It is easy to experience unqualified admiration for the rapid rise of Asian economies and the continent’s powerful, family-led businesses. But academics suspect that hidden in that strength lies a weakness.

人们很容易对亚洲经济体以及亚洲强大家族企业的快速崛起感到由衷地钦佩。但学者们怀疑，这种强大背后有隐患。

They warn that a great deal of Asian wealth is tied up in family businesses and that much of it will be lost when the head of the family finally decides to step down from the company. Although problems with succession are not unique to Asian family businesses, the difficulties are more acute because there is an added cultural reluctance to broach the issue of succession, according to one academic who specialises in the subject.

学者们警告称，亚洲大量财富与家族企业联系在一起，而其中许多财富将随着家族企业掌门人决定退位而消失。一位专门研究该问题的学者称，尽管企业传承问题并非亚洲家族企业独有的问题，但由于亚洲文化尤其不愿讨论这个问题，它面临的困难更为严峻。

“To talk about succession is almost like putting a curse on someone,” says Yupana Wiwattanakantang, associate professor of finance and corporate governance at the National University of Singapore Business School. In Asia, the leaders of family businesses tend to be patriarchs rather than matriarchs, she says, and these men want to continue at the helm of the organisation until their dying day. Family members do not want to allude to succession because it might sound as if they were wishing their father or grandfather ill.

新加坡国立大学商学院(National University of Singapore Business School)金融和公司治理副教授Yupana Wiwattanakantang表示：“谈论传承问题几乎就是在诅咒某人。”她表示，在亚洲，家族企业掌门人往往是男性家长而非女性家长。这些男人希望一直执掌企业大权，直至去世的那一天。家族成员不想谈论传承问题，因为这听起来好像是他们在诅咒自己的父亲或祖父得病。

“The single most important factor facing Asian family businesses is the issue of succession,” says Morten Bennedsen, professor of family enterprise at Insead and director of the Wendel International Centre for Family Enterprise.

欧洲工商管理学院(INSEAD)研究家族企业的教授、温德尔家族企业国际中心(Wendel International Centre for Family Enterprise)主任莫滕•本内森(Morten Bennedsen)表示：“亚洲家族企业面临的最重要问题是传承问题。”

He says succession is becoming a pressing issue in Asia not only because many family businesses are relatively young – which means the issue is arising for the first time – but also because evidence suggests that succession has not been going so well.

他表示，企业传承问题在亚洲变得紧迫，不仅因为许多家族企业相对年轻——这意味着该问题是首次出现——还因为有证据表明，亚洲企业在传承问题上进展并不顺利。

Prof Bennedsen cites the work of Joseph Fan, professor of accountancy and director of the Institute of Economics and Finance at Chinese University of Hong Kong. Prof Fan, much of whose recent work focuses on family firm succession, has found that companies lose nearly 60 per cent of their value during the transition from one generation to another. His work looked in detail at more than 200 transfers of power in family-controlled companies with listings in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan from 1987 to 2005.

本内森援引了香港中文大学(Chinese University of Hong Kong)会计学教授、经济及金融研究所(Institute of Economics and Finance)主任范博宏(Joseph Fan)的研究。范博宏近来主要研究家族企业传承问题。他发现，家族企业在两代掌门人交接期间会丧失近60%的价值。他详细研究了1987年至2005年间在香港、新加坡和台湾上市的逾200家家族企业权力交接的案例。

Prof Fan explains that most of the loss was suffered in the five years before succession. “This indicates something has gone wrong in the succession process,” he says.

范博宏解释称，大部分损失发生在权力交接前的5年间。他说：“这表明交接过程出现了问题。”

Although his research is necessarily limited to the publicly traded part of family businesses’ assets, he says this listed part is usually the “crown jewel” of the company and that any value loss is likely to affect non-listed parts of the company too.

范博宏表示，尽管自己的研究不可避免地局限于家族企业资产中上市的部分，但这部分资产对企业而言通常是“皇冠上的珍珠”，并且这部分资产的任何价值损失也可能影响企业未上市资产的价值。

“I think this research finding can be applied universally across southeast Asia and into north Asia. We’ve documented a similar pattern for mainland Chinese families, too,” Prof Fan says.

范博宏表示：“我认为该研究结果适用于整个东南亚地区，以及亚洲北部部分地区。我们也发现中国内地的家族企业存在类似的模式。”

In the case of China, where many enterprises were born during the economic reforms of the 1980s, the entire country could soon be dealing with succession at the same time.

