Li Ka Shing Quotes
160 Li Ka Shing Quotes
1 2 3 4
I took jobs, not matter how lowly they were. At any rate what could a 14-15 year old boy do? But I did my best at work and at increasing my knowledge.
Li Ka Shing
When I was young, I appeared humble but was inwardly very arrogant. Why was I arrogant? When my colleagues went to play, I went to study. We’d all had very little education. But they remained the same while I was becoming increasingly knowledgeable. We were doing similar work, but I was striving for improvement all the time. So when I went into business, I reminded myself that if I allowed myself to be arrogant, I’d fall one day. And so I named my company Cheung Kong.
Li Ka Shing
The Yangtze River doesn’t pick and choose its tributaries. Waters from small streams and springs are just pulled over. Otherwise there wouldn’t be any Yangtze, would there?
Li Ka Shing
[On a customer cancelling an order] I said, there were plenty of buyers for the goods and I didn’t need him to compensate me for my losses. I also said that if another business opportunity arose, we could build an even better relationship. I’d forgotten the whole thing when something strange happened one day. I’d just started doing plastic flowers… about 1956-57 it was. Unexpectedly a foreigner came looking for me. He said a certain company had introduced him. That company had said that mine was Hong Kong’s top plastic flowers factory, a factory commanding a huge area. I was dumbfounded because my factory was not huge it was in fact small. But later his American client ordered a lot of things from me. Placing at one time all the orders for six months. I later discovered the man of that trading company knew this foreigner. The foreigner was a senior executive of another trading company. He had told the foreigner about me, saying that I was completely trustworthy to deal with. He had said all the good things about me. I believe everything good that could have been said had been said. The moral of this is: something that seems to be a loss can often turn out to be a gain.
Li Ka Shing
In 1967, I was as emotionally challenged as others were. Wow… the situation… it was threatening. Then in the night I had it all thought out, down to a simple theory. If China wanted to take back Hong Kong it didn’t have to resort to such measures. So I went against market sentiments and used my idle cash to buy a lot of property.
Li Ka Shing
1967 gave me a chance to make a lot of money. But it wasn’t an astronomical figure… no, it wasn’t.
Li Ka Shing
I was in rather good shape when the 70’s began and, observing foreign owned establishments. I found they owned very few shares but controlled great assets. If I could take over these companies, I’d be able to get their assets, and their people would also be useful as I had the idea of starting an international company. If my company had gone public without me having an idea, it wouldn’t have reached its size today.
Li Ka Shing
The media neglected one thing. Why did Hong Kong Bank sell their shares to me? Their biggest consideration was whoever bought the shares should be able to manage and lead the company towards better development.
Li Ka Shing
My thinking in 1979 was buying this foreign company gave me the advantage of paying one dollar for two to three dollars’ worth, even more profitable than investing in property.
Li Ka Shing
We believe that big family [company] of ours, by the year 2000, will have increased its membership by one third locally and abroad.
Li Ka Shing
In a small business - a family business you’ve got to do everything personally. But when the company is big, you need to give your staff a sense of belonging and make them feel at ease. That’s vital.
Li Ka Shing
All my senior staff get along very well with me. That’s gratifying.
Li Ka Shing
The secret of management is simply identifying and making use of talent. But you must in principle make them feel they belong and like you first.
Li Ka Shing
We must get on well as partners.
Li Ka Shing
All my senior staff know I demand efficiency. Before a meeting, the other side know what’s going on and I know what they’ve done. Everybody is well prepared and no time should be wasted.
Li Ka Shing
Some people only know how to complain, hoping you will help to solve their problems. Frankly, if they are fully prepared, they make the best suggestions.
Li Ka Shing
Simply speaking, you are the commander in chief, the head of a group of armies. You can never be better with a machine gun than a machine gunner or better than a gunner at operating a cannon. But as commander, you don’t do these things. Your job is mapping out strategy. So good organization is very important.
Li Ka Shing
When Victor and Richard were still students, I brought them to one of our meetings. They just sat there. My purpose was not to teach them to do business. It was to let them know doing business was not that simple and that it took a lot of work, meetings and the help of many people to get a job done.
