Learning from a truly great entrepreneur

The ninth richest man in the world Li Ka-shing spoke of his humble beginnings to an empire built on shipping, banking, construction, satellite TV and real estate.

Defying the odds: Li with CKGSB dean Xiang Bing (second from left) at an event marking the 10th anniversary of the school in Beijing. - CHOW HOW BAN/The Star

IT was difficult to understand Li Ka-shing speaking in Mandarin.

I would have appreciated his wisdom more if he spoke in Cantonese at the 10th anniversary celebration of Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in Beijing recently.

Except for Li’s “broken” Mandarin, I was captivated along with the crowd, who packed the hall to listen to what this legendary Hong Kong tycoon had to say.

He started by telling a story of his childhood and how he defied the odds predicted by a fortune teller.

“When I was 14, a fortune teller from our hometown told my mother that it might be difficult for me to have any big success as I was listless and slim to bare bones.

“My mother had lost her husband not long ago and the soothsayer’s remarks made her very miserable. She then consoled and encouraged me: ‘Ah Shing, it’s hard to predict one’s destiny and God will surely reward kind and hardworking people. If life is really hard for you, your family is there for you.’

“Of course, I trusted my mother but I had even greater faith in myself.

“I believed that the future we build for ourselves is our only destiny,” he said.

It was a simple story yet it made a huge impact on the students of the school.

The story explains how this boy from Chaozhou in Guangdong province persevered during the Japanese Occupation and later worked as a salesman before founding his plastics manufacturing factory and eventually building the Cheung Kong business empire that includes shipping, banking, construction, satellite TV and real estate.

The 84-year-old billionaire, who was ranked by Forbes as the ninth richest man in the world this year with an estimated fortune of US$25.5bil (RM77.6bil), said that tomorrow would just be another new day but the future would be something that one beholds and works on to improve himself, chase his dream and create a destiny of his own.

He said once a person attained success, he would have to move on with other goals and think of what self-values he could contribute to society.

“Looking back at my life, it was like a dream but certainly not. Seventy years have passed by and the slim and listless boy who was looked down by his fellow countryman has relied on work and self-confidence to make himself stronger yet lower his ego in pursuing his dream,” he said.

This was perhaps Li’s third official speech, entitled “The hero of action”, at his meeting with Cheung Kong students. Li and his Li Ka Shing Foundation donated a great deal of money in the founding of the school in 2002.

In his first speech entitled “The art of making money” 10 years ago, Li said that as business leaders, they would need to possess foresightedness, innovativeness and international perspective and take good control of the latest and most accurate information to make the right decisions, while maintaining a good rapport with their employees.

Li’s second speech – “The art of devoting” – delivered in 2004, touched on the spirit of giving back to society after one had amassed a fortune. He said there were businessmen who became wealthy by doing illegal business in Hong Kong but these people would falter faster compared to those who upheld their principles of doing proper business.

From the art of making money to the art of giving back and now back to the very courage to make the first move and challenge the odds, the students have certainly learned a spectrum of knowledge and experience from one of the most respectable tycoons in China.

At the 10th anniversary celebration, another legendary entrepreneur Liu Chuanzhi also offered his advice to the students, professors and staff of the school.

The founder of the Lenovo Group, which is the second largest computer maker in the world, said many senior executives in Lenovo were not trained in business administration but the emergence of graduate schools in China in the past decade had provided them with a chance to take up executive MBA programmes.

“My hope for all graduate business schools is that they are not only able to teach their students how to cook but more importantly how to come out with the recipe,” he said.
The crowd applauded at the end of Liu’s address, awaiting their turn to build an empire of their own in this opportune era in China.

Made In China
By CHOW HOW BAN The Star/Asia News Network 

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China making economic mark in Africa

The Chinese presence in Africa is quite extraordinary and the continent collectively is the third-largest recipient of Chinese outward foreign direct investment of nearly US$90bil.

AFRICA, with its one billion population and surging birth and economic growth rates, is and will be the next economic battlefield, a terrain that will be fought over by Chinese, Indian, American and European investors.

While Malaysia is a small fry among this company, we have a surprisingly high profile thanks to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s foresight and enthusiasm for the continent in the 80s and 90s. Dr Mahathir founded the Langkawi International Dialogues in 1995, which was and remains an important platform for Malaysia to engage with African nations.

We shouldn’t let these relationships lie forgotten. Instead, we need to build on this remarkable goodwill because it can provide real business opportunities for our country.

As the IMF had forecast in October 2012, Sub-Saharan Africa’s regional output is expected to expand by about 5.25% in 2012 and 2013.

The Financial Times on the other hand reported in November 2011 that the African Development Bank expected pan-African GDP in 2012 to be 5.5%.

