How did Li Ka-shing, the richest man in Hong Kong, start his own business?

The entrepreneurial story of Li Ka-shing, the richest man in China

From salesman to general manager "A person with credit will have more opportunities than a person who has no credit, is lazy, spends money indiscriminately and does not strive for progress." This is Li Ka-shing's advice to young people and his motto.

China's ranking of the top ten richest people kept secret from the school's underground venture. Billionaires succeeded

In 194, when the Japanese invaded China, Li Ka-shing fled from his hometown of Chaozhou with his parents to Hong Kong, when he was only fourteen years old. Li Ka-shing's father, a teacher, couldn't find a job for a while after he arrived in Hongkong, and his family took refuge in his uncle Zhuang Jingan, whose family was quite rich. But soon my father suffered from severe lung disease. On his deathbed, he didn't give any last words, but asked Li Ka-shing what he wished for. Li Ka-shing immediately promised: "I will definitely make my family have a good life in the future."

After his father died of illness, Li Ka-shing, the eldest son, gave up his studies to support his family, went to work in a watch company, and then worked as a salesman in a plastic factory. Li Ka-shing knew that to be an excellent salesman, diligence is the first thing, and flexibility is the second. In the future marketing career, Li Ka-shing will give full play to this "trick". When other colleagues only work eight hours a day, Li Ka-shing works sixteen hours every day. Li Ka-shing's view on "part-time job" is: "I am absolutely devoted to my own work. I never regard it as making a living and making a job with my boss, but regard it as my own career. " In this way, it took only one year for Li Ka-shing to surpass the other six colleagues and become the salesman with the highest turnover in the factory. His sales performance at that time was seven times that of the second place. At the age of eighteen, he was appreciated by his boss and promoted to department manager. A year later, he became the general manager of the sales company. There is another episode in Li Ka-shing's rapid promotion: when he was a salesman in the factory, he went to night school for further study no matter how busy he was. He plans to go to college after passing the examination. The boss simply promoted him to the post of general manager in order to retain this talent.

The initial storm of "Yangtze River"

After this short battle, Li Ka-shing began to evaluate his own strength, and he believed that if he started his own business, his performance might be better. In 195, 22-year-old Li Ka-shing finally resigned as general manager and tried to start a business. At that time, Li Ka-shing's capital was very limited. The savings over the past two years were only HK$ 7,, which was not enough to set up a factory. He borrowed more than 4, yuan from his uncle Li Yi and his cousin Li Shulin, plus his own savings, with a total capital of more than 5, Hong Kong dollars. He opened a factory to produce plastic toys and household goods in the west of Queen's Road on Hong Kong Island, and named the factory "Yangtze River" after taking the meaning of "Don't accumulate a small amount of money, you can't become a river and sea" in Xunzi's "Persuade to Learn".

At first, Li Ka-shing only kept taking orders and delivering goods, ignoring quality control, which made the products worse and worse. As a result, the delivery time was either delayed, or the goods were returned and compensation was required, and the factory income suddenly fell sharply. In addition, raw material suppliers have come to the door to ask for payment, and banks have been urging loans, and the "Yangtze River" has been forced to the brink of bankruptcy. This made Li Ka-shing realize that he was too hasty and underestimated the risk of being a boss.

how can we save the Yangtze river plastic factory in desperation? Li Ka-shing still relies on the word "faithfulness"-loyalty to customers and loyalty to employees. He called a staff meeting, confessed his business mistakes, sincerely apologized to all the employees who stayed in the factory, and promised that once the factory could survive this extraordinary period, the dismissed workers were always welcome to come back to work. After that, Li Ka-shing shuttled among many banks, raw material suppliers and customers, apologizing one by one and asking them to relax the repayment period. At the same time, he tried his best to find customers for the goods, sold the inferior goods at a loss price, and raised money to buy plastic materials and acquire production machines. By 1955, the high debt was finally removed, business was getting better and better, and a branch factory was opened not long after.

