By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
During difficult times, it is the small guys who will likely survive. The big guys are notorious for collapsing under their own weight. Often, they are practically dinosaurs, trapped in their own calcified ways. They would be too slow to adapt to new technology, particularly revolutionary ones. As the famous Ross Perot said, instituting change at General Motors was like teaching an elephant how to tap dance.
Small businesses easily appreciate what “Lean and mean” means in business. For the big guys, most of them appreciate the value of that only when they are already teetering by the cliff of bankruptcy. In the Philippine setting, such is often hastened by the quarreling of stockholders or part owners. More so if these are relatives. As practicing lawyers found out, some of the “hottest” cases to handle are those between relatives. The closer the relationship, the “hotter” it gets. Thus, nothing beats cases between husbands and wives. Trying to conciliate them is always hopeless as emotions would be high and objectivity had long been thrown out the window.
Usually, complicating matters into hopelessness are when in-laws start dipping their fingers into the cookie jar. We have a way of saying it in Ilocano. Dagidiay naikamkamang ti mang dadael ornus. (It is the in-laws who are destroying the family unity). Yes, you can say that again. They are often the greedier ones.
Thus, it is the rule among members of one filthy rich European family whose main business is banking, to enter into pre-nuptial agreements when they tie the knot. The person marrying into the family has to agree he or she will never interfere in the running of the family business. The result? Their business thrived through centuries.
Then there are the young Turks who inherited their shares in the business. Inheritors often don’t have a heart for the survival of a business as they never experienced the sacrifices entailed to nurture the firm to prosperity. They would be only too eager to liquidate the enterprise so they can lay their hands on cold cash. Understandably.
Prosperity is the bane of going through hard times. Rich people who are used only to good times would not understand the meaning of belt tightening. They would not agree to postponing the distribution of dividends when profits are low. The first thing to surface in their minds is liquidate the business and be done with it. After all, it is better to be luxuriating on a beach in the Bahamas or in Boracay than watching your blood pressure racing to the stratosphere due to a red bottom line.
Perhaps the moral lesson here is to avoid kids from becoming spoiled brats. That they should learn and love the value of industry. And that is the only way they can develop their potential. As the famous CNN personality, Anderson Cooper, said, his mother told him not to be misty eyed on the wealth of her family, the Vanderbilts (some of the richest people in America), for she would donate everything she would inherit to charity.**
