Friday 26 / April / 2024
Muscat: The regulatory framework in Oman is comparable to the world’s leading economies, according to Yang Jiantao, co-chairman of Crowe Horwath, one of the top 10 accounting networks in the world.
Jiantao was speaking at a talk entitled, "Complexities of Family Owned Businesses", organised by Horwath Mak Ghazali, the company's member firm in Oman. The meeting was held at the Grand Hyatt under the patronage of Yahya Al Jabri, Chairman of Special Economic Zone Authority Duqm (Sezad). The event was also attended by Abdullah Al Salmi and Yu Fulong, ambassador of China to the Sultanate.
Davis Kallukaran, Managing Partner of Crowe Horwath Oman, in his welcoming address, said Jiantao was visiting the Oman office for the first time and was impressed by the beauty of the country. He assured Al Jabri and the Ambassador that with Yang’s visit to Oman, more investments are likely to flow into Oman from China.
Speaking on the occasion, Asin Nurani, an expert on family businesses, said global statistics showed that survival rates for family businesses from first to the second generation was 30 per cent, from second to third generation was 15 per cent; and from third to fourth generation was 3 per cent.
He said family legacies were often fraught with a lack of alignment or clarity on several fronts and highlighted some of the challenges facing such businesses, such as the lack of a unified and coherent vision, both at the level of family and business, and changes in values in succeeding generations. As new generations come into the fold, their values often differ from those who founded the business.
Also, there is no clarity on which family members can join the business and under which conditions the founding members do not recognise the next-gen talent or what to do when the next-gen members genuinely lack the talent to manage the business in future.
Then there is emotional blockage, such as blame, jealousy, confusion, doubt, ego, and lack of a professional approach to conduct business.
Asin concluded that family businesses were also often trapped in a legacy mindset. People could not let go of the legacy and embrace or adapt to new business opportunities. They often hung on to a business, despite losing money, purely for sentimental reasons.
Jiantao is also the chairman of Ruihua Group and the Party Committee Secretary of Ruihua Certified Public Accountants, the largest local accountancy firm in China.
According to the "Top 100 Public Accountancy Firms in China", published by the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants (CICPA), Ruihua has been ranked No.1 among China's local accountancy firms for four consecutive years. Their total revenue has exceeded those of three of the Big 4 international firms in China and they have more than 10,000 members as staff, and 366 Partners.
