Bulletin Spring‧Summer 1998

Hu t c h i s on Whampoa L i m i t e d, Ho n g k o ng Electric Holdings Limited, and Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Limited. These four companies together are valued at over 400 billion Hong Kong dollars (as of closing on 3rd December 1997) and employ a workforce of some 58,000 staff members in Hong Kong and elsewhere. These companies are diversified in their development and operations, covering property development and investments, estate agency and management, securities and investments, container ports, retail and manufacturing, telecommunication, infrastructural ventures, energy and hotels. While his business empire is based in Hong Kong, the scope of Mr. Li's business is entirely global. There are extensive investments and operations in China and elsewhere and large- scale, thriving projects in all G-7 nations except Italy. In recent years his business operations have been extended to over a dozen countries other than those cited above. Mr. Li's business empire is vast, multinational, and fast developing, and this enviable success may well be attributed to the scientific management and superior modes of operation that he insists upon in his business undertakings. He places a p r em i um on the ability of his staff. Any employee who can prove to be enterprising, hardworking, honest, and skilled are marked for advancement, regardless of sex, age, race, or nationality. Furthermore, his companies are w e l l organized and great emphasis is put on staff welfare: Mr. Li believes that the rational mode of management of the West should be tempered w i th the warmth and humanity of Oriental benevolence, and as a result everyone in his employ shares a high sense of belonging. His staff is thus an elite regiment, in which everyone does his best and maintains the highest level of cooperation w i th all others. There is a strong sense of bonding among his employees whereby any honour or injury to the company is of common concern to everybody in the workforce. With such a staff Mr. Li's companies could not but do well in the highly competitive business arena, and make their mark everywhere in the world. While Mr. Li enjoys the service of the best talents, his success also has to be the direct result of his superior intelligence, his indefatigable enterprising spirit, his steadfast approach to risk management, and the sincerity and good faith with which he conducts his business. He has a special eye for opportunities and the wisdom to make the right decision when this is warranted: witness his bold forays in the Hong Kong stock and property markets in 1967 and then in the early eighties. These were times when the future of Hong Kong was unbeknownst to the best analysts and when a general gloom hung over its economy, but Mr. Li emerged the winner by dint of meticulous planning, and the courage to take up what others had seen fit to abandon. In these acts of great audacity we can see wisdom that was derived from an unsurpassed self- confidence. It is Mr. Li's lifelong conviction that, amidst the great changes of our time, one must always maintain one's composure, come what may. He is also convinced that one should always envisage less fortunate scenarios while enjoying prosperity. When a man can stay unperturbed in crisis then he can afford to be enterprising and aim high. If he is capable of anticipating disasters then he will tread warily and build his business on firm foundations. A businessman who can treat these precepts as complementary in their application and apply them is one who can discern opportunities and capitalize on them, and in that way he is sure not to suffer any loss. Mr. Li is also f i rm in his belief that all human actions should be based on sincerity and that good faith must always be a p r i o r i ty consideration. Despite the fact that, on his way to great wealth and power, he has experienced his fair share of difficulties and hardships, Mr. Li always maintains his unswerving belief in sincerity when dealing with people, and good faith in dealing w i th business. Over the decades he has never put the blame on fate or other people when suffering setbacks, nor has he once lost his perspective in moments of triumph. In this clamorous world he has always kept to his true self, the guileless heart of a child. He once said that, when he was 22 years old, he was so greatly perturbed by business uncertainties that he had sleepless nights. However, at the age of 23 he experienced a moment of truth, and profit The 53rd Congregation 11