  After a brief review of the flavour problem we present a new predictive
framework based on SUSY $SO(10)$ theory, where the first family plays a role of
the mass unification point. The inter-family hierarchy is first generated in a
sector of superheavy fermions and then transfered in an inverse way to ordinary
quarks and leptons by means of the universal seesaw mechanism. The obtained
mass matrices are simply parametrized by two small coefficients which can be
given by the ratio of the GUT and superstring compactification scales. The
model allows a natural (without fine tuning) doublet-triplet splitting. It has
a strong predictive power, though no special texture is utilized in contrast to
the known predictive frameworks. Namely, the model implies that $m_b=4-5$ GeV,
$m_s=100-150$ MeV, $m_u/m_d=0.5-0.7$ and $\tan\beta<1.1$. The Top quark is
naturally in the 100 GeV range, but not too heavy: $m_t<150$ GeV. All CKM
mixing angles are in correct range. The Higgsino mediated $d=5$ operators for
the proton decay are naturally suppressed. {On the basis of talks given at the
XVI International Warsaw Meeting on Elementary Particle Physics "New Physics
with New Experiments", Kazimierz, Poland, 24-28 May 1993, and at the II Gran
Sasso Summer Institute "From Particle Physics to Cosmology", Gran Sasso
National Laboratory, Italy, 6-17 September 1993.}

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology