Gen2 family firms look to world future (4)

After working in the family company for more than two years, Jin realized that being an OEM was not the best future for the company so he dropped most of the OEM orders and started building Jiuding into a brand that could manufacture high-end clocks for the domestic market in 2008.

"I've successfully enabled 85 percent of our products to meet demand in the domestic market. Jiuding as a Chinese brand has now stepped on to the world stage, selling to the United States, Germany and certain Asian countries," said Jin.

Jiuding clocks feature original German mechanical movements combined with superior quality clock components in a solid wooden casing with a unique finish in a choice of colors.

Jiuding has more than 200 selling venues in China. It merged with a German clock brand as an acquisition and has legal ownership of brands from the US, Germany and Japan in the China market.

"My goal is to develop Jiuding from a single brand into a multi-branded company and from a manufacturing-based enterprise into a trading as well as service concentrated enterprise. Then I want to open an individual clock store of Jiuding products. That's my dream," said Jin.

Challenges

However, not every second-generation family business is as lucky as Huang and Jin, who have already tasted the fruits of harvest while a great many of their peers are still trying to take their family companies out of China.

"Given that the majority of second generation family businesspeople were born after 1980, they are not mature enough to apply what they learned abroad to the actual running of businesses quickly," said Yu, the professor from Shanghai Jiao Tong University.