The fourth generation of Bunge's family shareholders are a talented lot. They went to the best schools, have a stack of qualifications and are climbing the ladder in tough and demanding professions. Some work for Wall Street investment banks. Yet not one among them has come forward as a candidate to take Bunge - an international grain and oilseed trader with a gross annual turnover of $13 billion - into the next century.
Why? Because the depth of management prowess needed to modernize an old-fashioned conglomerate like Bunge and make it compete against the world's leading multinationals is beyond the wit of all but a few superhuman individuals - such as Bill Gates, Jack Welch or Lee Iacocca. The chances of spawning one of these in a family dynasty are remote.
That's not the only problem. Messrs Gates and Welch may have challenges aplenty but they don't have to deal with feuding shareholders...
