By Airaldo Piva

The Big Red Fish

By Airaldo Piva

In the last decade, I had the opportunity to come across and hear about incredible stories of brave founders of Chinese families companies. These companies have become more and more important in the national economy and society. According to recent statics, they are estimated to be more than 80%of Chinese non-public ownership companies, reaching 90%in Zhejiang province. Most of them can out-perform over the no family fi rms around the world as they have a longer term strategy and they desire to build business for the next generations.

The stories about how the founders started and created their own business from scratch are very different in terms of timing, industries, places, circumstances etc. However almost all family companies fortunes have a common deep root: the founder has been a visionary self-made leader with an “high achiever” attitude and many secret dreams in the heart. She/he has been always con fi dent that through the right combination of events and people everything is possible. Important is to have perseverance, quick action and enough patience to wait for the results. The enthusiasm and self-confidence in whatever they do and never give up mind in daily challenges could inspire high expectations in their staff and all people close to them.

I met founders who, from an initial small cellar or from the backyard of their modest house, starting with no money,no experience in travelling even outside their own province,with limited education but an endless number of dreams,through hard work and strong determination could establish and develop companies that now value billions and are at the top in terms of technology and leaders in the global markets.

One day of several years ago, I turned up at a town lying in the center of Zhejiang. It was an hot summer with a serene blue sky extended over the hills. The rough river crossing the small town was flowing among many sandstone cliffs and narrow gorges, often shadowed by high ancient trees.

“During all my life I have been like a small fish but always swimming resolutely against the main stream, ” I was said by the successful founder of the largest local conglomerate.“Even if I am rich and old, I have still at least 80 new projects I would like soon to realize. It could be easier and comfortable for me to follow simply the current or even stop swimming, just enjoying the remaining short part of my life but I can not since that is my role in the society”.

Thanks to this sense of responsibility these silent modern heroes have been able to create many jobs and give high contributions back to the local towns and to the entire nation.Often such as high sense of moral values and obligations to the society inspire the founder-manager to build up around the companies their own ideal community. During these years I visited private companies where like a father does to their own family, the founder or next generations set up hospitals, schools, sport facilities, kindergarten for employees’kids, museums, monuments etc. .

Nowadays it is objectively more difficult for the new generations to create from scratch big empires like these founders did some decades ago. However the meaning of the “fish swimming against the main stream” is still valid. In modern times the “main stream” means what is to be considered as old, established, comfortable, riskless, conservative. The younger generations should have more courage and determination to embrace new challenges and manage different and uncertain scenarios, having big dreams and distant horizons but always paying attention to the present and without forgetting the past. Now that China aims to be not a simple follower but to get a leadership in the global markets it would be particularly important to keep alive this energy of continuous innovation and constant improvement.

Chinese authority should keep supplying enough fresh water to the fi shes for the sake and benefits of local and global community.