Li Jiacheng, The Legendary Chinese Businessman And The Richest Man In Hongkong, Announced His Retirement.

Author: snow Nai

He said: there are some things that I do not want, nor is I able to choose, this is very important.

This is my fate, my life.

But I chose the relatively good result in the most difficult passive choice, which is my success.

Introduction to Li Shi

Someone looked at Li Jiacheng with a harsh eye and thought he was not a real entrepreneur.

However, any assessment may be biased if it is divorced from the social, political and cultural environment in which the evaluator is situated.

In Hongkong, after all, there is only one Li Jiacheng.

Author of Nai Nai

Editor in chief

Li Jiacheng, a legendary Chinese business legend who has won the richest man in Hongkong for 20 years, announced his retirement.

The 90 year old man, when he was young, fell on his family and made a living on his own. After 20 years old, he gradually began his career, and finally made efforts to reach the throne of Hongkong's richest man.

In more than 70 years of business career, Li Jiacheng's career has spread throughout Hongkong, the mainland and Europe, and has experienced many rounds of investment cycles, which is a great insight into life, career and current situation.

In the era of information flooding, his business intelligence and philosophy of human life were packaged into various kinds of Chicken Soup for sale to the general public who yearn for success and wealth.

However, some people regard the richest man as an excellent businessman in a more harsh way, but do not admit that he is an excellent entrepreneur.

So what kind of perspective should we take to see this business giant?

1 from a juvenile to a salesman

Looking through the history of the rich generation of Hongkong, we will find that everyone has a very extraordinary and arduous experience when he is young.

Although some people have concluded that this generation of Hongkong rich people like to flaunt "grass roots" origin, and prefer to emphasize the difficulties of personal childhood, but perhaps it is precisely because each person's experience in his youth has finally laid the foundation of his life.

In 1928, Li Jiacheng was born in a family on the lane of the north gate of Chaozhou, Guangdong.

His father, Li Yunjing, is the principal of a local primary school.

When Li Jiacheng was 5 years old, he guided his father to worship Confucius Confucianism and entered the primary school.

If there was no Japanese invasion of China, maybe Li Jiacheng would read and read in his hometown. He would study abroad like his uncle or become an excellent entrepreneur in Guangdong or an unknown ordinary person.

But after the war of aggression against Japan broke out in 1937, the trajectory of Li Jiacheng and his family changed completely.

In 1938, Japanese forces bombed Chaozhou.

In order to take refuge, the next year, Li Jiacheng, who had just read junior high school, went to Hongkong with his family and lived in his uncle's home.

At this time, Li Yunjing pformed from a respectable primary school principal to an ordinary company clerk.

The gap and hardship may be felt by young Li Jiacheng at the time when his father's tired figure or a casual conversation between his parents.

After the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941, the Hong Kong dollar depreciated and prices soared.

Li Yunjing suffered from lung disease because of overwork and died in the winter of 1943.

Then, Li Jiacheng, a teenager, took on the burden of the family.

He first served as a primary disciple in his uncle's Zhongnan watch company. Later he worked as a clerk and learned the techniques of clock assembly and repair.

Perhaps it is not willing to be a hedge. In 1947, Li Jiacheng left his uncle's watch and clock line to be a salesman in a hardware factory. Because of his outstanding achievements, he became the general manager of the plastic flower factory at the age of 20.

From an early apprentice to a clock worker to a salesman, it is precisely these experiences that enable Li Jiacheng to gradually understand the world and human nature in his youth, so as to form a more harmonious and thoughtful character that can make everyone feel comfortable.

In March 16th this year, a reporter asked a lot of questions, and now many young people say why my father is not Li Jiacheng. Li Jiacheng's answer is: "my father was a primary school principal, and the headmaster's income was good.

But I didn't have anything to do when the Japanese bombed. I came to Hongkong to work when I was 12 years old.

Later, I had to take six people to share my mother's troubles.

