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德国的企业,正如德国这个国家一样,以严谨沉稳而闻名。但细看之下就会发现,不少企业内部实际上却“暗潮汹涌”:咖啡大亨阿尔伯特·达尔博芬将其儿子阿图尔逐出了达尔博芬集团,并试图将企业交给一位朋友继承和管理;鲁道夫-奥古斯特·厄特克尔是欧特家博士集团的老板,他的祖父正是这家“点心王朝”的创始人,企业名称即来自其祖父的姓氏。多年以来,鲁道夫-奥古斯特第一任妻子所生的五个子女与第三任妻子所生的三个子女一直斗得不可开交;零售帝国滕格尔曼集团的兄弟两人都是亿万富翁,关系却势同水火。这不免让人怀疑哥哥卡尔-埃里温·豪布(集团第五代首席执行官)当年伪造了自己死于滑雪事故。据报道,弟弟格奥尔格·豪布于2021年1月撤销了宣告哥哥死亡的申请。
2如此这般的内部争斗不仅会使家族四分五裂、颜面扫地,而且损害股东价值——包括争斗各派自身的股东价值。赫尔曼·西蒙兼任多家实力强大的中型企业的管理顾问,他表示,权力如何交接是这些企业面临的最大问题。家族内部失和,企业就会有分裂、被对手吞并甚至破产的危险。如果能早做规划、早行协商,或许就能避免很多纷争。然而大多数企业创始人都不愿提前确定接班人,很少有人愿意考虑退休的事情。
失和的“商业王朝”
3九成以上的德国公司都是家族式企业。不同寻常的是,这些企业很多都是跨国公司,涉及许多行业,包括:家电(美诺),汽车制造(宝马、大陆和大众),化学品(汉高),工程装配(博世、贺利氏和克诺尔),食品(欧特家),媒体(贝塔斯曼),医药(默克),零售(奥乐齐、历德超市的东家施瓦茨集团)。雇员超过500人的公司足足有三成都掌控在创始人家族手中。
4德国之所以存在大量的家族式企业,一定程度上是因为遗产税的缘故:美国和法国的遗产税率向来很高,而德国的税率不算高——而且最关键的是,只要家族继承人能将企业运营满七年并确保原有雇员的就业和工资水平,那么就可以免征遗产税。另一方面,家族式企业繁盛也是其文化使然:美国人崇尚白手起家,而德国人讲究祖业传承。在他们眼里新富群体不过是庸俗的暴发户,不值一提。
5无论成因如何,现实情况就是家族企业普遍存在内斗。阿里斯特·冯施利普供职于一家智库——威腾纳家族企業研究所,他认为,冲突是家族企业的内生性本质。按照他的说法,每个家族企业就是一个矛盾体,融合了家族的包容性逻辑与商业的选择性逻辑。他记得做过这样一个咨询案例:一家企业的创始人希望四个儿子平分家族产业,却又鼓动他们争当下一任老总。这种做法无疑只会使兄弟反目。
6家族企业主若只有一位子嗣,或者说其他子嗣无意经商,那么权力移交就比较容易;而对于那些历经多次婚姻、子女满堂的家族企业主来说,移交企业就是一件治丝益棼的事。大众上一任老板费迪南德·保时捷是集团创始人费迪南德·波尔舍的外孙,结过三次婚,还有几段婚外情,共生下了七男六女。2019年皮耶希一去世,13个子女就和他的最后一位妻子闹到了法庭上,一直争讼不决。据估计,这场遗产官司涉及的家族资产高达15亿欧元(合18亿美元)。
7家族内部冲突往往还不是钱的事——亲人之间大动干戈主要是因为他们对企业有不同的愿景,抑或是觉得自己遭受了不公待遇。前面提到阿图尔·达尔博芬被父亲逐出集团并丧失了部分股权,据说一个诱因是阿图尔创立了一个名为“情色咖啡”的新品牌,而老达尔博芬不齿于这种鄙俗的做法,他即便已经83岁高龄,依然掌握着公司的实权。
8为了避免这样的家庭纷争,有些家族会给年轻人组织年度家庭聚会、假期野营,甚至还专门备上一套大房子以便家人团聚,而且通常聚会就是在家族企业创始人的家里。家族企业顾问赫伯特·韦蒂希说,大多数家族还会制定家规。拥有680名成员的哈尼尔家族(该集团最近才抛售了麦德龙超市的股份),他们的家规有80页,其中规定家族成员不能在本公司上班,连实习都不行。资产亿万的赖曼家族也有类似的规定,该家族旗下的雅帛集团业务范围广泛,囊括了从咖啡到化妆品的各个领域。通快家族的家规不仅涉及产业继承和内部股权出售事宜,还包括宗教包容、低调谦逊和尊重他人等准则。
9家族不和可能导致大家分道扬镳。一些大名鼎鼎的德国品牌就是家族企业分化的结果。1948年,制鞋的达斯勒兄弟之争造就了阿迪达斯和彪马,如今这两个品牌的运动鞋都价格不菲。1960年,阿尔布雷希特兄弟因是否售卖香烟产生了争执,结果企业一分为二:北奥乐齐在德国北部和其他一些国家运营,主要是西欧和中欧国家,南奥乐齐则覆盖了德国南部、欧洲剩余部分以及澳大利亚和中国。
10克劳斯-海纳·勒尔是另一家智库——德国经济研究所的研究员,他认为家族成员各有业务偏好,走向分化也合情合理。但此举会削弱占据中型企业群体多数的专业企业的实力。对于奥乐齐集团来说,明智的做法就是南北重新合并。可惜十年来,北奥乐齐家族的新一代子嗣们为了争权夺利一直吵嚷不休。这场内斗阻碍了南北奥乐齐明智的重新合并,更勿论两家企业都受益于重新合并了。
