Li Ka-Shing and the Growth of Cheung Kong -2008精选.pdf

9-407-062 R E V : M A Y 2 9 , 2 0 0 8 N I T I N N O H R I A A N T H O N Y J . M A Y O M A R K B E N S O N Li Ka-Shing and the Growth of Cheung Kong When times are tough you need to ask yourself if you are up to it. During tough times I’ve always thought that I’m up to it, because I am hardworking, frugal, steadfast [and] willing to learn and build a creditable name. — Li Ka-Shing quoted in a 1998 documentary series, Success Stories In 1949, the same year that Chairman Mao Zedong established the People’s Republic of China (PRC), 20-year-old Li Ka-Shing had already reached a high level of business success in British- controlled Hong Kong.1 As a plastic watch band and belt salesman, Li could easily support his entire family, including his widowed mother in China, and could afford to pay the college tuitions of his brother and sister. Indeed, by age 20, Li had already reached the financial goals he promised his dying father he would strive to achieve. The following year, Li decided to start his own plastics company, opening a small factory in Northern Hong Kong under the name Cheung Kong. Over the next 50 years, Li managed the growth