The little apprentice of Dajinpu
1925 On August 26th, Zheng Yutong was born in Lunjiao Town, Shunde County, Guangdong Province. His family was not very good since he was a child, but his parents had high expectations of him and tightened their belts to send him to school. When Zheng Yutong was a middle school student, the years-long war between Guangdong and Guangxi spread here. The difficulties of life forced him to give up his studies and his family took refuge in Macao to make a living.
Coming to Macau, in order to make a living, Zheng Yutong embarked on the road of wage earners. At that time, Zheng Yutong was short and thin, but smart and optimistic, full of confidence in life. 1940, my father sent Zheng Yutong to the Chow Tai Fook Gold Shop opened by my old friend Zhou Zhiyuan as an apprentice. Of course, there is another reason, that is, the two families have long been married, and it is also convenient for Zheng Yutong to contact his future father-in-law.
Although he helped in the shop as a "prospective son-in-law", Zheng Yutong started at the grassroots level. At first, his work was just sweeping the floor, emptying spittoons and washing toilets. In his spare time, he learned to receive small businesses in the store. However, Zheng Yutong is very smart and studious. He is very good at perceiving things from trivial matters and doing everything just right. Zhou Zhiyuan, his father-in-law, is famous for his cruelty. Privately, some people call him a "bomber". It can be said that anyone who sees him is afraid, but Zheng Yutong has never been scolded.
Because Zheng Yutong is smart, diligent and honest, it didn't take long for Zhou Zhiyuan to formally let him learn to do business. In business, he likes to use his head very much. He often goes out to observe how other jewelry companies do business, absorb the strengths of others and improve his own shortcomings. Three years later, he was promoted to supervisor. It was at this time that he married his daughter Zhou. Since then, he has worked harder to help his father-in-law run a jewelry store in all aspects.
1946, Zhou Zhiyuan sent his son-in-law to open a branch in Hongkong. At that time, Zheng Yutong came to Hong Kong with 20,000 yuan in cash and 24 taels of gold, and chose Queen's Road Central 148 to open Chow Tai Fook Gold Store. At the beginning, he served as a personnel manager and selected a group of smart people for the gold shop, which made the business of the gold shop very hot. By the mid-1950s, Zheng Yutong was in charge of all accounts of Chow Tai Fook Gold Store and was independently responsible for gold trading. From 65438 to 0956, Zhou Zhiyuan handed over all production to Zheng Yutong for management. Since then, Zheng Yutong, a wage earner, has officially become the boss and owner of Chow Tai Fook's Golden Shop Kingdom.
At that time, there were countless gold shops in Hong Kong, and most shopkeepers who made gold ornaments were thrifty and competitive. Considering that the purity of gold in general gold shops is 99%, that is, 99% gold, in order to win in the competition, Zheng Yutong decided to introduce four pieces of gold (that is, 99.99% gold content), which is higher than three pieces of gold (that is, 99.9% gold content). Although the customers are full immediately, the price that can be paid is also huge. Every time you sell one or two pieces of gold, you will lose dozens of dollars. However, Zheng Yutong pushed his way through the crowd. In his view, this is a kind of free advertisement, which is not worth the loss, although the cost will definitely be hundreds of thousands. However, it is right to treat these hundreds of thousands as advertising fees. After two years, without publicity, all the shops of Chow Tai Fook Gold Jewelry rushed to get the goods. The success of 9999 Gold not only brought huge profits to Chow Tai Fook, but also brought him a good reputation. Customers say Chow Tai Fook's gold is not "boiled water"!
While making profits, Zheng Yutong did not forget the employees of the company. In order to enhance employees' sense of belonging, he changed the jewelry store into Chow Tai Fook Co., Ltd. on 1960, and distributed some shares to the old employees who have made great contributions to the company for many years, directly linking the company's benefits with the employees' interests, so that everyone can make more money for the company in Qi Xin. As a result, the company's profit reached HK$ 5 million that year!
After gold ornaments became famous, Zheng Yutong made persistent efforts to focus on women's favorite-diamonds. In Hong Kong in the 1960s, only Liao Guichang had a De Beers diamond import license, and no one else could operate it. This is not difficult for Zheng Yutong. In order to get this license, he simply went to South Africa to buy a company with a De Beers license of 1964, and then bought several De Beers licenses to become the largest diamond dealer in Hong Kong. Since then, Chow Tai Fook "swept all the gold and diamonds", and at the peak, he swept over 30% of Hong Kong's diamond imports, and he was awarded the title of "King of Jewelry".