Can't you depend on yourself? "

2 Hongkong land appreciation period: wealth and risk

In the history of Chinese and foreign business, every special period will produce business genius based on that era.

The birth of Li Jiacheng, the super rich, is also the result of "making the hero by the time".

But in the early stages of business, Li Jiacheng's ability to judge business trends and keen business sense has been shown.

In the 50 and 60s of last century, the processing industry in Europe and the United States gradually shifted to Hongkong. In 1950, Li Jiacheng saw the trend, stepped on the rhythm of the times, and set up the Yangtze River plastics plant with his 70 million dollar savings.

The Yangtze River, which means "the Yangtze River does not choose small streams, can be vast and vast."

During the period, because of the quality, Li Jiacheng's factory once had a crisis.

Later, with the help of my cousin, the wife of Zhuang Yueming in the future, we finally managed to tide over the difficulties.

In 1957, Li Jiacheng made a new trend of consumption in Hongkong by virtue of the fast growing plastic flower business. From then on, he became famous in Hongkong plastics industry and became the largest plastic flower manufacturer in the world.

Hongkong is small and lacks the industrial and technological foundation. The manufacturing industry can only focus on plastics, textiles, hardware and so on, which also results in the homogenization of local enterprises in Hongkong at that time.

If only business stays in the plastic industry, Li Jiacheng may be just an ordinary successful businessman, not one of the richest Chinese in the world.

What really brought Li Jiacheng's career to glory was that he began to involve in real estate business after 1958.

In 1958, Li Jiacheng built the first Arts crafts emporium in the north corner of Hong Kong Island, built a 12 storey factory mansion, and formally intervened in the real estate market. In 1960, he built second buildings in Chai Wan, and then took advantage of the left-wing riots in Hongkong in 1966 and land prices plummeted. Li Jiacheng spent a lot of money to hoard land and eventually became the capital of Changjiang Industrial (1972 renamed) listing.

Later, in 1972, the oil crisis triggered the stock market crash in Hongkong, the Sino British negotiations in 1980s, the Hongkong stock market and the Asian financial crisis in 1997. Li Jiacheng took the strategy of "people abandon and take away". At the same time, it made use of the convenient financing section of Hongkong international financial center, and succeeded in the first time.

Some people say that Li Jiacheng did not stick to the so-called business model, he pursued prudent and flexible business strategy, when the real estate valuations were low, the land was purchased substantially, and the property was rented. When the real estate valuations were high, the property was sold instead of rented.

Li Jiacheng later said that land hoarding in 1966 was really the first difficult choice.

"If the leftist disturbances are successful, I will be penniless and even become the negative example of capitalists. I will have my name in the list of Hongkong jumping buildings, not on the Forbes rich list."

From this sentence, it is easy to see that in addition to having a very high commercial talent, there are many genes that are adventurous and gamble.

3 British capital to withdraw from China: win and yellow in one fell swoop

Before the rise of Chinese Elite such as Wang Bao Yu Gang and Li Jiacheng, Hongkong was once a world of British capital, or rather, the world of Jardine, Taigu, Hutchison Whampoa and Hui de Feng.

The Kowloon warehouse is the ocean line of the Jardine system. At that time, the Kowloon warehouse was not the warehouse in strict sense, but the largest cargo port in Hongkong, with deep water wharf, open cargo yard and freight warehouse.

As a listed company of Jardine, it is called the "two wings" of Jardine and Hongkong land company.

Li Jiacheng always regards himself as a rival, and his attention is caused by the relocation of the Kowloon warehouse.

At that time, Kowloon warehouse moved the freight business to Kwai Chung and peninsular West, and the land vacated was used to develop commercial building.

The land occupied by the Kowloon warehouse has become a land king. According to the price of the official auction at the same area, the actual stock price of the Dragon warehouse stock can be HK $50 per share at the rate of HK $6000-7000 per square foot.

But at that time, its stock price was only 13.5 yuan / share.

Under such circumstances, Li Jiacheng remained calm and bought 2000 shares of retail stocks held by the retail investors.

