The Graying of Germany’s Small Business Managers
德国小企业管理者的老龄化
Quickly aging group raises concerns about succession planning, stalled investments
管理层的迅速老龄化关系到企业接班计划，投资亦会陷于停滞。
Investor Gerd Fricke last year took over PEKU Folien, a Bavarian printing and packaging-material business, from its octogenarian owner.PHOTO: PEKU FOLIEN
投资人Gerd Fricke去年从耄耋之年的前所有者手中接手了一家名为PEKU Folien的巴伐利亚印刷和包装材料生产企业。照片来自：PEKU Folien
FRANKFURT—At the midsize companies that form Germany’s industrial backbone, managers are literally a dying breed.
法兰克福——这里的中型企业构成了德国工业的主干，可以毫不夸张地说，它们的管理者们正青黄不接。
The executives who helped fuel the country’s economic boom in recent decades are aging quickly, entering the 55-and-over age group four times as fast as Germans as a whole, according to a survey by development bank KfW. That disparity is particularly striking given how swiftly the overall population is aging: Germany now has the world’s lowest birthrate, slipping below Japan, according to a study this year by the Hamburg Institute of International Economics and audit firm BDO AG.
助推国家经济繁荣的企业高层们近几十年来正在快速衰老，根据KfW发展银行的调查，他们中进入55岁以上年龄段的速度相当于德国人整体水平的四倍。这种不一致在德国整体人口迅速老龄化的背景下更加显著：根据汉堡国际经济研究所和BDO AG审计公司的研究，德国的婴儿出生率目前落到了日本后面，有着全世界最低的婴儿出生率。
The graying executive corps could have a significant economic impact. Germany’s more than 3.5 million small and midsize businesses, known collectively as the Mittelstand, account for about 60% of its workforce and more than half of its economic output.
经理团队的老龄化会产生显著的经济影响。超过350万家的德国中小企业被统称为Mittelstand，它们贡献了超过60%的就业岗位和超过一半的经济产出。
Older bosses at these companies, many of whom are also the owners, are less eager to invest in their own business than younger ones, the KfW survey found. They also frequently delay succession planning, even though handoffs can take an average of three years, experts say.
KfW的调查发现，这些企业的年长老板很多同时还是企业的所有者，它们比年轻人更不情愿投资于自己的企业。专家说，他们还经常延迟接班计划，尽管交接平均只需要三年。
That’s largely because “dealing with succession is like facing your own death,” said Alexander Koeberle-Schmid, a family-business consultant at KPMG in Düsseldorf. “You try to avoid it as long as possible.”
这很大程度上是因为“处理接班问题意味着面对自己的死亡”，Alexander Koeberle-Schmid，这位来自杜塞尔多夫的毕马威会计事务家族企业顾问说道，“人们竭尽所能的避免这种情况。”
By 2017, according to KfW, the jobs of four million employees at 580,000 midsize companies will depend on a successful leadership transition.
根据KfW的调查，到2017年时，58万家中型企业的400万员工的职位能否保住，将取决于领导权的顺利交接。
Chambers of commerce here are concerned enough to have started warning members that they need to begin planning for an orderly succession, or face the risk of having to close when the day arrives.
商会非常担心这个问题，并且开始警告其成员，他们需要开始为接班做计划，不然等那一天来临时，企业就要冒倒闭的风险。
Autohaus Ochs GmbH, a Volkswagen dealership near Stuttgart, had eight employees when Martin Häussermann took it over in 2006. The previous owner, who was 69 years old, had been seeking a buyer for years and hadn’t made any significant investment in the company for a decade. “It would have been liquidated,” said Mr. Häussermann, who was 31 years old at the time.
Under Mr. Häussermann, who quickly started investing in the business, it has grown to 100 employees.
2006年，Martin Häussermann接手了斯图加特附近一个只有八名员工的大众汽车经销商Autohaus Ochs GmbH。它69岁的前主人寻找买家数年，并且在十年中没有进行任何明显的投资。“要不是我接手，当时它可能已经被清算了”，Häussermann说。Mr. Häussermann当时31岁，他迅速对业务进行了投资，在他管理之下，该企业成长到了拥有100名员工的规模。
Closures, however, are becoming increasingly common. Germany’s annual rate of business liquidations has outpaced business openings only four times since the mid-1970s, and three of those were in the past three years, according to IfM, a Mittelstand research institute. It expects the pattern to continue this year.