True, poverty and political instability remain major issues but these are phenomenal rates compared to its former European colonial masters now.

Meanwhile, the Chinese presence is quite extraordinary, beginning from my fellow travellers on the late-night Kenya Airways Boeing 777 bound for Nairobi during my November trip there — many of whom were clearly from Guangzhou where the plane had originated. I still remember drifting off to sleep as announcements in Mandarin droned on in the background.

Upon arriving in Nairobi, I noticed to my surprise that most of my fellow Asian travellers had merely changed planes for other more exotic destinations – Juba, Lilongwe, Maputo, Addis Ababa, Kinshasa and Douala.

Nairobi, while strange and alien enough for me, was already old-hat for my Chinese compatriots.

Driving into town along the Mombasa Highway, I hit the morning rush-hour, enduring what can only be described of as a truly Asian traffic jam, replete with peddlers selling newspapers, magazines, household implements and toys.

We crawled along for mile after mile, negotiating the now inadequate roundabouts, overtaken in turn by the many people walking along the side of the busy thoroughfare.

After an hour or so, the city’s downtown with the distinctive cylindrical-shaped Kenyatta International Convention Centre – an icon in Nairobi where I was to stay – thankfully emerged into view.

Turning off the highway towards my hotel, I noticed a new intersection, replete with flyovers up ahead. Squinting, I could just about make out the banners announcing its upcoming launch.

Having been struck by the poor state of Nairobi’s infrastructure, I asked my driver about the new development and was told: “The Chinese built it sir. It’s the new Thika Expressway and the president will be opening it tomorrow.”

Chinese trade and investment in Africa has boomed. As Greg Levesque of the US-China Business Council wrote in the Business Insider on 27 June, the continent collectively is the third-largest recipient of Chinese outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) of nearly US$90bil (RM273bil).

Major destinations include South Africa, Angola, Nigeria and Algeria.

The key sector is of course energy, with Chinese state-owned firms like the China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) hunting oil and gas blocks to meet the Asian giant’s energy hunger.

However, China is also moving into other sectors like infrastructure. The Thika Expressway for instance created 3,500 jobs for local Kenyans.

Also, in July, outgoing Chinese President Hu Jintao offered over US$20bil (RM60.8bil) in loans to African countries over the next three years.

But China’s push into Africa hasn’t come without criticism, and during the Mo Ibrahim Foundation dialogue that I attended in Dakar later on, a number of speakers touched on the imbalance in relations. Most felt uneasy about the way Africa’s natural resources were being exported to China, in return for which Africans were importing all manner of consumer goods.

As one speaker said, “The Chinese need to set up factories here in Africa to supply this market. In years to come, we will have the largest pool of young workers”.

The pan-African investment banker, Mamadou Toure felt that the continent is generally receptive. However he stresses: “China’s investments in Africa currently exceed the World Bank’s. We do need to diversify our partners.”

Indeed, there’s concern that China’s influence could alter the very social fabric of Africa. Afia Asantewaa Asare-Kyei, a Program Manager with George Soros’ Open Society Foundation in Senegal and a Ghanaian recalls a recent trip back home to her village in the Ashanti Region:

“I was surprised to see Chinese workers panning for gold alongside the locals.”

The Chinese presence is multi-faceted and deep. Indeed even in Dakar, at the newly built National Theatre (where the foundation’s dialogue took place), constructed with Chinese funding (they picked up around US$28mil (RM85mil) of the total US$32mil (RM97.3mil) cost) and know-how. Chinese workers – pleased with what they’d achieved, were very much in evidence.

The African decade is upon us. Are we in Malaysia ready to seize the opportunities that Dr Mahathir bequeathed us?

COMMENT 

By KARIM RASLAN

US building new spy wing to focus on Asia

AFP 12/2/2012

The Pentagon, in a major expansion of its intelligence gathering activities, plans to assemble an espionage network rivaling the Central Intelligence Agency in size, The Washington Post reported.

Citing unnamed US officials, the newspaper said that as part of the project, US military officials will send hundreds of additional spies overseas.

They also plan to overhaul the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) which has focused primarily during the past decade on activities related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

When the expansion is complete, the DIA is expected to have as many as 1,600 intelligence "collectors" around the world -- a major step-up for an agency whose presence abroad has not exceeded triple-digits in recent years, the paper said.

The total includes military attaches and others who will not work undercover, The Post wrote.

But US officials told the daily that the plan also includes deployment of a new generation of clandestine operatives to be trained by the CIA.

These new operatives are to work frequently with the US Joint Special Operations Command, but they will get their spying assignments from the Department of Defense, the paper said.

The Pentagon's top intelligence priorities are Islamist militant groups in Africa, weapons transfers by North Korea and Iran, and military modernization underway in China, the newspaper wrote.