German firms have, like their country itself, a reputation for being staid2. Look closer, though, and many brim with intrigue3. Albert Darboven, a coffee tycoon, pushed his own son Arthur out of JJ Darboven4 and tried to adopt a friend as his heir and successor. The five children from the first marriage of Rudolf-August Oetker, grandson of the eponymous5 founder of a pudding dynasty, and the three offspring from his third have been at each other’s throats6 for years. The feud among the billionaire scions7 of the Tengelmann retail empire led to speculation that Karl-Erivan Haub, the group’s fifth-generation CEO, faked his own death in a skiing accident8. In January 2021, his brother, Georg Haub, reportedly withdrew the application to have him declared dead. Apart from ripping families apart and tearing down reputations, such feuds destroy shareholder value—including that accruing to the warring clans. Hermann Simon, a management consultant to many powerhouses in Germany’s Mittelstand9 of medium-sized firms, says succession is their biggest problem. Families that quarrel risk a split, a sale to a rival or bankruptcy. With early planning and discussions many rows could be avoided. Yet most founders prefer to keep their options open. And few wish to contemplate retirement.
Dynastic dissonance
More than 90% of German firms are family companies. Unusually, that includes many multinationals across a range of industries: appliances (Miele), carmaking (BMW, Continental and Volkswagen), chemicals (Henkel), engineering (Bosch, Heraeus, Knorr-Bremse), food (Oetker), media (Bertelsmann), medicines (Merck) and retail (Aldi and Schwarz, which owns Lidl grocers). Fully 30% of companies with more than 500 employees are in the hands of their founding clans.
The profusion of family companies is partly a function of inheritance tax. This has historically been high in America and France but modest in Germany—and, crucially, waived10 for heirs who keep their family business running for at least seven years, and protect jobs and wages. Another explanation is culture. Whereas Americans admire self-made men, Germans respect old money. Neureiche (newly rich) are dismissed as arriviste11 vulgarians12.
Whatever the reasons, the upshot13 is ubiquitous strife. For conflict is built into family businesses, says Arist von Schlippe of the Wittener Institute for Family Companies, a think-tank. Each is a paradox, he says, combining the inclusive logic of a family with the selective logic of business. As an example, he recalls advising a founder who wanted each of his four sons to inherit one-quarter of the family concern, while also encouraging all of them to strive for the qualifications to become its next boss. That is a recipe14 for discord.