Li Jiacheng's action was quickly noticed by the professional speculators who had a keen sense of smell, so the share price of Kowloon warehouse rose to a record high of 46 yuan per share.

At this time, the financial burden of Jardine to the first British consortium HSBC for help, HSBC big class Shen Bi personally mediation, advised Li Jiacheng to give up the acquisition of the Kowloon warehouse.

After weighing the pros and cons, Li Jiacheng withdrew from the takeover.

At that time, Hongkong ship king Bao Yugang also intervened in the competition for the Kowloon warehouse.

The warehouse and site property of Kowloon warehouse is too important for Bao Yu Gang, which is conducive to the development of maritime pport by Bao Yu Gang, and also helps him to expand his strength on the ground.

In the afternoon of the end of August 1978, two gentlemen of the Chinese business community met at Wenhua hotel in central. After a brief greeting, Li Jiacheng expressed his willingness to hand over 10 million stocks to Bao Yugang.

Finally, Bao Yugang successfully entered the board of directors of the Kowloon warehouse.

The most important paction in the construction of long and department businesses was Li Jiacheng's purchase of an old British firm from HSBC Group in 1979 with a HK $620 million stake of 22.4% of Hutchison Whampoa.

In the battle for the Kowloon warehouse, Li Jiacheng voluntarily withdrew from the competition with Hongkong's ship king Bao Yugang. In order to buy and deal with Huang, Li Jiacheng got the active cooperation of HSBC director Bao Yugang, and the support of HSBC's Shenyang foreign group, Shen Bi, finally joined Huang and Li Jiacheng in the bag.

The acquisition also allowed Li Jiacheng to get rid of the limitations of Hongkong's local developers and their vision, and become a strategic investor of international diversification.

At present, Li Jiacheng's long line business covers telecommunications, infrastructure, retail, port, oil and other business areas.

By virtue of the wealth accumulated in these fields, Li Jiacheng has been in the throne of Hongkong's richest man for 20 years in a row.

4 Confucian way of self-cultivation

For many people in China, the impression of Hongkong's rich people is not only the extravagant life, but also the gossip from a certain actress, or the news that many wives and daughters compete for family property.

However, in many media information, Li Jiacheng's diligence and self-discipline as well as the philosophy and wisdom of human life are more.

When Li Jiacheng was 85 years old in 2013, he still kept the habit of reading English news for more than 20 minutes after reading and after supper.

One of the details about Li Jiacheng's working habits is that whenever he goes to bed at night, he will wake up at 5:59 in the morning when the alarm goes off.

Then listen to the news, play golf, and then go to the office.

If you look at the photos taken by Li Jiacheng in public, you can see that most of the time, he is a standard smiling face.

In the description of his character in the media, a very important point is that Li specially cares for others' feelings and takes care of everyone's feelings.

Feng Lun, chairman of Wantong real estate, said that Lee would make everyone comfortable.

Feng Lun, chairman of Wantong holdings, once described his experience with Li Jiacheng, Guo Guangchang and Niu Gensheng of CEO class in the Yangtze River to see Li Jiacheng in an article.

Unlike Feng Lun, the "super rich" they envisage, the super brother of the Chinese world shook hands with everyone and sent cards at the elevator.

The number of seats for meals and photographs is decided by lot.

Li Jiacheng eats four tables in an hour's time, and almost 15 minutes.

After the end of the dinner party, Li Jiacheng will shake hands with everyone. Even the waitress in the corner, Li Jiacheng will run past the handshake.

Feng Lun was told that he was very considerate and sincere, so many people came to Hongkong to do business with him.

Some people say that Li Jiacheng is good at making connections and dealing with others, but it may be precisely because of his harmonious and considerate character that it is an important reason for his political and business interests.

Confucianism stresses "self-cultivation, family equality, governing the country and the world".

If self-discipline and considerate treatment of others are part of self cultivation, Li Jiacheng can also be regarded as a paragon of the rich.

