Born from necessity, the Crystal Group is more than a company. It is the expression of a successful man’s empathy toward those who are where he once was. This is the magic that made the CRYSTAL GROUP, a true credit to the Chinese spirit of enterprise.
Kenneth Lo: “The hardship and difficulties ignited my passion to strive for a better living, not just for me, but also for those who maybe as poor as me.”
“I hold a strong belief that the garment industry is a ‘sunrise’ industry rather than a “sunset” and traditional industry,” says Kenneth Lo, Chairman of Hong Kong’s iconic Crystal Group.
“I had been a refugee when I was 6, who was living on no food, no formal education, and no shoes. Even worst, I faced the biggest fire in Hong Kong history that my home was burnt into ashes. Starting all from zero, with my father, we set up a small family business while still a teenager. The hardship and difficulties ignited my passion to strive for a better living, not just for me, but also for those who maybe as poor as me.
Every one of us needs clothing, whether it luxurious or casual. I dreamt of setting up my own garment business that would create lots of jobs and hope for people, especially those from developing countries. I hoped that my company could help reshape the industry to create a better world. Hence, I founded Crystal Group with my wife in 1970,” recounts Kenneth Lo, Chairman and founder of the Crystal Group.
China Strategy
With the labour market structure changing in China, we have invested more in innovation and automation, that provides us with the ability to supply higher value-adding products to mitigate the rising cost, while keeping up the young generation workforce for innovation, Lo says.
“This fits into our Global Growth Strategy that China production base represents higher value-adding and quick response orders, and new product development, and overseas production base serves basic and mass market. Such multi-countries strategy provides customers with good product mix in accordance with their needs.”
Culture of Caring
Apart from business development, Crystal Group is advocating to push forth the sustainability agenda in the industry and in the country. The Central Government of China has been putting the sustainability agenda in the Five-Year Plans, which makes us in favour of the local authorities.
“Crystal Group is bringing in our corporate culture to influence our employees, then to their families and friends, sooner to the communities and other stakeholders. The culture nurtured will step by step bring positive influence to the communities where everyone becomes more ethical and transparent.
In our sustainability framework, ‘Employee Care’ is an important pillar and a core focus for us. With the information bombardment and younger generation going into the labour market, we have adopted new ‘People Strategy’ not only helping us to retain employees, but also attracting high calibre talent and developing great human capital.
All these help Crystal Group to become a preferred partner for customers, a preferred investor for local government, and a preferred employer for our people.”
People-Centric Model
“In Crystal Group, I tried my best to foster a corporate culture that makes ‘People’ at the centre of everybody’s heart. This strong corporate culture enables us to build a great team that is effective, coherent, energetic, and caring,” explains Lo.
“I have an ambitious vision to become the World’s Best Apparel Manufacturer in terms of profitability, people, and sustainability. Starting from myself, I walk through and communicate this vision to our people, and our people are proud of themselves for their sense of entrepreneurship (like they are running their own business), for their family-like team who work together to achieve the common mission, for their ability to give back to the society.”
Raising Bar
“Sustainability has become our core strategy since 2007, as I believe business gain is important for our shareholders and funding our future developments, and fulfilling our corporate responsibility in terms of social and environmental sustainability is as important.
I hope that with such initiatives and collaboration, we could help to raise the bar of the garment industry, making it a more sustainable one,” concludes Lo.
For additional information please visit www.crystalgroup.com
熱誠與願景的勝利
從必需品起家,晶苑集團時至今日,已不單單是一間公司,更是一個成功男人對一眾後 輩給予的鼓舞。這是晶苑集團的成功之道,也讓集團成為中國企業中的重要一員。
「我堅信服裝產業是『朝陽』行業,而不是『 夕陽』與傳 統的行業。」 香港標誌性企業—晶苑集團主席羅樂風先生如是說。
「當我六歲時,生活非常艱苦, 沒有足夠食物,沒有受過正規教育, 也沒有鞋子。最糟糕的是,我家遇上 在香港歷史上最嚴重的火災,一切都被燒成了灰燼。當時只是一個少年的我,與父親建立了一個小型家族企 業,一切從零開始。就在那時,艱難 和困苦點燃了我的熱情,不只為了我 自己,也為那些和我一樣的貧苦大 眾,爭取更好的生活。
無論是豪華還是休閒的款式,我們每個人都需要衣服。我曾夢見建立我自己的服裝生意,為發展中國家創造大量的就業機會和希望。我希望我的公司可以幫助重塑行業以創造一個更美好的世界。因此,在一九七零年, 我與太太成立了晶苑集團。」晶苑集 團主席兼創始人羅樂風先生憶述。
中國戰略
隨著中國的勞動市場的結構改變, 我們大力投資在創新和自動化方面上,這為我們提供了更高質素的產品,以減輕成本上漲的壓力,同時保持了創新的年輕員工隊伍。
「這符合我們的全球發展戰略,中國的生產基地供應更高增值的產品﹑更快捷回應訂單的效率﹑新產品的開發﹑以及為海外生產基地提供基礎和更大的市場。這種多國戰略,為客戶提供優質的產品以符合他們的需求。」
關懷文化
除了業務上的發展,晶苑集團主張在行業以至國家,推動可持續發展。 隨著中央政府已經在五年計劃中,投入了可持續發展議程,這有利於晶苑集團與地方當局的合作。
「晶苑集團希望以企業文化去影響 我們的員工,擴展至他們的家人和朋 友﹑社區和其他利益相關者。最終為人們的道德﹑社區的透明帶來積極影 響。
在我們的可持續發展框架中,『員工關懷』是一個非常重要和核心的項 目。隨著資訊爆炸的年代和年輕一代進入勞動市場,我們採用了新的『人 才戰略』,不僅幫助我們留住員工, 同時也吸引高質素的人才和發展龐大的人力資本。
這些因素都有助於晶苑集團成為客戶的首選合作夥伴﹑地方當局的首選 投資者﹑以及大眾的首選雇主。」
以人為本
「在晶苑集團,我們盡力培育『以人為本』的企業文化。這種強烈的企業文化,使我們能夠建立一個偉大﹑ 高效﹑同心﹑有活力和互相關懷的團隊。」
「我有一個願景,希望晶苑集團在盈利﹑員工和可持續發展方面,成為世界上第一的服裝製造商。我曾與我們的員工交流過這個想法,而他們也為自己的企業家精神(如他們在營運 自己的業務)﹑為團隊一起實現共同的使命﹑和為他們回饋社會的能力感到自豪。」
提升標準「自從二零零七年以來,可持續發 展已經成為我們的核心戰略。因為我 相信,業務增長對於我們的股東﹑企業未來的發展﹑和履行我們的企業責 任,如社會和環境可持續性方面同樣重要。 我希望透過這些措施和合作,晶苑集團可以提高服裝業的標準,令其成為一個更可持續發展的行業。」
欲知詳情,請瀏覽 www.crystalgroup.com
Hong Kong’s Business Leaders share market and interest intelligence in the pages of HKMVC 2017