Succession is easier when there is only one descendant, or when others show little interest in business. It gets complicated in dynasties with plenty of children from multiple marriages. Ferdinand Pi?ch, a former boss of Volkswagen Group and grandson of the carmaker’s founder, Ferdinand Porsche, had six daughters and seven sons from three marriages and a couple of liaisons15. Ever since Pi?ch died in 2019 his 13 children have been fighting in court with his last wife. An estimated €1.5bn ($1.8bn) in family wealth is at stake. Conflict is often not chiefly over money. Relatives spar because they have different aspirations for the business, or feel they are being mistreated. Arthur Darboven was pushed out by his father, and stripped of a part of his stake16. Among other things, Mr Darboven reportedly disapproved of his son’s launch of a racy new brand called Coffee-Erotic. At the age of 83 Albert Darboven remains at the helm of his firm.
To avert such to-dos17, some clans organise an annual family day, holiday camps for their youngsters and even dedicate a house to family reunions, often the home of the founder. Most also draw up codes of conduct, says Herbert Wettig, an adviser of family companies. The 680 members of the Haniel clan (who until recently owned Metro supermarkets) have an 80-page code, which stipulates that no family member can work for the company, not even as an intern. The Reimanns, billionaire owners of JAB18, a coffee-to-cosmetics group, have a similar rule. The Trumpfs have a code that covers succession and the sale of shares in the firm, but also includes guidelines for religious tolerance, modesty and respect for others.
Quarrelsome clans can go their separate ways. Some of corporate Germany’s biggest names are the result of break-ups. A fight between the shoemaking Dassler brothers led in 1948 to the creation of Adidas and Puma, each of which now makes pricey trainers. A feud in 1960 between the Albrecht brothers over whether to sell cigarettes also resulted in a bifurcation: Aldi Nord operates in northern Germany and a number of other, mostly western and central European countries; Aldi Süd covers southern Germany, remaining parts of Europe, plus Australia and China.
A split may make sense for groups with diverse interests, says Klaus-Heiner R?hl of the German Economic Institute, another think-tank. But it weakens specialist firms of the sort that populate the Mittelstand. The latest generation of Aldi Nord heirs has fought over money and power for a decade. The row is preventing a sensible re-merger of the Aldis. Never mind that it would help both businesses.
2如此这般的内部争斗不仅会使家族四分五裂、颜面扫地,而且损害股东价值——包括争斗各派自身的股东价值。赫尔曼·西蒙兼任多家实力强大的中型企业的管理顾问,他表示,权力如何交接是这些企业面临的最大问题。家族内部失和,企业就会有分裂、被对手吞并甚至破产的危险。如果能早做规划、早行协商,或许就能避免很多纷争。然而大多数企业创始人都不愿提前确定接班人,很少有人愿意考虑退休的事情。
