Chapter 860: Family Centenary

When Mu Qingqing first met Chen Pingsheng, she didn't know his identity. After she found out, she left completely.

Then came the restructuring of Tengying Group, which caused a sensation in the country and shook the entire business community.

Later, Jingyan Island was brought to the fore and became the most famous mysterious place in the country.

And many years later, after his wife passed away, the founder of the Chen family once again stood under the gaze of countless wealthy and famous journalists.

What exactly does he want to say, and what kind of signals will he send to the outside world?

All of this is so eye-catching and makes countless people look forward to it.

Including the Jiang Wangzhi sister who had just completed the recognition ceremony, they were now looking at the old man on the stage who was hailed as a legend by the domestic business community with great excitement.

He was seventy-three years old, with white hair. If he had not completed the task, he might have passed away with his wife by now.

What could it be that even he has not yet completed?

Mu Qingqing stood very close to the front. There was no interview session today. Only this godlike man told his story.

Chen Pingsheng sat there casually and leisurely, holding a black microphone in his hand, which could clearly transmit his words to every corner of the banquet hall.

He said calmly, "Many of the people here are old friends, so I won't say any polite words.

"I know what topics you are most concerned about, it's nothing more than how to make more money or make your family more powerful.

“Unfortunately, the topic I want to talk about today has nothing to do with this. Instead, it’s about a family’s heritage and responsibility.

"My wife has been gone for less than a month, and I've often missed the past with her.

"I still remember that when she was leaving, she asked me a question that was still fresh in my mind. At that time, I didn't understand why she asked that. It took me a while to figure it out.

"My wife asked me, 'Do you still remember when we lived together in a small rental house in Beijing? What was your biggest purpose in making money?

"At that time I said that the biggest significance of my making money was to give you the best life.

"Then the wife asked again, what if you make a lot of money?

"I was silent at the time because I hadn't thought about this question at all. Even my wife asked me this question one last time before she passed away. I think she had already made the decision for me by then."

Chen Pingsheng said: "I spent the first half of my life building my family from nothing to something, and then spent another ten years cultivating my own children, because at that time I believed that the company I founded would definitely be passed on to my children in the future.

"I believe many entrepreneurs share this idea: a family's empire is built on a family, and only then can the empire be built.

"This idea is not wrong, because China has been developing in this way for 5,000 years.

"But there is a big problem. I was born into poverty and have experienced a lot of hardships since childhood. But my children were born differently because they had me as their father. From the moment they were born, they were clothed in fine clothes and fed with delicious food. What is the suffering of the world?

"For them, it probably means living in a house of less than 300 square meters, driving a car worth less than one million yuan, and wearing clothes that cost hundreds or thousands of yuan each.

"Let's ask ourselves, countless family businesses are involved in people's livelihood enterprises, including grassroots industries. Based on their birth and second-generation growth experiences, can they really help those employees and the business develop better?

"The answer must be no."

Chen Pingsheng does not like to talk big, and even less like to talk about those big and empty principles. He just talks about some practical things based on his own actual experience.

"Even with our first generation's full support, the second or third generation of the family will still find it difficult to compare with the tens of millions of employees in the group, who are the elites who have emerged from the crowd.

"The simplest truth is, you're only devoting all your energy to nurturing your own children, while those outstanding employees in the group who have risen from ordinary interns to managers and even presidents have all been on a single-plank bridge, overcoming numerous obstacles and severing many barriers to reach their current positions.

"Isn't the hard work and experience they've put in since childhood still comparable to the training you've given them?

"The significance of this matter is not anything else, but that after more than 40 years of development of our Tengying Group, many of our subsidiaries, including project companies, have second- and third-generation executives. Although I have banned this many times, this situation still persists.

“Today, when everyone is trying every possible way to place their juniors into the group, hoping that they will inherit the legacy of their hard-working predecessors, have you ever considered that this will infinitely increase the group’s burden and slow down its execution?

"If this continues, we, the former market disruptors, will inevitably be surpassed by new innovators, because they have no burdens and are only focused on survival and making their businesses a little better.

"My wife gave away her personal wealth accumulated over decades in her later years. Even now, I can say that my wife is definitely a great philanthropist in the true sense of the word. Even I may not be able to compare with her.

“I have said so much to you all today for one purpose only: to completely transform Tengying Group, including Jingyan Island, from a family-owned development group to a people-oriented socially responsible enterprise.

“The Economic Research Island will also lift its ten-year ban on foreigners entering, and will select numerous representatives from various industries every year to participate in and implement decisions made on the island.

"Tengying Group will also open a group-wide complaint website, including an online information column, and welcomes constant supervision from consumers, including the public.

"In the next 20 years, the only thing I will do is to eliminate the social connections within the group. The only way to completely eliminate this is to make the company, including Jingyan Island, fully accept transparent management and supervision from consumers and the general public. In this process, I will also provide the highest authority for supervision from consumers and the general public to ensure that every good opinion they have can be accepted by the company.

“If you want to develop a good and strong century-old enterprise, or even a group, I personally believe that you must first avoid family-owned businesses.

"After a family becomes wealthy, during the process of passing down wealth from generation to generation, no matter how hard they try to cultivate their children, they are often unsatisfactory. At the very least, they are not as good as those proud children from humble backgrounds who can rise among millions of people."

Chen Pingsheng simply gave everyone a few words. Although his words were plain, their significance was beyond imagination.

This made all the wealthy families present feel incredible.

Even reporters like Mu Qingqing were excited about it.

Everyone originally thought that Chen Pingsheng, the founder of the Chen family, was a legend in the business world.

The last twenty years of one's life must be the time to consolidate the family's power and allow the descendants of the Chen family to enter the senior management of the group or even become the dean of the Economic Research Island.

Unexpectedly, in his last twenty years, he was actually thinking about abandoning family-style development.

And let the group completely become a social practice enterprise that is open, fair, just and fully accepts supervision and management from consumers including the people.

The difference between the two is huge.

One is to continuously strengthen the family's influence, while the other is to continuously weaken the family's influence.

Undoubtedly, the founder of the Chen family chose the latter path in his later years.

For this reason alone, he deserves to be called a legend.

(End of this chapter)