Saturday, April 13, 2013

A Copy of the Copy

Kim Jong-Un might not want to count on passing down the keys to the kingdom to whatever spawn he has in the future. The family business just not be his thing.

This is interesting as a hint at what we might expect in North Korea (tip to Mad Minerva):

A classic 1987 study of family firm succession by John Ward of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University concluded that only 30 percent of family businesses survive the third generation, and only 3 percent survive beyond that—no matter what the culture or country. ... The ravages of nepotism and an uncreative desire to preserve the status quo make such businesses weaker and weaker.

Kim seems to fit the pattern. He badly wants to emulate his grandpa—Kim Il Sung, whose birthday will be celebrated Monday in grand style—even adopting his haircut, but he doesn’t seem to have mastered the tradecraft he learned from his dad and granddad.

I'd like to see an analysis of criminal enterprises rather than businesses since North Korea seems more like an organized crime family with a UN seat than a business with a legitimate business model. But perhaps that distinction doesn't matter.

This matches my gut feeling about The Un, although I lack any type of business training to make that judgment.