One day in early 1957, Li Ka-shing read the new issue of the English version of Plastic magazine and came across a short piece of news that an Italian company used plastic raw materials to make plastic flowers and dumped them on European and American markets, which gave Li Ka-shing great inspiration. He is keenly aware that this kind of cheap and fine decorations has great market potential, and there are a large number of cheap and diligent workers in Hong Kong who are just engaged in the production of plastic flowers. He predicted that plastic flowers would also be popular in Hong Kong. Li Ka-shing seized the opportunity to personally take people to the Italian plastic factory to "learn skills". While introducing the production technology of plastic flowers, he also deliberately introduced foreign management methods. After returning to Hong Kong, he changed the name of "Changjiang Plastic Factory" to "Changjiang Industry Co., Ltd." and actively expanded the factory to win contracts from overseas buyers.

among the customers of Changjiang, an American Jew, Ma Su, once ordered a batch of plastic products, intending to ship them to the United States for sale. Later, the contract was temporarily cancelled for some reason. Li Ka-shing didn't ask for compensation. He said to Ma Su, "If there are other businesses in the future, we can establish a better relationship." Ma Su deeply felt that this generous young entrepreneur was a man who could do great things, so he constantly promoted the products of "Yangtze River" to American experts. Since then, American orders have been flying like snowflakes. Li Ka-shing further realized the truth that "losing is a blessing".

Invest in real estate

After five years of starting a business, "Yangtze River" has gradually become one of the best large-scale plastic flower factories in the world. Li Ka-shing was nicknamed "King of Plastic Flowers" by people in the industry. The owner of the factory rented by Li Ka-shing also took the opportunity to raise the rent substantially, which in turn contributed to Li Ka-shing's determination to build his own property.

in 1958, he won the land on king's road in north point to build a 12-storey industrial building, leaving several floors for his own use and renting out the rest of the units. After the completion of the building, property prices in Hong Kong rose sharply. Li Ka-shing found that real estate was promising, so he began to deploy funds to the real estate market. In the mid-196s, the real estate in Hong Kong experienced a wild speculation and plummeted. Li Ka-shing has a discerning eye and thinks that the land price will rise again one day. He has decided to implement the strategy of "people abandon what I lack", buy lots of land and old buildings at low prices, and build factory buildings in Kwun Tong, Chai Wan and Wong Chuk Hang for rent. Within three years, as expected, the storm subsided, and a large number of businesses that left Hong Kong in the past returned in succession, and property prices immediately rose sharply. Li Ka-shing took the opportunity to sell the property acquired cheaply at a high price for profit, and bought buildings and land with development potential. This time, his strategy is to only buy and not sell, all of which will be used to build buildings. In the early 197s, he owned a building area of 6.3 million square feet and rented more than 35, square feet, and his annual rent alone reached HK$ 4 million.

in June, 1971, Li Ka-shing formally established "Changjiang Real Estate Co., Ltd.", which is responsible for real estate business. At the inaugural meeting of "Changjia", the goal he set for the future was to surpass the "land" known as the "king of real estate" in Hong Kong. The Land Company was founded by Paul Chater, a British businessman, and Qi Shiyu, the head of Jardine Matheson in Hong Kong at that time. It is known as the largest developer in Asia and the largest commercial organization in Hong Kong. In July 1972, Li Ka-shing renamed Changjia as Changjiang Industry (Group) Co., Ltd. and became the chairman and general manager. In November this year, "Cheung Kong" was listed in Hong Kong and put on sale in the market.

Li Ka-shing encountered many obstacles while Cheung Kong was preparing to go public. At that difficult time, he was encouraged by his wife Zhuang Yueming. Zhuang Yueming is his cousin, four years younger than him, and they are childhood friends. Zhuang Yueming's father, Zhuang Jingan, is a famous watch dealer in Hong Kong, and owns the time-honored Zhongnan Watch Store. After graduating from Hong Kong University, Zhuang Yueming went to Meiji University in Japan for further study. In 1965, Li Ka-shing, who had a successful career, married Zhuang Yueming.

"Changshi" has made a lot of money in real estate. First, we spent more than 6 million yuan to buy properties and land, and actively built high-grade residential and commercial buildings. By 1967, another HK$ 23 million had been used to buy American-funded group, Hilton Hotel and Hyatt Hotel, which initiated the annexation of foreign-funded institutions by Chinese capital in Hong Kong. However, Li Ka-shing's two and a half years' full-scale March into "Yellow River" was as straight as "snake swallowing elephant", which was really a classic of Chinese capital's acquisition of British capital since the opening of Hong Kong. "Hutchison Whampoa Dockyard" is a cooperative product of Hutchison Whampoa Dockyard. By 198, Cheung Kong finally held more than 4% of the shares of Hutchison, and Li Ka-shing became the chairman of Hutchison's board of directors. At this point, Li Ka-shing took the position of leading Chinese-funded real estate in Hong Kong, and the nickname "Li Chaoren" spread like wildfire.

