By Kathrin Hille in Taipei 2008-10-20
Why Wang Yung-ching, founder of Formosa Group who has died at the age of 91, is known as the ‘god of management' in his native Taiwan is known to few outside his home country. But the death of Taiwan's third-richest man early on the 15th Oct on a visit to inspect his conglomerate's US affiliates summed up how he lived: Putting his business ahead of everything else.
Born to illiterate tea traders in rural Northern Taiwan in 1917 when the island was still a Japanese colony, Wang soon showed a keen sense for business. With no more than an elementary school education, the young man left home at the age of 14 to work at a rice shop in the Southern city of Chiayi. After just one year, he had his own rice stall which soon overtook rivals in turnover and profits.
From there, the young trader moved into building materials and then chemicals, rapidly building a business empire that now includes more than 40 companies across petrochemicals, construction, retail, power and electronics.
Wang is revered by most Taiwanese as a role model as his life spans the island's transformation at breathtaking pace from a poor agricultural backwater to a powerful electronics exporter.
“Like many of my generation, he spoke only Taiwanese and Japanese, so his life shows that Taiwan has a heritage beyond China,” says Koo Kwang-ming, a Taiwan independence advocate and nine years Wang's junior. “But also like many Taiwanese businessmen, he went into China earlier and deeper than any Western investor, so he also shows just how inseparably Taiwan is linked to China now.”
But Wang was a Taiwanese entrepreneur par excellence in many respects apart from the China link. The way the story is told by Formosa Group executives, it was his extreme thriftiness, flexibility, patriarchal style of management and stubborn solidity that helped him transform a humble retail stall into a global player.
According to Wang's own account, the secret of his early success was to save the T$0.03 for a hot shower in his rice trading days, and he would still examine every single expense to the same strict cost criteria when he was running Formosa Plastics.
Wang always kept a strict regime not only in the boardroom but also at home. All but one of his nine children, five from his second wife and four from his third, subject themselves to his orders, although many of them are successful entrepreneurs in their own right – such as Cher Wang, founder of HTC, the smart phone company that makes Google's Android phone.
Difficult as this must have been for the family, it endears Wang to many Taiwanese who still embrace conservative family values – at least in theory. Despite being an industrial brand, Formosa Plastics has become a household name rivaled by none in Taiwan.
“经营之神”王永庆
英国《金融时报》席佳琳(Kathrin Hille)台北报道 2008-10-20
在台湾以外，没有多少人知道，为什么台塑集团(Formosa Group)创始人王永庆在台湾被誉为“经营之神”(god of management)。这位台湾第三大富翁于10月15日早上在美国视察集团分公司期间逝世，享年91岁。这也总结了王永庆的生活方式：生意高于一切。
王永庆1917年出生在台湾北部农村，父母都是不识字的茶商。当时台湾还是日本的殖民地。王永庆很快就显示出敏锐的商业头脑。只有小学文化程度的王永庆14岁离家到台湾南部嘉义市的一家米店做学徒。仅仅一年之后，他就拥有了自己的米店，并很快在营业额和利润方面超越了对手。
此后，这位年轻商人先后进入建材和化学制品领域，迅速建立起一个商业帝国——如今拥有40多家公司，横跨石化、建筑、零售、电力和电子等多个领域。
王永庆的一生见证了台湾以惊人的速度从一个贫困落后的农业地区转变成一个强大的电子出口基地，他被大多数台湾人尊为榜样。
比王永庆小9岁的台独支持者辜宽敏表示：“和我这一代的许多人一样，他只会说台语和日语，因此他的一生显示出台湾拥有除中国以外的另一种传统。但也和许多台湾商人一样，他比任何西方投资者都要更早进入大陆，也更加深入，因此他同样体现了台湾与大陆的联系如今是多么不可分割。”
但除了与大陆的联系之外，王永庆在许多方面都是台湾最卓越的企业家。根据台塑高层的描述，正是王永庆的极度节俭、灵活、家长式的管理风格和坚忍不拔的作风，帮助他将一家简陋的零售店转变为一家国际企业。
根据王永庆自己的叙述，他早期卖米时成功的秘诀就是省下洗热水澡的3分钱台币，在管理台塑时，他仍然依照同样严格的成本标准对每一笔开支进行检查。
王永庆不仅始终在董事会保持着严格的制度，在家里同样如此。他的第二任妻子给他生了5个孩子，第三任妻子生了4个。除了一个以外，所有孩子都听从王永庆的命令，尽管许多孩子自己也是成功的企业家——例如王雪红创立了智能手机公司HTC，为谷歌(Google)生产Android手机。
这肯定会让家人感到难以相处，却让王永庆赢得了许多至少在理论上信奉传统家庭价值观念的台湾人的爱戴。尽管台塑只是一个工业品牌，但它已经成为家喻户晓的名字，在台湾无人可比。
译者/何黎
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