In 2012, Li Jiacheng, 84, announced to the media the plan for the distribution of his property. The assets of his long line and his department were taken over by his eldest son Li Zeju.

Richard Lee, the two son whose interest was elsewhere, received more financial support from Li Jiacheng.

According to the Hongkong media, from the perspective of distributive fairness, the property that the two sons divide into property, whether physical or stock or cash, should be equal in quantity.

The fair distribution of property is only a microcosm of Li Jiacheng's handling of family relations.

Li Jiacheng's interest in the education of his two sons is also a delight.

When Li Zeju and Richard Lee were young, Li Jiacheng seldom allowed them to ride in private cars, but they often took them on trams and buses.

The two brothers asked their father in a sullen way: "why do all the other students have private cars to pick up the shuttle, and you don't allow the driver to pick us up?" Li Jiacheng explained with a smile: "on trams and buses, you can see people in different occupations and different strata, who can see the most mundane life and the most ordinary people. That's the real life and the real society; while sitting in a private car, you can't see anything, you will never know anything."

After the death of his wife Zhuang Yueming, Li Jiacheng had a chance to meet his 33 year old confidant Zhou Kai, who is a rich friend. Despite his ability and insight, the rich girlfriend hopes to stay in Li Jiacheng's side and become a "bonus point" in his rich life.

Despite being a successful businessman, there has been little introduction and summary of Li Jiacheng's management thoughts for many years.

However, it is obvious that in the management of its large commercial empire, besides the western management structure and general management of common sense and rules, the subtle influence of Confucian culture will also affect Li Jiacheng's management style.

Li Jiacheng, a subordinate in an interview with the media, said Li Jiacheng was not an aggressive person. He would listen to his subordinates and feel that he would accept it.

5 "the godfather" and his debate on the times

In January 2018, Forbes magazine released the list of rich Chinese in 2018 in Hongkong.

Chang and chairman Li Jiacheng's net assets increased by 5 billion 700 million US dollars to 36 billion US dollars and reelected the richest man in Hongkong for twentieth consecutive years.

After the news of Li Jiacheng's announcement of retirement, someone compared the rich man who had been in the shopping mall for more than 70 years with Li Jianxi of Samsung and Morita Kazuo of Japan. He thought that many of the Hongkong rich like Li Jiacheng relied on special relations to get franchises or resources. Unlike Li Jianxi and Morita Kazuo, they had created huge wealth and promoted the development of social economy by taking huge risks to technological progress.

Everyone's growth and success can not be separated from their own times and environment, nor can they be divorced from the politics and culture they rely on.

It is even more so to evaluate the growth of an entrepreneur and the business model of an enterprise.

Jo Stawell, who has long been engaged in Chinese news reports, has analyzed and compared the patterns of Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia in his "godfather of Asia" and put forward the essential differences between the two.

Star Will believes that Japan, South Korea and Taiwan (although Taiwan is closer to Southeast Asia, but Star Will believes that more of them emulate Japan and are influenced by the United States) have carried out land reform, which ensures their bottom-up development process.

In Northeast Asia, everyone can create a better life if he has a certain amount of capital.

In Southeast Asia, the political elites did not reform the land, and the land became the bag of the government and the godfather.

In addition, although the government of Northeast Asia has some symbiotic relationship with the chaebol, when it comes to picking winners, it will support manufacturers and companies with technological creativity.

Moreover, Northeast Asia regards the political system more seriously as a promoter of development.

However, for the Hongkong era that Li Jiacheng grew up, obviously, he did not have the development soil and environment like Northeast Asia.

Because of this, Li Jiacheng's rich Hongkong people can only be Li Jiacheng.

When Li Jiacheng evaluated his life, he said, "there are some things that I do not want, nor are I able to choose them, which is very important.

This is my fate, my life.

But I chose the relatively good result in the most difficult passive choice, which is my success.

Perhaps this sentence can be regarded as the most pertinent evaluation of this rich man's life.