然而，关门却越来越普遍了。根据中小企业研究机构IfM的研究，自1970年代中期以来，德国企业破产率仅有四次超越其企业的新创办率，而其中的三次是在过去三年发生的。它预计这种趋势今年还会继续。
“Liquidations do happen, often when company know-how is closely tied to a single owner,” said Jürgen Becker, a succession expert at the regional business chamber that advised Mr. Häussermann. Older managers are frequently hesitant about investing and innovation, Mr. Becker added.
“企业倒闭确实在发生，当公司知道它多么紧密地和单个所有者绑在一起时，则更经常如此，”地区商会的接班专家Jürgen Becker这样忠告Häussermann。年老的经理人们通常会在投资和创新方面犹豫不决，Becker补充道。
Last year, investor Gerd Fricke took over 100-employee PEKU Folien GmbH, a Bavarian printing and packaging-material business, from its octogenarian owner. Investment had stalled in some areas, “particularly in building up employees’ management skills,” he said.
去年，投资人Gerd Fricke从年迈的前所有者手中接过了拥有100名员工的巴伐利亚印刷和包装材料企业PEKU Folien GmbH。企业一些领域的投资陷于停滞，“尤其在提高员工管理能力方面”，他说。
Mr. Fricke shortened the company’s name and is flattening its hierarchical management structure as he converts it from a contract manufacturer to a more innovative supplier. In recent years, he said, PEKU skimped on spending that could have boosted productivity, such as having replacement tools ready when worn ones required servicing.
Fricke在将公司从订单承接制造商转变为更具创新能力的供应商时，缩短了公司名称并且扁平化了层级管理结构。他说，近年来PEKU对可能提高生产力的方面投入不够，比如在机器需要维修时提前备好配件。
“Often it was a matter of being thrifty in the wrong places,” he added.
“物不能尽其用是件麻烦事，”他补充说。
About 73% of senior managers advised by Germany’s industry and trade groups haven’t assembled the basic documents needed for a handover, such as a power of attorney, supplier and client information, bank-access data or a will, according to business-chamber association DIHK.
根据商会联合组织德国工商总会的说法，得到德国工业和贸易团体建议的大约73%的高级管理者还没有积累接班需要的基本文件，例如代理委托书，供应商和客户信息，银行账户访问权限数据或生前遗嘱。
When companies change hands after the owner dies and heirs aren’t familiar with the company, they “can’t make the best decisions,” said Mr. Koeberle-Schmid at KPMG. When heirs disagree on strategy, they don’t agree on money or power either, he added.
当公司在所有者去世之后被转手而继任者并不熟悉公司时，他们将“无法作出最佳决策，”毕马威的Koeberle-Schmid认为。当他们无法认同公司战略时，他们也无法对金钱或权力达成一致，他补充道。
“The bulk of our clients have a demographic problem, but few are aware enough to devote the needed resources,” said Uwe Berndt, who runs Mainblick, a public-relations agency for midsize logistics businesses.
“我们的大多数客户都有人口统计学方面的问题，但是他们很少意识到这一点并为此投入必要的资源,” 物流业中型企业公关机构Mainblick 的经营者Uwe Berndt说道。
Handovers can be tricky even when a family member is involved.
即使有家庭成员参与，移交也可能很棘手。
By the time Caspar Brockhaus took over management of Brockhaus Group from his father six years ago, suppliers of the roughly 150-employee steel, environmental and measurement-technology company had become some of its fiercest competitors. With guidance from his father, he shed operations that accounted for half the company’s sales and staff. Within four years, sales at the remaining operations had risen roughly 50%.
六年前，Caspar Brockhaus从他父亲手中接过Brockhaus集团的管理权时，这家拥有大约150名员工的钢铁、环保和测量技术公司的供应商们已经变成了它最凶猛的竞争对手。在他父亲指导下，他采取措施裁减了涉及公司一半员工和销售量的业务。在四年之内，剩余业务的销售量提高了大约50%。
The move made financial sense, but was “a great emotional hurdle,” said Mr. Brockhaus, since it meant selling a traditional part of the business, whose family roots date back to 1864.
这项措施在财务上是说得通的，但却是“一个很大的情感障碍，” Brockhaus说，因为这意味着卖掉一块家族1864年起家时的传统业务。
“In retrospect, you could say we should’ve done it earlier,” Mr. Brockhaus said. But succession “had to be cleared up first, so my father waited to implement and invest in the new strategy.”
“回想起来，你可能会说我们应该早点这么做，” Brockhaus说。但接班工作“必须先彻底解决，所以我父亲一直在等待实施新策略并投资于其中的时机。”
翻译：史祥莆（微博：@史祥莆）
校对：带菜刀的诗人
编辑：辉格@whigzhou