Dr. Cheng Kar-Shun, Chairman of New World and Chow Tai Fook, is the third richest person in Hong Kong in 2023, 77 years old this year, still relatively young compared to Li Ka-shing and Lee Shau Kee in their 90s, and has worked hard for the family business for more than 50 yearsWhere will the century-old family business go?Recently, the low-key business legend made a rare appearance on the Hong Kong TV show "A Conversation with Dr. Cheng Kar-Shun", with a strong spirit and clear views, and although he has rarely appeared in recent years, he is still responsible for the company's main decision-making. In this interview, Cheng Kar-shun unveiled the business philosophy behind it, and let us see the feelings of a Hong Kong businessman who loves the country and Hong Kong, who has always followed the country's major policies in his career development, adhered to long-termism, and was firmly optimistic about the future development of the country. In recent years, under the leadership of Dr. Cheng Kar-Shun, companies have been increasing their investment in the Mainland, which is a valuable asset for investors and entrepreneurs.
Stick to long-termism!Keep up with national policy developments
The Cheng Yu Tung family, together with the Li Ka-shing family, the Lee Shau Kee family and the Kwok Tak Shing family, are known as the "Four Families of Hong Kong".
Dr. Cheng Kar-Shun is the second generation of the Cheng family, the eldest son of Cheng Yu-tung, since graduating in 1972, he officially followed his father Cheng Yu-Tung to run the family business, in 1980 Cheng Kar-shun began to manage the company's business side by side with his father, until 2010, when his father began to officially take over the company's decision-making due to his age, and in just ten years, Cheng Kar-shun led the jewelry +The two core businesses of real estate have reached another peak, and Chow Tai Fook Jewellery is the only Chinese company that can enter the world's top ten luxury goods list, and is the world's highest sales jewellery company, so far the Cheng family's business scale has also expanded to hotels, medical care, energy, education, technology, aircraft leasing and other fields, growing into a corporate empire with total assets of more than US$100 billion, covering more than 30 countries around the world.
Adhering to long-termism and seeing the opportunity of national development and the general trend of the industry is an important magic weapon for the long-term prosperity of enterprises. In this interview, Cheng Kar-shun said that as early as the early stage of reform and opening up, he was always optimistic about the mainland market, full of confidence in the country, and always cooperated with the country's development policies. In fact, since 1984, the Cheng Kar-Shun family has invested in the mainland for 40 years, and it can be said that it has witnessed the process of China's reform and opening up, and has invested hundreds of billions of yuan in the mainland so far, investing in more than 20 provinces and cities, and is one of the largest foreign-invested enterprises in Chinese mainland.
In the early days of reform and opening up, he participated in the construction of China Hotel and helped the cultivation of hotel management talents
In 1984, the Cheng Kar-Shun family invested in the construction of the China Hotel in Guangzhou officially opened, and introduced the "BOT model" ("Build-Operate-Transfer") to the mainland for the first time. As China's first Sino-foreign joint venture five-star hotel, China Hotel is located opposite the site of the old Canton Fair, the economic and foreign exchange center of Guangzhou, and has witnessed the development of Guangzhou's reform and opening up for decades. China World Hotel has introduced the Marriott brand, which ranks third among the world's hotel management groups, and has not only cultivated and delivered countless senior talents for China's hotel industry, but also is a pioneer in the public relations industry in the mainland. For Cheng Kar-shun, the project was not entirely for commercial purposes, but mainly to support the economic development of the mainland, and at the beginning of the investment, he decided to donate the hotel to the state free of charge after recovering the cost.
In the interview, Cheng Jiachun was also quite proud when talking about the China Hotel project, especially mentioning that the hotel introduced two to three hundred senior managers who trained international management talents, which played a strong role in promoting the development of the international hotel management industry in Chinese mainland.
In order to ensure the celebration of Hong Kong's return to the motherland, it was completed day and night as scheduled
Cheng Kar-Shun said that his proudest business is the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center. The first phase of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center was completed in the 80s of the 20th century, and in the early 90s, Hong Kong decided to expand the second phase of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center as the venue for the celebration of Hong Kong's return to the motherland. At that time, many real estate developers and architects in the market did not dare to undertake the second phase of the project, considering the high project requirements, short construction period, thin profits, and the importance of the project. Everyone can't help but mutter, because the profit margin is limited, and if it is not done well, it will affect the celebration, and it will be a sinner for the ages. Cheng Kar-shun and his father stepped forward to take on the major project. From the start of construction in 1994 to the completion of the project in 1997, under the leadership of Cheng Kar-shun, through round-the-clock work, it was finally completed within the time limit, so that the handover celebration was held as scheduled.
Today, the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre is not only a famous landmark, but also one of the "Top 10 Best Projects in the World", and is also the site of the 1997 Sino-British handover ceremony in Hong Kong, which is of great historical significance. At the same time, the development of the MICE industry has not only brought direct economic benefits, but also led to the development of Hong Kong's tourism, catering, accommodation, transportation, retail, communications, advertising, creative, entertainment and infrastructure related industrial chains, creating a large number of job opportunities.
Deeply involved in the renovation of old cities in the Mainland to enhance the living and living experience
In this interview, Cheng Kar-Shun specifically mentioned that the Chongwenmen project in Beijing, which began to invest in 1993, in order to improve the living environment and urban appearance of the old city, New World invested a lot of resources, and only completed the development of most of the land in 2007.
In fact, since the reform and opening up, New World has been building a city with soul and heritage in Chinese mainland as a city operator. Hong Kong New World Tower, which was invested in Shanghai, and Jingguang Center, which was invested in Beijing, are still landmark buildings, and at the same time, they have also introduced department stores and other businesses to the mainland. A series of old city renovation projects in Guangming District and Longgang District of Shenzhen have improved the living and living environment for residents living in simple houses in the old city, and transformed backward courtyard houses and shantytowns that are known as urban scars into new urban landmarks, successfully creating landmarks such as Guangzhou Chow Tai Fook Finance Center (East Tower) and Beijing Chongwenmen Business District New World Center.
