdom is yin. Human feelings and worldly wisdom are one yin and one yang. This is the Chinese yin-yang worldview.

It is the Confucian and benevolent spirit of Zong Qinghou that enables him to maneuver around power, capital, system, and human relationships, appease the superiors and the subordinates, and have the best of both worlds.

Only this kind of person can manage Wahaha's channel system that penetrates into China's capillaries; the management methods that Zong Fuli learned from Western business schools make it difficult to act freely between such yin and yang changes.

This change in Wahaha, after all, is a conflict between two world views and values, a conflict between two management models, a conflict between human feelings and human nature, and a yin-yang conflict in family business inheritance.

The Wahaha Group under Zong Qinghou's management is too complicated, with too many stakeholders involved upstream and downstream. Not to mention state-owned capital, private capital, and foreign capital, even within the Zong family there are many conflicts of interest.

No wonder Zong Qinghou's brother Zong Zehou, Zong Fuli's uncle, gave this comment in his circle of friends the day after Zong Fuli resigned: "It's a good thing!"

Zong Zehou believes that the biggest problem for Zong Fuli is that she should not consider how to expand the scale, how to make money, or how to change the status quo when taking over Wahaha, but should do good deeds, charity, and let everyone recognize her. The firepower is all over the place, and the edge is exposed, which is in line with the old saying: the hard is easy to break. It can be seen that the uncle's advice to his niece is full of affection and true.

The current situation of Wahaha to a certain extent also reveals such a confusion: Why is it difficult for an enterprise to continue to maintain the family business model when it becomes big?After all, whether a person has entrepreneurial spirit is influenced by personality, interests, education and accidental experiences. It can only be discovered and is difficult to cultivate deliberately.

Countless facts have proven that it is not that if you are a second-generation rich man with money, resources, and connections, you can easily make money. It is not that simple. It does not mean that the richer a person is and the higher his education level, the smarter, more rational, and more civilized he is, because a person's intelligence, rationality, and civilization are sometimes really determined by fate.

Someone has summarized this seemingly illogical logic: in many family businesses, we can see the inheritance of "one generation of super-rich, two generations of finance, three generations of art, and four generations of prodigals". This is also the most solid concept of the Chinese people - "wealth does not last for more than three generations".

Some people say that this is essentially the disappearance of the entrepreneurial spirit. This really corresponds to a true law in ancient China: everything is empty, all laws are empty, only cause and effect are not empty, only spirit lasts forever. For the "first generation" and the "second generation", the process of inheritance is actually a training ground between father and son, father and daughter, or between the "first generation" and the "second generation", a dojo, a process of training for both parties.

In fact, what allows a family business to be passed on endlessly must be spiritual wealth, and then material wealth; because some people sometimes cannot receive the transmission of material wealth, and only the inheritance of spiritual wealth will be like a gentle breeze without ripples; like still waters running deep without waves.

I remember that Mr. Liu Yonghao, Chairman of New Hope Group, once said:“The second-generation succession of an enterprise is a transition process. It is not the succession of one person, but the transition process of a system and a team.”

Globally, the average lifespan of family businesses is 24 years, of which only about 30% can survive to the second generation, less than 13% to the third generation, and only 5% can continue to create value for shareholders after three generations.

How to break the curse of "wealth cannot last for more than three generations"? What is the "life" of family business inheritance? What is the "disease" of family business inheritance? Where is the "risk source" of family business inheritance? What is the "secret to success" of family business inheritance? This is what everyone wants to know.

I have discussed these issues with Cao Wei De, chairman of Singapore Cao Bao Kee Group. Cao Bao Kee has been passed down for more than 120 years. The first generation started in Shanghai, the second generation went to Hong Kong, the third generation went to Singapore, and now it is the fourth generation.

What is the "life" of family business inheritance? He borrowed a sentence from the opening of "The Doctrine of the Mean" that "nature is destiny, following nature is the way, and cultivating the way is teaching", saying that the "life" of family business inheritance lies in purifying oneself.

What is the "disease" of family business inheritance? He believes that the disease we suffer from is "ignorance disease", and the arrogant and conceited mentality is the "disease".

Where is the "risk source" of family business inheritance? He believes that so-called risk management means managing the risk of loss, which is difficult, but we must manage it. If love is creativity, fear is its risk. If management does not evolve, love will have no driving force, and fear will be risk.

What is the "secret to success" in family business inheritance? He believes that the best way is to train the second generation to start their own business. If they fail, they can start another business. If they fail twice, you can come back to be the family representative and decide which path to take.

Family businesses are such good resources, you can't start a business twice, your ability will not be brought into play. If you want to be the head of a business, not the head of a family, you must study and train for five to ten years. If you don't succeed, take another path to protect the family property.

The ability of an entrepreneur is the ability to combine, that is, the ability to manage. Only by actually doing it can we truly understand it. Don’t always worry about how to balance “knowing” and “doing”. What we should think about is how to embark on the journey from “I” to “we”.

The evolution of life is a process of continuous integration, and every challenge is an opportunity for evolution. Family businesses that face difficulties in succession and unsustainable development can be found to be going against the "journey from 'I' to 'we'", and their "we" is shrinking - fighting for power, wealth and resources, but not understanding how to manage the wealth they have fought for.

You need to tell your successor that you are not a shareholder, you are a protector, and we have a social contract. When you divest yourself of your shareholder identity and the pursuit of maximum profit, your work becomes simple. Using your resources is the real work, and this is the family's wealth.

The most important thing for family business inheritance is not wealth, because "children and grandchildren have their own blessings"; nor is it just the wisdom and spirit of the fathers, because the times are changing and the business is constantly developing. The most important thing is the inheritance of culture and meaning. Inheritance is a kind of power. It carries our history and culture and is the link between us and the past and the future.

No.5889 Original first article | Author Zhizhi Zhaizhu

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