From jewelry crocodile to real estate king
The success of the jewelry business has made the little-known Zheng Yutong a well-known figure in Hong Kong. However, when people still regard him as a jeweler, Zheng Yutong has quietly entered the real estate industry.
Zheng Yutong 1952 invested in real estate for the first time and built a blue villa at the racecourse; Later, the Hong Kong Tower was built in Causeway Bay in the center of Hong Kong. In the mid-1960s, Hong Kong was in turmoil under the influence of the Cultural Revolution, and many rich people sold their land and real estate at low prices. At that time, people who had the vision and courage to take the opportunity to buy them later became super rich. Li Ka-shing is like this, and so is Zheng Yutong. From 65438 to 0968, Zheng Yutong bought the most real estate. He said he was full of confidence in the future of Hong Kong. He believed that the ups and downs of all industries were cyclical, and buying at low tide would never go wrong. It turns out that he has done nothing wrong.
In 1970s, with the prosperity of gold and jewelry business, Zheng Yutong was not satisfied with tinkering around the edges in the real estate field, but wanted to become bigger.
1970, Zheng Yutong, He Shanheng, Guo Desheng and others set up "New World Development Co., Ltd.", 57% of which were major shareholders, and entered the real estate industry in an all-round way. Soon, New World paid10.3 billion yuan to buy the Tsim Sha Tsui seaside blue chimney plot from Swire Group. In 65,438+0,982, New World Center, a world-class luxury building, was completed. This magnificent building, known as "a city within a city", includes New World Hotel and Regent Hotel, tens of thousands of square meters shopping center, thousands of commercial units, office buildings and luxury residences. When Zheng Yutong bought this land, he paid the highest land price in Hong Kong. Now the real estate price is soaring, and this land alone is worth HK$ 654.38+0 billion! New World Hotel and Regent Hotel are the top ten hotels in the world, earning hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars for him every year!
Zheng Yutong is very proud of his masterpiece, and he often wanders here alone. He said: "At that time, I thought this place represented Hong Kong. As soon as the ship arrives in Victoria Harbour, we must make it beautiful. " This magnificent European-style building has now become the symbol of New World Group.
How to control large assets with small funds, listing is undoubtedly the best way to solve the problem. 1972, Hong Kong coincides with the biggest bull market since the market opened. New World took the opportunity to go public and made considerable profits. In June of the same year 165438+ 10, New World seized the opportunity to raise 1 600,000 Hong Kong dollars at the par value of1yuan per share and the subscription price of 2 yuan. Fortunately, the stock market crash of 1973 was avoided.
However, Zheng Yutong will not be easily satisfied. After the completion of the New World Center, he personally planned and completed the masterpiece of Baguio Bay, a high-grade residential area. The residential project of this scale covers an area of 800,000 square feet, with 50 buildings of different sizes and complete supporting facilities, including children's playground, swimming pool and tennis court. , and has become a famous senior residential area in Hong Kong.
If the New World and Baguio Bay are not surprising, then the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center has completely left an impression on Zheng Yutong.
65438-0984 Zheng Yutong reached an agreement with the Hong Kong Trade Development Council to invest HK$ 6,543,880.8 billion to build the Hong Kong International Convention and Exhibition Center in Wan Chai, Hong Kong Island. The center will be the largest, most comprehensive and most modern of its kind in Asia, with a total area of about 465,438+0,000 square meters, including a 55-meter-high conference and exhibition center, a luxury residential building and two hotels. It will be one of the five most representative buildings in Hong Kong in the 1980s!
But after several years, the drawings have not been realized. People around Zheng Yutong are puzzled by the delay in construction, but Zheng Yutong has his own plans. 1986 10, an important news spread all over the world: the Queen of England will visit Hong Kong. Just as people were thinking about what impact this would have on Sino-British relations, Zheng Yutong unexpectedly announced that the Hong Kong International Convention and Exhibition Center would break ground on the day the Queen of England arrived in Hong Kong! At the groundbreaking ceremony, the Queen of England appeared, pushing Zheng Yutong and his international convention and exhibition center to the world!
Zheng Yutong became a big winner, because he often made bold investments, and was nicknamed "Bold" by the outside world.
