4 Strategies Hong Kong's Richest Man Used to Build his Empire

Li Ka-Shing is a Chinese entrepreneur and philanthropist who went from being thrown into factory work as a young teenage refugee to building a net worth of over $30 billion and becoming one of the most influential businessman in Asia.

In this edition of Inside Archives, we’re going to cover 4 of the key strategies that Li Ka-Shing implemented to catapult his growth in the business industry, as well as some of the best lessons from Li Ka-Shing that can be studied for paving your own path to entrepreneurship.

For more insight on Li Ka-Shing’s achievements and life story, read this article.

Li Ka-Shing’s Strategies for Success

A Future Mindset

One of the methods that drove Li Ka-Shing’s success was his ability to have a future mindset. This means that Ka-Shing was constantly looking ahead in both the business and investing aspect. He was always anticipating certain trends, strategically planning ahead and establishing clear visions for his business. His mind was always on the future when it came to investing, he knew that compounding over a long period of time will show huge returns. With this mindset, Li Ka-Shing was able to expect the unexpected and adapt to changes in the industries he was associated with.

Diversifying Investments

Li Ka-Shing was a big believer that diversifying investment portfolios will help mitigate losses. He’s not along with this thought process; Forbes published an article on the importance of diversifying your investments. The piece says, “Diversification is one of the critical elements of a sound investment strategy. By spreading your investments over various asset classes, you increase the likelihood that at least some of your investments will do well even when others don’t.” According to Business Chief, Li’s empire really began to grow when he began to diversify and make smart, strategic investments into growing sectors including ports, energy, retail, telecoms and biotech. This idea is similar to Li’s future mindset in the way that it broadens his vision and allows him to focus on multiple aspects that helped him achieve great wealth.

Here’s an in depth guide on how to diversify your investments.

Operational Excellence

It’s evident that Li Ka-Shing is very skillful in the sense of creating workplace efficiency and building effective operations. In June of 2005, Li provided a speech currently published on the Li Ka-Shing Foundation website, where he thoroughly explains roles of managers and leaders, along with the importance of hiring the right people and how to build a system that amplifies smoothness and efficiency in business. When discussing the topic of new hires, Li says, “In a highly competitive society, an efficient organization can ill afford to carry employees who lack passion for their work or prima donnas who only desire to hog the limelight.” He then goes on to emphasize the importance of loyalty in building a strong team.

Philanthropy

This is one of the most important aspects of Li Ka-Shing’s character that anyone who wants to follow in his footsteps should strive for. Li Ka-Shing is an embodiment of throwing your ego aside, which seems like it’d be hard to do for anyone with as much wealth as him. Li created the Li Ka-Shing Foundation, which focuses on expanding access to quality education and medical services and research, and encouraging cultural diversity and community involvement. Over all, Li Ka-Shing has donated hundreds of millions of dollars back to society. Wherever you are in your entrepreneurial journey, being involved in philanthropy and keeping a large ego at bay will do wonders at expanding your growth and will leave a lasting legacy once you’re ready to pass down your wealth.

Key Lessons from Li Ka-Shing

• Power of patience

  • Having a long-term mindset and being patient with investments = significant rewards

• Importance of Diversification

  • Diversifying your risks across multiple investment platforms will help to mitigate losses

• Efficient operations = higher profitability and growth

• Power of philanthropy

  • A huge part of building a legacy is how you give back to society once you’ve reached success

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