At the same time, New World is also the first Hong Kong real estate developer to introduce the "Home Ownership Scheme" project in Hong Kong, China, in Wuhan, and its main project "Evergreen Garden" has been under construction for more than 10 years, allowing more than 20,000 low- and middle-income families to live in peace.
On the surface, these projects do not fully reflect the commercial value, and they are not easy to achieve and are not very profitable, but they have many benefits for the local community. At the same time, Cheng Kar-Shun and New World Group invested a lot of financial resources and efforts in the renovation of old cities in the mainland, which was the first era of real estate take-off in Hong Kong, China. Although these investments do not seem to be "cost-effective", they are precious to the mainland, and in the long run, the take-off of the motherland's economy has also laid the foundation for the long-term development of the Zheng family, bringing good goodwill.
Deeply cultivate the Greater Bay Area, and continue to increase investment in the mainland despite the trend
Since 2015, with the rise of a large number of mainland competitors with high turnover and high debt models, Hong Kong-funded real estate enterprises that simply pursue financial stability and commercial value have gradually lost their assets and faded out of mainland operations. However, Cheng Kar-Shun has returned to the mainland to continuously increase investment in the mainland, and with the release of the "Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Outline Plan" in 2019, the confidence of Hong Kong-funded real estate companies represented by Cheng Kar-shun has been boosted. Cheng Kar-Shun believes that in the next decade, the Greater Bay Area and Hong Kong will gradually integrate to form a world-renowned and high-quality Bay Area. Since 2016, the Cheng Kar-Shun family has been heavily involved in the Greater Bay Area, and New World has moved its headquarters to Guangzhou. Up to now, the cumulative investment in the Greater Bay Area has exceeded 200 billion, in addition to building landmark complex projects such as Chow Tai Fook Finance Tower in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, it also continues to participate in urban renovation projects such as Zengcheng in Guangzhou and Longgang in Shenzhen, and strives to build an ecosystem integrating elderly care, innovative technology, education, residential, hotel and retail.
As Cheng Kar-chun said in an interview: "China's reform will definitely move forward, it is impossible to go backwards, and investing in the motherland at this time must be the best opportunity and opportunity."
Caring for society!Consider spinning off and going public to help the family pass on
Creating a good corporate culture and family "family style", attaching importance to the feedback to the society and cultivating people, will boost the construction of a century-old foundation of the enterprise. Cheng Kar-shun said that he has always adhered to the concept of modesty, loyalty and moderation, as well as the way of honest and fair management, and adopted the business strategy of seeking victory while maintaining stability. As a businessman who loves the country and Hong Kong, Cheng Kar-shun has always adhered to the concept of taking from the society and using the society, and is full of enthusiasm for public welfare, charity and education, and has donated 50 million yuan in the name of his family and company to build the Beijing Olympic National Aquatics Center, especially in education, Cheng Kar-shun has donated to Hope Primary School, poor children and college students, cultural education and other public welfare undertakings.
In the future inheritance, Cheng Kar-chun said that the future ** people need to have several traits -
First, to be interested in doing business, second, to be enthusiastic about the family business, to be selfless, third, the most important thing is to have both ability and political integrity.
Of course, for the sake of family inheritance, Zheng Jiachun said that it is not necessary to find the best person, but can let the family members be responsible for a certain range of business, if there is no suitable one, they can even recruit externally, and the final decision is made by the shareholders' meeting, so that the family inheritance will not be affected because of the selection of the best person. Cheng Kar-chun's idea is still very far-sighted, with the help of the shareholders' meeting to make major decisions, the use of modern corporate equity structure to balance the interests of all parties in the family business, more likely to break the curse of "no more than three generations rich" in the Chinese business field, so that family members can work together to continue to grow the business.
As early as 2008-2009, Cheng Kar-Shun had many discussions with his father about the listing of Chow Tai Fook Jewellery, when his father felt that there was no shortage of money and no need for outsiders to supervise, but Cheng Kar-Shun insisted that the public listing was conducive to the development of modern enterprises, which eventually led to the listing of Chow Tai Fook Jewellery in December 2011.
Now facing the issue of family inheritance, Cheng Kar-shun said that he will also consider spinning off the company's business segment at the right time and under the right environment to be subject to public supervision.
Conclusion:
From Mr. Cheng Kar-shun's interview, we can see the patriotic businessman's family and country feelings, he is interested in cultivating the Chinese market, closely following the national policy, doing business and insisting on stability and winning, and his family business century-old inheritance paradigm is enough to inspire many national enterprises in Chinese mainland. Through the example of Cheng Kar-shun, we see that the founder should pay attention to the early education and training of the talent echelon, including the best people, and pay attention to stimulating and shaping the strong interest of later generations in doing business and starting a new businessEnterprise managers should always follow long-termism, pay attention to morality, and inject good corporate culture and family style into the strategic development of the enterpriseThe feelings of family and country and the active social contribution will not only enhance the corporate image, but also strengthen the belief of long-term development of enterprise managers, so that the century-old foundation will become a reality and spread out.
In terms of investment, the diversified development of the Cheng Kar-chun family diversifies risks, and only by advancing and retreating can it go through the cycle. At present, at the time of the real estate downturn, we follow the national policy and dare to buck the trend of the mainland market, constantly understand the new consumption trends of young people, and constantly try new formats, such as exploring the integration of culture and business, opening up new communication channels, etc., which are also worth learning from.
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