1989, Zheng Yutong and Lin Baixin cooperated to purchase a majority stake in ATV, and New World Group became one of the two major shareholders of ATV. Since then, it has spent HK$ 2.7 billion to acquire Ramada Hotel Management Group with 825 hotels. 1993 also acquired a Swiss group with 40 hotels in May, making New World Group one of the largest hotel management groups in the world.
It can be said that Zheng Yutong has reached the peak of his life and become a household name and a well-known super-rich person on Hong Kong Island.
Diligence and sincerity
When billionaire Zheng Yutong was asked about his way to get rich, Zheng Yutong said, "I think' luck' may come to you once or twice, but she can't stay with you all her life. In fact, the most important word in a person's life is diligence, followed by honesty. As long as you have these two points, your career will basically be laid. "
Throughout the history of Zheng Yutong's development, there is not a period and a career that developed without diligence and honesty. He summed up his "twenty-three-word proverbs" in business and life: keep your promise, keep your promise, be diligent and prudent, be cautious, think about the source of drinking water, and forget the righteousness at the expense of profit. Diligence is the core. In his life, he worked almost every day 12 hours or more. The rest of "keeping your word", "being cautious, thinking about the source of drinking water, forgetting righteousness and not looking at profit" are actually "sincerity". Zheng Yutong believes that giving up speculation, grasping favorable opportunities and doing business in a down-to-earth manner are the basis for getting rich.
Therefore, Zheng Yutong does business to make money, abandons all kinds of speculative means, studies the relationship between supply and demand, and is characterized by innovation. He often educates his subordinates: "There must be profits in doing business, but you can't just pursue profits, reduce quality, and cheat customers. The profits obtained by cheating are not called profits, but called' heartbreak'; Doing business in a down-to-earth manner is the foundation of getting rich. " He doesn't allow employees to speculate, and once he is found, he will be fired immediately.
When others say that he is a "shark's gall" and achieves great things by speculation, he says: "There is an essential difference between investment and speculation. Only shorting is complete speculation. ..... so don't overdo everything, don't learn everything. Businessmen had better never have enemies, don't treat their opponents as enemies, and be broad-minded in doing business. If he is not broad enough, he can't do great things. Of course, this may not be possible for everyone. My principle is: big things can be done, and small things are never haggled over, so there are many long-term cooperation partners. "
He brought the unique human touch of China people into the company. Luo Guoxing, China business manager who has worked in Chow Tai Fook for more than 20 years, said: "The company never fires people. Brother Tong is so human." After serving Chow Tai Fook 10 years, you can get the "elderly card". In Chow Tai Fook, 50 people won 40 years' service medals. In particular, Zheng Yutong will travel to the countryside. In addition to setting up a factory in Shunde to cast gold ornaments, many Shunde fellow villagers will be arranged to work in Chow Tai Fook.
After the reform and opening up, Zheng Yutong has not forgotten its homeland and increased its support and investment in the mainland. 1977, he and Hong Kong securities giant Feng Jingxi donated HK$ 2.5 million to Sun Yat-sen University. He and Hu invested and built a luxurious China Hotel in Guangzhou. His hotel business has expanded to Beijing, Shanghai, Xi, Hangzhou and other places. He invested billions of Hong Kong dollars in Guangzhou to build power plants and expressways. In his hometown of Shunde, Zheng Yutong donated a lot of money to build hospitals and expand middle schools ... According to statistics, his total investment in the mainland has exceeded HK$ 8 billion, accounting for about 20% of the total assets of his New World Group. But he thinks this is not enough. He plans to invest 4 billion in recent years!
Rich as he is, he is neither extravagant nor boastful. For a long time, people in Hong Kong, including the media, have spent a lot of time arguing about Zheng Yutong's exact position in Hong Kong's rich list. He himself disagreed: "What about the third and fourth brothers? ..... too much wealth, too little. As long as it is enough for children to study and enough for two meals at home, it is enough. " "What's the use of your promise to give me the whole HSBC today? You just have to' take a look'. "
This is Zheng Yutong. He often eats home-cooked meals and cooks lunch in the company. He doesn't like to wear famous brands, has his own car, prefers to go out for a walk alone, and has been to the subway addiction from time to time. Some people say that he is a native of Shunde, well-known in the world, and has the best popularity.