The history of Li Ka-shing

Li Ka-shing has gradually matured after several years of life tempering. Although he has made some achievements in promotion, he is only a veteran wage earner after all. The property of the plastic enterprises and companies he manages belongs to the chairman after all, and the ultimate loser is only the chairman himself. The success or failure of an enterprise has little to do with Li Ka-shing, which makes Li Ka-shing, who is eager to prove his value to the society, determined to stand on his own feet. Therefore, no matter how much the boss appreciates it and how to retain it, he is determined to leave. He will start a business from scratch with his usual savings.

1In the summer of 950, Li Ka-shing rented a factory in Shau Kei Wan with his savings for many years and borrowed HK$ 50,000 from relatives and friends, and founded the "Changjiang Plastic Factory", which specializes in producing plastic toys and simple daily necessities. Thus began his road to all-round entrepreneurship.

At the beginning of his business, Li Ka-shing made a few small fortunes with his business acumen and the management principle of "being honest with others and keeping promises by deacons". But not long after, a bleak business period came. After several small successes, Li Ka-shing, who was young and ignorant, ignored the unpredictable characteristics of commercial warfare, and he began to be overconfident. After several successes, he was eager to expand his plastic enterprise with insufficient funds and poor equipment, so the cash flow began to be ineffective and the factory suffered more and more losses. Rapid expansion, too many orders, and the lack of simple equipment and manpower have greatly affected the quality of plastic products, and the upcoming delivery date has made Li Ka-shing, which attaches importance to quality, too busy to take into account the increasingly serious phenomenon of defective products. As a result, the warehouse began to be full of products returned due to quality problems and delivery delays, plastic raw material suppliers began to demand raw material fees, and customers also found various excuses to claim at home.

Li Ka-shing, who has been honest and steady from the beginning of business, paid a heavy price. This price almost put Li Ka-shing on the verge of bankruptcy.

During this period of time, Li Ka-shing's eyes were bloodshot every day, and he was busy with the bank staff who kept coming to urge him to repay the loan, the raw material suppliers who kept coming to bully him to restore the cost of materials, the customers who kept coming to the door to ask for compensation, and the workers who cried and tried their best to pay their wages on time. Li Ka-shing, full of necessary self-confidence, never dreamed that in the first few years of his own business, after he tasted the joy of success for the first time, it was followed by disaster. During the ups and downs from 1950 to 1955, until today, Li Ka-shing has a lingering fear in retrospect. This is the most tragic page in Li Ka-shing's entrepreneurial history. It records the hard course of Li Ka-shing in the heavy rain and mud, and reflects Li Ka-shing's bumpy and most painful experience on the road from heavy failure to success.

Failure is actually not important, the most important thing is whether you still have confidence after failure, whether you can continue to maintain or have a clear head. Like anyone in adversity, after a series of painful experiences, Li Ka-shing began to calmly analyze the changes in the international economic situation and market trends. Among all kinds of plastic products, the plastic toys produced in Li Ka-shing have become saturated in the international market, and it seems that they do not have enough viability. Then it means that he must re-select a product that can save the enterprise and be competitive in the international market, and realize the "transformation" of his plastic factory.

Late one night, after studying all day's homework, Li Ka-shing leafed through some magazines as usual. When he was reading the latest issue of Plastic magazine in English, he found a news in an inconspicuous place that plastic flowers designed and manufactured by an Italian company with plastic raw materials were about to be dumped in European and American markets. Li Ka-shing immediately thought that people who live a quiet life in peacetime must have higher requirements for their spiritual life after their material life is guaranteed. If you plant flowers and other plants, you should not only water and weed every day, but also have a short flowering period, which is very uncoordinated with the life rhythm of hard-working people at that time. If a large number of plastic flowers are produced, they can be cheap and beautiful, which can beautify people's lives. With this in mind, Li Ka-shing excitedly predicted that the golden age of plastic flowers was coming.

From 65438 to 0957, Li Ka-shing embarked on the journey of learning the manufacturing technology of plastic flowers with the hope of enterprise revival. Smart Li Ka-shing knows that businessmen attach great importance to new products that have just come out, and they will have great technical reservations and will not learn them easily. Therefore, as a buyer, salesman, etc. He kept trying to collect fragmentary technical information about the making of plastic flowers. Moreover, Li Ka-shing bought a large number of plastic flower varieties with distinctive styles and colors and brought them back to Hong Kong, and spared no expense to hire plastic professionals from Hong Kong and even overseas to study these purchased plastic flower varieties. While conducting market research, he understands the development trend of the international market, hoping to find out the most popular varieties of plastic flowers for mass production.

From 65438 to 0957, Li Ka-shing, who gritted his teeth and walked out of the corner, began a series of unique "transformation" actions: producing cheap and realistic plastic flowers. This was still an "upset" in Hong Kong at that time. After Li Ka-shing's efforts and various publicity and advertising activities, plastic flowers began to attract people's attention and were generally accepted by Hong Kong people. The name of "Changjiang Plastic Factory" is also well known.

