By DIAO YING (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-08-20 06:51

He is a good kid, excellent at schoolwork.

That is the way Zhou Haijiang describes his own child, although his son has barely graduated from kindergarten.

Self-disciplined, working seven days a week, Zhou said he inherited the characteristic from his father, and that is the way he teaches his own son.

Zhou's family is typical for a privately owned business in East China's Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces. The second generation is born with the natural mission to be future leaders of their family enterprises.

Zhou was elected president of the company in 2004, in which he took pride: elected, that is, not inherited.

But businesses in the towns where the factories are located make it a complex issue to choose a president: over 70 percent of families in Donggang town, where Hongdou is located, have members working in the factory. A company often contributes to over half of tax revenue in a town and the owner of the company is often the head of local government.

Hongdou hired a Chinese Canadian as a general manager in 1998, who worked for a year and left. So it is a family business.

Zhou would not admit that he is himself the second generation running the enterprise because he has been with the company since the 1980s. But his educational background sets him apart from his father's generation. And he is well aware of that difference.

"In making decisions, my father's generation is more bold, and they have very strategic vision," he says. "But I tend to wait until I feel totally confident."

They certainly have one thing in common: Both worked to ensure their children are disciplined and well prepared for their future roles. Just like Zhou remembers - the times when he had to stand up for the entire night for doing something wrong.

Zhou also remembers the day when his father called the brothers together and told them that only one of them could continue their education.

His younger brother, who "is smart too, and was a good student himself" volunteered to quit school and Zhou went on to university.

That is why he came back after graduation, knowing and believing in the responsibility to his family.

(China Daily 08/20/2007 page12)