chairman allen shi attended a private meeting ofcorporate executives in macau on august 27 and received a book “a professionalmanager” from paul lo. netizens may not be familiar with the name paul lo whowas considered a benefactor by tsai eng-meng, chairman of want want group inhis autobiography. this reputed figure in taiwan financial circles is one ofthe first bankers sent by the citibank to taiwan. after his resignation ofchairman of cosmos bank, he didn’t start his retirement life in the u.s. aspredicted by many, but shares his management experience with young andpromising entrepreneurs in mainland china.
▲allen shi and paul lo
▲cover and title page message of “a professional manager”
professional manager
after his graduation from the department ofinternational trade of national chengchi university, paul lo obtained his mbafrom the indiana state university in 1970 and was elected a distinguishedalumni of the indiana state university in 2003. he was rated as one of top 50asian stars by the business week in the june issue 1999. in 2005, he wasfurther honored with the professional achievement award by caaps in recognitionof his extraordinary achievements and special contributions in the financialcircles.
in addition to founding sinopac holdings, paul lo successivelyserved as the deputy general manager of citibank, chairman of sinopac holdingsand chairman of far east national bank. implementing well-defined bankingstrategies, he is a good executive and has an international vision. since theestablishment of ever trust bank (present-day bank sinopac) with 400 millionu.s. dollars raised, he has been known for his advanced e-commerce platformsand innovations, and distinctive intercontinental financial services, tidingover the asian financial crisis. for years, he has been honored with thehighest awards by global mainstream financial magazines. acting as the chairmanof cosmos bank stuck in the pem fraud since the end of 2009, he has beenrequesting the corporate executives to maintain innocence and go all out. within3 years, he has turned loss into gain, living up to his title as a professionalmanager.
▲paul lo
the competition of mankind lies in the execution of “details”
all members of sinopac holdings are awarethat their former president has a motto, “the competition of mankind lies inthe execution of ‘details’ by going all out.”
bank sinopac has rules that the visitor’s mugshall always be 80% full to prevent overflow. for effective time control, thereceptionist will come in and remind a refill within a designated period oftime; all the mugs and trays and cups with spout should face the samedirection; the fire hydrants on each floor should face the same direction.general manager shi xiangli revealed that when she first joined the bank, sherefused to believe in such meticulous management of the bank. so sheintentionally turned one fire hydrant to the opposite direction. noticing thatit was immediately turned to the original direction the next day, she wasimpressed. all these “details” have made bank sinopac a new bank favored byforeign corporate bodies. bank sinopac delivered an eps of rmb 1.44, onlysecond to the eps of rmb 1.5 of taishin bank.
▲paul lo shared his life experience in the book
coincidentally, chairman allen shi of the jiahao groupalso has a motto: “build systems and duplicate success.” the 5,000 employees ofthe jiahao group all know about and practice these two phrases.
it was allen shi who grew china’s number onekorean style wedding photography brand artiz studio. the success of the brandlies in the detailed provisions in respect of who to receive a couple enteringthe store, who to walk them to the dressing room and who to pour them a glassof water after the standard systems of head store are established. it’s down toevery step of wedding photography, photo selection by customers and photoselectors. finally the standard dresses and congratulations are delivered tothe customers. when a system is well-established, it will be replicated and promotedto other cities across china.
now the jiahao group has opened over 150wedding photography and baby photography stores, and established 27 brands,including the one-stop wedding hall palace de elysée, men’s suit brands top zio and boss club, and women’s wedding dressbrands garce kelly and my dream wedding. by far the wedding industry empire ofthe jiahao group has taken shape.
talents are the lifeline of a business
in the use of talents, paul lo goes all outas well. he is a great believer of the talent philosophy of zeng guofan, thebest known minister of the four ministers of the late qing dynasty—“transfer,mentoring and discipline.” transfer should be construed as promotion. since theestablishment of bank sinopac, paul lo has felt most proud of his talentdiscovery and training instead of headhunting. he said, “the success of zengguofan rests in his keen talent utilization insight. he warned that talentshave to be discovered and trained; talent training is the key. never complainabout no talents on hand.learn to train talents.”
paul lo always personally helps to developcorporate culture among the employees. though the ceo of sinopac holdings, heoften give lectures to new employees for three or four hours and shares hislife experience with them. it’s such love for talents that he recruited 400 newemployees amid the layoffs of many companies during the years of economicdowntown of taiwan.
▲paul lo encouraged the students from his alma mater tostudy hard
chairman allen shi of the jiahao group hasthe same love for talents. working his way up as an employee in his youth, heknows how to see the relationship between company and employees from theperspective of employees, and gains an awareness that other entrepreneurs lack.“employees join a company to realize their dreams and corporate goals areachieved incidentally.” “money culture,” “jiahao medal system” and otherpractical measures have been adopted to allow the employees to realize thatchoice is more important than hard work.
▲allen shi gave lectures to management trainees
this is the first year of jiahao’s managementtrainee program. about 40 fresh graduates from fudan university, east china universityof science and technology, shanghai international studies university and otherprominent universities have been recruited. chairman allen shi has been givinglectures on business management to all management trainees who are expected togrow into a backbone force of the group within two to three years. morecommendable is that the head of 5,000 employees has not stopped learning, butlearns from management masters like paul lo and chu shijian. just as paul losaid, always maintain innocence and go all out!
headquartered in shanghai, the jiahao groupis committed to developing global cultural industries. in the culture,education, photography, wedding dress, haute couture, jewelry, hospitality,film-television, network, finance and industrial real estate industries, thejiahao group has invested in 30 upscale brands. with about 150 subsidiaries,the group has an annual turnover of 10 billion yuan and is gradually forming anindependent ecosystem of cultural industries.