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The lure of the family business: The pros and cons of following in your parents’ footsteps
家族企业的诱惑：追随父母脚步的利与弊
Family business makes for compelling drama. Just ask anyone tuning in to the final season of “Succession”, which has recently begun airing on HBO.
家族企业造就扣人心弦的戏剧故事。只要问问任何一个在看《继承之战》最后一季的人就知道了，这部剧最近开始在HBO播出。
This Bartleby prefers “Buddenbrooks”, Thomas Mann’s chronicle of the decline and collapse of a German merchant family over the course of four generations. That novel, first published in 1901, drew heavily on the author’s personal experience.
本文的巴托比专栏作者更喜欢托马斯·曼的《布登勃洛克一家》，一部关于一个德国商人家族历经四代而衰落崩溃的编年史。这部小说于1901年首次出版，在很大程度上以作者的个人经历为素材。
The dilemmas of working for an organisation which an immediate family member runs or in which they own the majority sound alarming enough in fiction, never mind real life. And nepotism can be plenty dramatic even without the plot twists.
在一个由直系亲属管理或直系亲属拥有多数股权的组织里工作，这种两难境地在虚构小说中听起来就够令人担忧的了，更不用说在现实生活中。即使没有曲折情节，任人唯亲也可以相当有戏剧性。
These days it is frowned upon—most publicly listed companies and professional firms ban it. Still, family businesses make up more than 90% of the world’s enterprises. Many of them, quite literally, are mom-and-pop shops.
如今，人们不赞成任人唯亲--大多数上市公司和专业公司都禁止这一行为。尽管如此，家族企业仍占全球企业的90%以上。其中许多都是名副其实的夫妻店。
Some are large-ish businesses in smallish economies, like the one in Athens where this guest Bartleby, straight out of university, was put in charge of managing relations with institutional investors.
有一些是小型经济体中比较大的企业，比如雅典的一家公司，笔者刚从大学毕业就在这家公司负责管理与机构投资者的关系。
A handful are giant global corporations: think of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire (which allegedly inspired “Succession”) or Bernard Arnault’s $460bn luxury conglomerate, LVMH (which, as it happens, has grown by acquiring other family firms, such as Bulgari and Fendi).
还有几家是大型全球性企业：想想鲁伯特·默多克的传媒帝国(据说为《继承之战》提供了灵感)，或者贝尔纳·阿尔诺价值4600亿美元的奢侈品集团酩悦·轩尼诗-路易·威登集团(LVMH)(该集团碰巧通过收购宝格丽和芬迪等其他家族企业而逐渐壮大)。
Regardless of size, all family companies face common challenges. Filial loyalty and multi-generational thinking can morph into resistance to change, and if a firm has outside shareholders, clash with their interests.
无论规模大小，所有家族企业都面临着共同的挑战。孝顺忠心和多代思维可能会演变成不思变革，如果公司里有家族以外的股东，那么就会出现利益冲突。
The process of generational transition can be particularly draining and frustrating to the staff members who are not family, raising uncomfortable questions about social mobility, or the lack thereof.
对于家族以外的员工来说，代际过渡的过程可能尤其令人感到精疲力竭和沮丧，并引发关于社会流动性或者说是缺乏社会流动性的令人不安的问题。
For the corporate heir, meeting family expectations and continuing a legacy while achieving personal fulfilment can generate a mass of contradictions, as Mann splendidly illuminated.
对于企业继承人来说，在实现个人成就的同时满足家族期望和延续遗产可能会引发大量矛盾，正如托马斯·曼精彩描述的那样。
Even in companies that insist they are meritocratic, no amount of skill will convince all your colleagues that you have actually earned your job. Any pre-existing domestic frictions might make their way into the business.
即使在坚称任人唯贤的公司里，有再多的技能也无法让你的所有同事相信，你是靠努力赢得了这份工作。任何先前存在的家庭内部摩擦都可能进入公司里。
And vice versa: disagreements over the business can breed feuds, often between siblings. In India, the bitter dispute between Mukesh and Anil Ambani over their inherited empire, Reliance Industries, lasted for years after their father died without leaving a will.
反之亦然：在公司业务上的分歧也可能会产生不睦，通常是在兄弟姐妹之间。在印度，穆克什和阿尼尔·安巴尼对他们继承的商业帝国“信实工业”产生了激烈争执，他们的父亲没有留下遗嘱就去世了，争执在父亲去世多年后仍然继续。
