Background
Tsang was born in 1934 into a poor farmer’s family in Guangdong Province. His father passed away when Tsang was only four years old. Brought up by his mother, Tsang and his brother lived a very tough life.
宪梓 曾
Tsang was born in 1934 into a poor farmer’s family in Guangdong Province. His father passed away when Tsang was only four years old. Brought up by his mother, Tsang and his brother lived a very tough life.
After the founding of the PRC, Tsang was able to complete his middle school and college education with government grants. In 1961, he graduated from Zhongshan University majoring in biology. Two years later he went to Thailand via Hong Kong and was united with other family members. In 1968, the whole family emigrated to Hong Kong.
When Tsang first arrived in Hong Kong, he had nothing. He even worked as a babysitter to make a living. However, he had a vision, and he decided to create a designer tie brand. Together with his wife Huang Liqun, he started a career in tie manufacturing. After over 50 years, Goldlion has become a world-leading brand, and Tsang’s ties have been exported to more than 100 countries in Europe, America, Australia, Asia, and other regions, and Tsang himself is nicknamed the ‘Tie King’. Tsang’s success could be reflected in four keywords: diligence, frugality, honesty, and integrity, which summarize Tsang’s personal belief and business philosophy.
Tsang began with only HK$6000, squeezed out of family living expenses. He cleared half of his house for use as a workshop, bought a sewing machine and scissors, and did the designing, cutting, sewing, and ironing by himself, working 20 hours a day. With perseverance, he finally finished the first batch of ties. However his products failed to generate market interest, even after prices were lowered. Despite the setback, Tsang remained unruffled. He initially believed that cheap ties would be an easier way to enter the market, but the reality proved otherwise. Through market analysis, he realized that his material was rough, his design was simple, his technique was poor, and, more importantly, cheap products could not generate profits.
Recognizing that in a modern society he had to produce an equivalent to designer standard products, Tsang unloaded all his goods to street vendors, and then bought some internationally famous brand ties and studied them carefully. Taking the designer brands as samples, Tsang imported expensive materials from France, and made four ties with his own designs. He mixed his products with other famous brands, and invited a professional examination. Upon careful comparison, the expert insisted that the ties were all from foreign countries, because the high-quality material, fine technique, and superior design could only be imported. Quickly Goldlion became a well-known brand name in Hong Kong and people rushed to purchase the ties.
Over the years the import and export volume of Goldlion amounted to hundreds of millions of HK dollars, but computers were still not widely used in the company’s business operations. Finally realizing that his old-fashioned managerial approach hindered further enterprise development, in 2000 Tsang launched his second revolution. This included revamping the organizational structure and operating mechanism, the design and production, marketing policies, and financial management. Within a year, Goldlion re-emerged with great success in the market, with a new fashionable image, reduced sales agencies, and a new management board and information management system.