失和的“商业王朝”
3九成以上的德国公司都是家族式企业。不同寻常的是,这些企业很多都是跨国公司,涉及许多行业,包括:家电(美诺),汽车制造(宝马、大陆和大众),化学品(汉高),工程装配(博世、贺利氏和克诺尔),食品(欧特家),媒体(贝塔斯曼),医药(默克),零售(奥乐齐、历德超市的东家施瓦茨集团)。雇员超过500人的公司足足有三成都掌控在创始人家族手中。
4德国之所以存在大量的家族式企业,一定程度上是因为遗产税的缘故:美国和法国的遗产税率向来很高,而德国的税率不算高——而且最关键的是,只要家族继承人能将企业运营满七年并确保原有雇员的就业和工资水平,那么就可以免征遗产税。另一方面,家族式企业繁盛也是其文化使然:美国人崇尚白手起家,而德国人讲究祖业传承。在他们眼里新富群体不过是庸俗的暴发户,不值一提。
5无论成因如何,现实情况就是家族企业普遍存在内斗。阿里斯特·冯施利普供职于一家智库——威腾纳家族企業研究所,他认为,冲突是家族企业的内生性本质。按照他的说法,每个家族企业就是一个矛盾体,融合了家族的包容性逻辑与商业的选择性逻辑。他记得做过这样一个咨询案例:一家企业的创始人希望四个儿子平分家族产业,却又鼓动他们争当下一任老总。这种做法无疑只会使兄弟反目。
6家族企业主若只有一位子嗣,或者说其他子嗣无意经商,那么权力移交就比较容易;而对于那些历经多次婚姻、子女满堂的家族企业主来说,移交企业就是一件治丝益棼的事。大众上一任老板费迪南德·保时捷是集团创始人费迪南德·波尔舍的外孙,结过三次婚,还有几段婚外情,共生下了七男六女。2019年皮耶希一去世,13个子女就和他的最后一位妻子闹到了法庭上,一直争讼不决。据估计,这场遗产官司涉及的家族资产高达15亿欧元(合18亿美元)。
7家族内部冲突往往还不是钱的事——亲人之间大动干戈主要是因为他们对企业有不同的愿景,抑或是觉得自己遭受了不公待遇。前面提到阿图尔·达尔博芬被父亲逐出集团并丧失了部分股权,据说一个诱因是阿图尔创立了一个名为“情色咖啡”的新品牌,而老达尔博芬不齿于这种鄙俗的做法,他即便已经83岁高龄,依然掌握着公司的实权。
8为了避免这样的家庭纷争,有些家族会给年轻人组织年度家庭聚会、假期野营,甚至还专门备上一套大房子以便家人团聚,而且通常聚会就是在家族企业创始人的家里。家族企业顾问赫伯特·韦蒂希说,大多数家族还会制定家规。拥有680名成员的哈尼尔家族(该集团最近才抛售了麦德龙超市的股份),他们的家规有80页,其中规定家族成员不能在本公司上班,连实习都不行。资产亿万的赖曼家族也有类似的规定,该家族旗下的雅帛集团业务范围广泛,囊括了从咖啡到化妆品的各个领域。通快家族的家规不仅涉及产业继承和内部股权出售事宜,还包括宗教包容、低调谦逊和尊重他人等准则。
9家族不和可能导致大家分道扬镳。一些大名鼎鼎的德国品牌就是家族企业分化的结果。1948年,制鞋的达斯勒兄弟之争造就了阿迪达斯和彪马,如今这两个品牌的运动鞋都价格不菲。1960年,阿尔布雷希特兄弟因是否售卖香烟产生了争执,结果企业一分为二:北奥乐齐在德国北部和其他一些国家运营,主要是西欧和中欧国家,南奥乐齐则覆盖了德国南部、欧洲剩余部分以及澳大利亚和中国。
10克劳斯-海纳·勒尔是另一家智库——德国经济研究所的研究员,他认为家族成员各有业务偏好,走向分化也合情合理。但此举会削弱占据中型企业群体多数的专业企业的实力。对于奥乐齐集团来说,明智的做法就是南北重新合并。可惜十年来,北奥乐齐家族的新一代子嗣们为了争权夺利一直吵嚷不休。这场内斗阻碍了南北奥乐齐明智的重新合并,更勿论两家企业都受益于重新合并了。
German firms have, like their country itself, a reputation for being staid2. Look closer, though, and many brim with intrigue3. Albert Darboven, a coffee tycoon, pushed his own son Arthur out of JJ Darboven4 and tried to adopt a friend as his heir and successor. The five children from the first marriage of Rudolf-August Oetker, grandson of the eponymous5 founder of a pudding dynasty, and the three offspring from his third have been at each other’s throats6 for years. The feud among the billionaire scions7 of the Tengelmann retail empire led to speculation that Karl-Erivan Haub, the group’s fifth-generation CEO, faked his own death in a skiing accident8. In January 2021, his brother, Georg Haub, reportedly withdrew the application to have him declared dead. Apart from ripping families apart and tearing down reputations, such feuds destroy shareholder value—including that accruing to the warring clans. Hermann Simon, a management consultant to many powerhouses in Germany’s Mittelstand9 of medium-sized firms, says succession is their biggest problem. Families that quarrel risk a split, a sale to a rival or bankruptcy. With early planning and discussions many rows could be avoided. Yet most founders prefer to keep their options open. And few wish to contemplate retirement.
Dynastic dissonance
More than 90% of German firms are family companies. Unusually, that includes many multinationals across a range of industries: appliances (Miele), carmaking (BMW, Continental and Volkswagen), chemicals (Henkel), engineering (Bosch, Heraeus, Knorr-Bremse), food (Oetker), media (Bertelsmann), medicines (Merck) and retail (Aldi and Schwarz, which owns Lidl grocers). Fully 30% of companies with more than 500 employees are in the hands of their founding clans.
The profusion of family companies is partly a function of inheritance tax. This has historically been high in America and France but modest in Germany—and, crucially, waived10 for heirs who keep their family business running for at least seven years, and protect jobs and wages. Another explanation is culture. Whereas Americans admire self-made men, Germans respect old money. Neureiche (newly rich) are dismissed as arriviste11 vulgarians12.
Whatever the reasons, the upshot13 is ubiquitous strife. For conflict is built into family businesses, says Arist von Schlippe of the Wittener Institute for Family Companies, a think-tank. Each is a paradox, he says, combining the inclusive logic of a family with the selective logic of business. As an example, he recalls advising a founder who wanted each of his four sons to inherit one-quarter of the family concern, while also encouraging all of them to strive for the qualifications to become its next boss. That is a recipe14 for discord.
Succession is easier when there is only one descendant, or when others show little interest in business. It gets complicated in dynasties with plenty of children from multiple marriages. Ferdinand Pi?ch, a former boss of Volkswagen Group and grandson of the carmaker’s founder, Ferdinand Porsche, had six daughters and seven sons from three marriages and a couple of liaisons15. Ever since Pi?ch died in 2019 his 13 children have been fighting in court with his last wife. An estimated €1.5bn ($1.8bn) in family wealth is at stake. Conflict is often not chiefly over money. Relatives spar because they have different aspirations for the business, or feel they are being mistreated. Arthur Darboven was pushed out by his father, and stripped of a part of his stake16. Among other things, Mr Darboven reportedly disapproved of his son’s launch of a racy new brand called Coffee-Erotic. At the age of 83 Albert Darboven remains at the helm of his firm.
To avert such to-dos17, some clans organise an annual family day, holiday camps for their youngsters and even dedicate a house to family reunions, often the home of the founder. Most also draw up codes of conduct, says Herbert Wettig, an adviser of family companies. The 680 members of the Haniel clan (who until recently owned Metro supermarkets) have an 80-page code, which stipulates that no family member can work for the company, not even as an intern. The Reimanns, billionaire owners of JAB18, a coffee-to-cosmetics group, have a similar rule. The Trumpfs have a code that covers succession and the sale of shares in the firm, but also includes guidelines for religious tolerance, modesty and respect for others.
Quarrelsome clans can go their separate ways. Some of corporate Germany’s biggest names are the result of break-ups. A fight between the shoemaking Dassler brothers led in 1948 to the creation of Adidas and Puma, each of which now makes pricey trainers. A feud in 1960 between the Albrecht brothers over whether to sell cigarettes also resulted in a bifurcation: Aldi Nord operates in northern Germany and a number of other, mostly western and central European countries; Aldi Süd covers southern Germany, remaining parts of Europe, plus Australia and China.
A split may make sense for groups with diverse interests, says Klaus-Heiner R?hl of the German Economic Institute, another think-tank. But it weakens specialist firms of the sort that populate the Mittelstand. The latest generation of Aldi Nord heirs has fought over money and power for a decade. The row is preventing a sensible re-merger of the Aldis. Never mind that it would help both businesses.