就中国而言，由于许多企业创立于上世纪八十年代经济改革期间，整个国家可能很快会同时面临继承问题。

“In China’s case, there is actually country risk,” Prof Fan says of the nation’s looming succession crisis. “There’s a big demand for education on this.”

范博宏在谈到中国家族企业日益迫近的继承危机时表示：“就中国而言，事实上存在国家风险。这方面的教育需求巨大。”

He is helping to set up the Private Enterprise Governance and Development Centre at Renmin University in Beijing, and delivers lectures on family business on a monthly basis around China.

范博宏正帮助在中国人民大学(Renmin University)创建私营企业治理和发展中心(Private Enterprise Governance and Development Centre)，而且他每月还在中国各地发表有关家族企业的演讲。

Prof Bennedsen is also reporting an increase in interest in family business education developed at Insead, partly because of the perception that it might have knowledge to pass on: “Coming from Europe, we have at least 100-200 years of experience of ownership models and exit models. One thing we can offer are cases and examples of how families over the last two centuries have tried to cope with many of the same challenges that Asian family business faces today.”

本内森还称，人们对欧洲工商管理学院推出的家族企业教育课程的兴趣有所上升，一定程度上是因为人们认为这门课程或许会传授一些知识。他说：“我们来自欧洲，在产权模式和退出模式方面有至少一两百年的的经验。我们可以提供过去两个世纪以来家族企业尝试解决有关企业传承的各种难题的案例，这些难题正是亚洲家族企业如今正面临的。”

However, he says there is a need to develop models that are specific to the culture in which they will be applied.

然而，本内森表示，开发专门适用于亚洲文化的模式也是有必要的。

“We’re looking to develop an Asian model of family business. It is not possible to copy a model of family business from another continent,” Prof Bennedsen says, adding that there is so much variation within Asia that a number of different models might be required.

本内森表示：“我们正在尝试开发家族企业的亚洲模式。我们不可能照抄另一个大陆的家族企业模式。”他补充称，亚洲各地差异巨大，因此或许需要多个不同的模式。

While academics are developing ownership and succession models that will create smooth transitions from one generation to another, the typical family business owner in Asia is simply too busy to address the topic, says Prof Wiwattanakantang.

Wiwattanakantang表示，在学者们开发能够帮助企业实现顺利交接的产权和传承模式之际，亚洲家族企业的所有者往往只是因为太忙而无暇顾及该问题。

Address it they must, however, and there is plenty of impartial advice available. Family businesses in Singapore, for example, are being targeted by financial institutions encouraging them to set up trust ownership structures. While such structures are always a good idea for the financial institutions, which earn fees from setting up and administering trusts, they do not suit every family business, Prof Bennedsen says.

然而，他们必须解决这一问题，在这方面也有许多中肯的建议。例如，在新加坡，金融机构正鼓励那里的家族企业建立信托产权结构。本内森表示，尽管建立此类结构始终有利于金融机构（因为金融机构可以对创建和管理信托收取费用），但这种方法并不适用于所有家族企业。

He believes family businesses should consider which is the best broad model for them. He recalls one Indian family business that had operations across Africa. In that situation it made sense to have many family members in the business because it was then possible to have at least one member in each country. “It changes from family to family,” Prof Bennedsen points out.

本内森认为，家族企业应该从整体上考虑哪种模式最适合自己。他回忆起一家在非洲各地有业务的印度家族企业。在那种情况下，让多名家族成员参与家族生意是明智的，因为那样的话在每个国家至少能有一名家族成员。本内森指出：“每个家族企业的情况都不同。”

The thing that all Asian family businesses have in common, however, is the pressing need to make arrangements.

然而，所有亚洲家族企业都有一个共同问题就是：对企业传承做出安排迫在眉睫。

“Students now are very interested in this area. Many are in family businesses and many of the others want to go into private banking,” explains Prof Wiwattanakantang, adding that wealth management in Asia demands a good understanding of family businesses because so much wealth tends to be tied up in them.

Wiwattanakantang解释称：“学生们现在对该领域非常感兴趣。许多学生是正在家族企业中工作，其他许多学生则希望进入私人银行业。”她补充道，亚洲的财富管理行业必须很懂家族企业，因为与这些企业联系在一起的往往是如此巨额的财富。

Despite the demand for more detailed advice and tuition on succession, there is a shortage of academics who have specialised in the topic.

尽管在家族企业传承问题上，人们需要更详细的建议和更多相关课程，但目前缺少专门研究该问题的学者。

“It’s not easy to handle succession and apparently we do not have that many experts in Asia,” she says.

Wiwattanakantang表示：“解决企业传承问题并不容易，亚洲显然没有那么多的专家。”