Should Young People Be Trusted With Leadership?

Heirs should manage what is left behind by parents more effectively to prove that we have come of age

My attention has been drawn on the ongoing instances of collapse of family businesses once they are passed from the founders to their children. There are many super markets and businesses that have collapsed immediately the founder left this world. In most of the cases, these enterprises, which have been doing well during the days of their founders suddenly start experiencing lots of challenges and some end up being auctioned or failing to run at the worst. There are instances where youths bequeathed with such wealth also misuse it immediately, such that many live under squalor thereafter. It baffles me that such heirs lack the basic know how and drive to ensure that the “cake” is made bigger for future use, but instead the wealth that was developed in yester years is exposed to sudden division and clamour for its allocation such that nothing is left.

It should be noted that the creators of such wealth must have worked in difficult and challenging environments to be able to leave behind a stable empire. The youths who come after such an entrepreneur are better endowed in terms of technology, innovation, efficiency and effectiveness, which should make the business be managed more effectively. The world has evolved such that instead of consuming the fruits and the seeds thereof and hence collapsing the business, the heirs can undertake joint ventures and other legally binding partnerships to expand or grow the cake, such that it can sustain them further. This inability to manage such wealth bequeathed by parents has driven them to great fear on their businesses. Many have resorted to entrusting such enterprises to trustees, who in majority of the cases introduce their own interests in running the business.

Heirs should be able to put all their differences aside and ensure sound management strategies for running what has been handed over to them. This will infuse confidence to the older generations, who will trust that indeed young people have come of age. If the founder left a billion shillings in the account, heirs should ensure that it grows to ten billion for example. But then, they say in Tharaka that “where there is an abundance of firewood, there is nothing to be roosted”.