Gen2 family firms look to world future

As founders start retirement, their successors deploy new, global tactics

With the majority of private enterprises in China faced with passing on the family business to the second generation, young entrepreneurs are facing a huge challenge in taking over family brands and presenting them to the world.

According to a report presented at the end of 2011 by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, about 85.4 percent of China's private sector enterprises can be classified as family businesses. As many as 75 percent will enter a period of transition from the founders to their children over the next five to 10 years.

Huang Liwei, 35, was chosen to take over the business founded by his father in 1986. He started working as an ordinary employee there in 2003 and started running things after gaining thorough experience of the entire operation.

"It is extremely essential for a person from the second generation of a family business to work as a normal staff member for a certain period to get familiar with the whole production, sales and financing process before taking on a management role," said Huang, the general manager of Shanghai Yasi Electric Apparatus, a manufacturer of complete sets of high and low voltage electrical equipment with registered capital of $6.2 million.

Having graduated from Xiamen University with an executive master's in business administration, Huang had a different approach to running the business from his father, who had been exploring the domestic market over the past two decades and more.

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