Li Ka Shing
I was voted ‘Man of the Year’ in the 80’s,
Li Ka Shing
[On ‘How much of your success is due to good fortune?’] I cannot deny it’s the times that create heroes.
Li Ka Shing
Today I can be frank. When I started my business, I almost certainly did not rely on luck. I relied on work, hard work and ability to make money.
Li Ka Shing
It’s very important to devote yourself to work.
Li Ka Shing
You need to be interested in your business. If you are interested in your business, you are bound to do well.
Li Ka Shing
The four days when Hong Kong stopped trading, I wasn’t in Hong Kong, I was in Canada.
Li Ka Shing
In the constantly changing world today, you should strive for knowledge innovation and strength and, with a sound foundation, seek advancement.
Li Ka Shing
What am I after? As a Hong Kong citizen, I do things for myself as well as for Hong Kong. I have several principles. One: a liberal economy that allows free movement of assets and remittances that do not require official approval. Two: freedom of personal movement and I’m very insistent on this. Three: permanent resident status… and I argued about this point. What did I argue for? As long as you’ve lived a full seven years in Hong Kong, regardless of what happens afterwards… you may have emigrated and returned, you are considered the same as all Hong Kong residents and keep your permanent resident status.
Li Ka Shing
[On publicly being censured for ‘insider trading.’] Even now I still think that was a farce. First, none of the directors did any personal trading of the stocks in question. I made a statement in the press and I won’t be breaking any law by repeating it now. What happened was that I signed a transaction agreement with Mr Wang Guang-ying. He was buying our property and that should be good news. Our colleagues responsible for investment had sold the stocks two or three days before. Cancellation of a deal was bad news, but he had chosen to buy the stocks before the cancellation. You see the point? If one wants to make money, one should work the other way round. How could that be considered insider trading?
Li Ka Shing
I’d never been particularly happy about getting honours. But after the Tribunal’s verdict the government gave me a CBE and I was particularly happy. My first thought was: on one hand I was censured for insider trading while on the other hand I was given a commendation by the government. Need one say more!
Li Ka Shing
Frankly I was very hurt, absolutely hurt. It caused great repercussions in our company. At the peak of our heated debate about moving base, I said something after which no one dared speak anymore. I said, ‘If it is moving base you want, please tell me whether you are able to move Li Ka-shing, this chairman. If you are unable to do it, say no more about moving.’
Li Ka Shing
At the start of the 90’s my decision was that we had to develop overseas; otherwise the future of the company would be limited, because our business had run into considerable snags.
Li Ka Shing
We in Hong Kong were apprehensive… fearing that people would say our terminals were becoming too dominant, there was this constant apprehension. Although the Government did not openly say we were getting too big, we could feel it… feel there were people saying we were getting too big. In those circumstances, in order to maximize returns for our shareholders, overseas development was the only choice.
Li Ka Shing
So soon after my company went public, I began looking for investment opportunities overseas.
Li Ka Shing
[Investing in Husky Oil] What I learnt from the Husky experience was: management has to be perfect! The management was really a bit slack at the beginning.
Li Ka Shing
Husky has a staff of 1500. Two of the people I’ve place here have worked for me for over 20 years and one had been with me for over 10 years. The people originally working here will gradually become our own people.
Li Ka Shing
The potential is endless and inexhaustible.
Li Ka Shing
Very naturally anybody in the world can become one of your nucleus group.
Li Ka Shing
I rely on a system. Important issues have to be approved by Hong Kong. So things have worked fine for years. We rely on a system, checks and balances and regular meetings.
Li Ka Shing
I often think that in all these years the Chinese people have only ventured into south-east Asia and relatively few have gone to the western countries in a big way. I believe that what I’m doing can open up more investment channels for Hong Kong and China.
Li Ka Shing
[In 1997] We now have eighty container berths in the world, which last year meant an 11% control of the international market. All being well, in 2000 or 2001, the percentage will go up to 15%.
Li Ka Shing
Short economic lulls don’t worry me. My only concern now is there’ve been changes in social harmony, policy and structure.
Li Ka Shing
1 2 3 4
Return from Li Ka Shing Quotes to Quoteswise.com