Trees attract wind

On October 25th, 2, the European Parliament issued a report, denouncing the Lee family business headed by Li Ka-shing, which has a high market share in Hong Kong, and may have a dominant influence on the Hong Kong economy, or even a monopoly situation. The report is also concerned that Li Ka-shing's two sons have received preferential treatment from the relevant authorities in a number of listing and acquisition incidents, and this unfair privilege will not be conducive to foreign businessmen investing in Hong Kong. The report claims: "The business of this family accounts for about a quarter to a third of the capital valuation of the Hong Kong stock market, including telephone, mobile phone, electricity, supermarkets and real estate."

The report also mentioned that in early 2, after Li Ka-shing's second son, Li Zekai, won the control of Hong Kong Telecom, the largest telecommunications company in Hong Kong, many media in Hong Kong paid attention to the growing influence of the Li family. There is also the Cyberport, which has not been invited for public bidding, and tom.com has been granted a number of exemptions when listing on the Growth Enterprise Market., These incidents have caused a lot of controversy. The report even thinks that it is necessary for Hong Kong to introduce a fair competition law to prevent monopoly.

Li Ka-shing has been in Europe and Asia for many years, and has never been attacked by the international community in such a high profile. Therefore, he immediately responded to the report of the European Parliament, and refuted it through a statement issued by its Cheung Kong Group, pointing out that the report was not only miscalculated, but also the comments that the Lee family had great influence were even more fallacious. A Cheung Kong spokesman said that the market value of the four companies under Li Ka-shing's name only accounted for 15% of the market value of Hong Kong stocks, and together with the second son, PCCW, the five companies also accounted for less than 18% of the total market value of the stock market.

The Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Mr Fok Kwong-man, also refuted the report, saying that tom.com's exemption from some listing conditions on the Growth Enterprise Market was only a flexible arrangement at that time, and the Lee family was not privileged. He even alleged that some companies in Finland, Canada and other places also accounted for a considerable proportion of the total market value of listed companies, and he wondered why the report of the European Parliament only mentioned Hong Kong but not other places. The Hong Kong Government also strongly denied that it was biased towards the Li family in the Cyberport incident or the tom.com listing incident.

as to whether high market share equals monopoly? Zeng Manji, a professor of economics at the Baptist University who is also a member of the Hong Kong Government's Fair Competition Committee, pointed out that a high market share does not necessarily mean a monopoly. Monopoly depends on the company's behavior, such as restrictive behavior by companies in the industry, price fixing or supply restriction.

While various circles were arguing endlessly, only one day later, Li Ka-shing was warned by Council of Europe that Hutchison International Port might violate the EU competition law when it acquired the European modular terminal in Rotterdam in 1999, and stressed that if it was ruled to be true, the merger transaction might be cancelled, and Hutchison would face a fine. It is reported that the reason held by the European Commission is that this business plan has not been informed, and this transaction may violate the merger regulations.

It is rare for the European Commission to pursue an unannounced business merger plan. "Hutchison International Port" immediately issued a statement denying any violation of the regulations.

The European Parliament named Li Ka-shing in such a high-profile way, which attracted a lot of speculation. Dr. CHAN Yan Chong, a well-known economist in Hong Kong, published a commentary in Hong Kong Economic Times, arguing that the European Parliament suddenly took charge of Hong Kong's economy, mainly because European businessmen have begun to feel uneasy about Li Ka-shing's business kingdom entering Europe, because many European businessmen have already tasted defeat at the hands of Li Ka-shing. In his article, he pointed out: "Millions of Europeans in Qian Qian are already using the telecommunications services provided by Hutchison Europe. Hutchison sells Orange (a British mobile phone communication company) in the UK, making a profit of HK$ 11 billion. Later, Hutchison sold some shares of MMN Telecom (the largest mobile phone company in Germany) and Vodafone (one of the largest mobile phone companies in the world), which not only obtained nearly 1 billion Hong Kong dollars in cash, but also caused a sensation throughout Europe. European businessmen really understand that Li Ka-shing, a businessman from Hongkong, is a strong competitor. They began to fear Li Ka-shing because they were no match for Li Ka-shing.

"Look how beautifully Li Ka-shing has fought every battle since selling Orange. Not only has it continuously increased its cash income, but it has also obtained 3G licenses in Britain and Italy. When everyone paid a high price to grab the German 3G license,' Hutchison' made a swift retreat. After the share price of global telecom stocks plummeted, Hutchison Whampoa, which has a lot of cash, came to buy flat goods and obtained a 3G license from Germany at a low price. Such excellent business practices should be praised. Why does the European Parliament attack Li Ka-shing in turn? "

right and wrong are constant, but justice is in people's hearts. In the days to come, the "Li family business dynasty" will certainly continue to stretch all over the world. In addition to meeting unlimited business opportunities, it will inevitably meet more international challenges.