Children of many Vietnamese businessmen refuse to follow in their parents' footsteps.

Generational transfer is a difficult problem for many Vietnamese businesses, especially family businesses. How to find and train talented and dedicated successors is a big question.

Many Vietnamese businesses are facing the situation of "children refusing to follow in their footsteps", raising big questions about the future of family businesses - Photo: TA

At the talk show "Entrepreneurs - What are you preparing for the next generation?" organized by the Saigon Entrepreneurs Club on November 29, many entrepreneurs expressed their concerns about the transfer of succession to the next generation in current businesses.

Generation F2 "turns back" on family business

Mr. Hang Vay Chi - Chairman of the District 11 Business Association - said that most of their children's generation (often called F2) go to school in the US, Europe, and Singapore and starting a business is encouraged, so many young F2 people are no longer interested in inheriting the family business.

Mr. Chi himself also encountered this situation when his first daughter refused to take over the family business despite having received formal medical training in the US because she "didn't fit the environment".

According to Mr. Chi, one of the reasons why F2s are afraid to follow in their parents' footsteps is because in addition to inheriting their parents' career, they also have to shoulder their parents' debts and responsibilities to partners and customers... which makes many young people not excited.

Meanwhile, lawyer Pham Ngoc Hung - vice president of Tracent, former vice president of the Ho Chi Minh City Business Association (HUBA) - said that some of his friends who are owners of packaging and plastic businesses also do not know who to hand over the management of the company to because their children refuse to take over.

"Many young people who study in the US are afraid of the dusty, polluted industrial zones and refuse to work for the company. If their children don't want to, parents can't force them, but if they don't hand over the business to their children, who else can they hand it over to because they can't trust outsiders," said Mr. Hung.

Empowering talent for sustainable business development

Ms. Phan Thi Tuyet Mai - General Director of TMTM Company Limited - said that the current truth is that "wherever children are placed, parents must sit there", forcing children to follow their parents' profession is not advisable because it is harmful to both the children and the company.

Therefore, Ms. Mai believes that businesses do not necessarily have to give the right to run the company to their children, but can give it to outsiders, as long as they are dedicated and responsible for the business.

"The successor team does not necessarily have to be family members, because nowadays many young people do not want to return to their parents' company. To prepare for building a successor team, the best way is to have professionalism from the departments, build a methodical process so that if one person leaves, there will still be replacement personnel," said Ms. Mai.

Dr. Lu Nguyen Xuan Vu - Chairman of the Saigon Business Club, General Director of Xuan Nguyen Group Joint Stock Company - said that in Vietnam, there is no concept of a business over 100 years old, but in the world, especially in Japan, there are businesses that are thousands of years old. The highlight of these businesses is that they do not necessarily have to hand over the right to succeed their career to their children if "they are incompetent and useless".

According to Mr. Vu, in Japan there are 33,000 companies that are 100 years old or older, accounting for 40% of the companies in this group in the world. More than 3,000 businesses have existed for at least 200 years. About 140 have been operating for more than 500 years and at least 19 businesses have been over 1,000 years.

"Businesses that are over a thousand years old are all family businesses. However, they are willing to choose someone to accompany them and hand over the company to. Therefore, Vietnam also needs to think about how to have thousand-year-old businesses like Japan," said Mr. Vu.

Lawyer Pham Ngoc Hung believes that the board of directors should be stabilized, management power should be given to capable people, and outside personnel can be hired.

"Just make me the chairman of the board of directors, the other positions can be hired," Mr. Hung said.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/con-cai-nhieu-doanh-nhan-viet-khong-chiu-noi-nghiep-cha-me-20241129222047396.htm