Li Ka-shing, which has taken a different approach, has gradually embarked on the road of stable development after the crisis. At the end of 1957, Li Ka-shing renamed "Changjiang Plastic Factory" as "Changjiang Industrial Co., Ltd." to meet the needs of mass production. Li Ka-shing began to introduce western management experience. He believes that it is very important to maintain a high level of management and adhere to responsibility within the enterprise, both now and in the future.

Li Ka-shing often tells people around him: "If we want to survive in the Yangtze River, we have to compete; To compete, we must have good quality. Only by ensuring quality can we ensure credibility, objectivity and the development and growth of the Yangtze River. " Li Ka-shing attaches great importance to the quality of products. Li Ka-shing announced: "From now on, there will be no inferior products from the Yangtze River". The most striking impression of Li Ka-shing today is resourcefulness. In business strategy, he never takes risks easily, let alone takes chances casually. All his decisions come from the possession and analysis of comprehensive and extensive information; His decisions are all reasonable responses based on the actual situation of the bank, which is also his most praised skill.

However, Li Ka-shing's courage and talent are not all innate. In addition to his unique talent, it is more from his diligence and unremitting knowledge, as well as his ability to learn from himself and others and his modest and prudent style.

Although Li Ka-shing led the enterprise out of the abyss, he did not get out of the predicament. At this time, his funds are still insufficient and his production equipment is still very rudimentary. He can't update equipment, increase factories and recruit technicians, and the production scale can't be expanded as planned.

Just when Li Ka-shing had a premonition that financial problems would bring new crisis to his enterprise, an orderer who urgently needed a lot of plastic flowers came to his company.

The next day, in the quiet and elegant coffee shop of a Hong Kong hotel, Li Ka-shing sat opposite the person who ordered food. For a few seconds, they didn't speak. On the right, they are drinking coffee silently. Then, Li Ka-shing took out eight kinds of plastic flowers designed according to the requirements of the orderer from her handbag and put them in front of foreign businessmen. Then, Li Ka-shing sincerely told foreign businessmen.

"Sir, these eight plastic flowers were designed by me and the company's designers last night according to your wishes, and five of them I think basically meet your requirements; As for the other three models, because I think you ordered Christmas, I added some traditional oriental flavors on the basis of your request, and I thought maybe you would like them, so I brought them all for you to choose. " Smart Li Ka-shing understood the disadvantage of insufficient funds, but saw the opportunity of small profits but quick turnover. He keenly predicted that if an agreement could be reached with the order supplier, Cheung Kong would not only get out of the predicament, but also gain a fairly favorable competitive position in Hong Kong. Li Ka-shing went on to say, "Personally, I certainly hope to cooperate with you for a long time. Although the Yangtze River has not received enough funds and guarantees at present, we can provide you with the best price, the best quality and the best style in Hong Kong, and guarantee timely delivery. In addition, if you are satisfied with these eight plastic patterns, I am willing to give them to you, just hoping to have the opportunity to cooperate with you. "

Li Ka-shing's frank words deeply touched foreign businessmen. The orderer stared at the China entrepreneur in front of him in amazement and admiration, admiring that he could design eight styles of plastic flowers for him to choose from overnight. The orderer could not help but hold Li Ka-shing's hand with joy and repeatedly said, "Great, young man, I agree to cooperate with you, and you will do well!"

This success has enabled Changjiang Industrial Company to gain a firm foothold and gain considerable competitiveness among Hong Kong plastic enterprises. It also made Li Ka-shing clearly realize that for a person who is determined to seize the opportunity even in adversity, no matter what difficulties and obstacles he encounters, as long as he has confidence, determination and persistent sincerity, the door of opportunity will always be open to those who are ambitious and hope to make a difference.

In the following days, Li Ka-shing led Changjiang Industrial Company to usher in the most glorious period of Hong Kong plastic flower manufacturing industry. There is a greater demand for plastic flowers in Europe and America, and even middle-class and lower-class families have gradually developed the habit of arranging flowers. Li Ka-shing also made full use of this heyday to innovate constantly. He recruited plastic professionals with high salary, and developed spray-painted plastic flowers, special flowers, tropical exotic flowers and China special flowers with traditional characteristics in China, which were most interesting to European and American users, thus successfully entering the European and American markets. Li Ka-shing has won all-round long-term contracts with overseas buyers by using the high-quality plastic flower products of Changjiang Industrial Company, and its business has grown rapidly. The huge plastic flower market has brought tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars in profits to Li Ka-shing, and the plastic flowers of Cheung Kong Industrial Group and Li Ka-shing himself have attracted more and more attention from the plastic industry. As a result, the Yangtze River has become the largest plastic flower manufacturing base in the world, while Li Ka-shing is known as the "king of plastic flowers".