INSIGHTS From a Franchise Insider by Hunt Bill

Author:Hunt, Bill [Hunt, Bill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bill Hunt
Published: 2014-09-08T21:00:00+00:00

Chengdu Developer’s Exhibition

Liu Yonghao, President, New Hope Group

In the fall of my first year in China, I was in Chengdu to deliver a speech at a developer’s summit meeting sponsored by the government. All my expenses, including the plane trip, were paid for, and I was once again the only foreigner. I was treated like royalty and gave seven different press conferences and one thirty-minute TV show appearance during my day and a half there. On the first evening, I was being interviewed by the local television station when a group of rather intoxicated men noisily exited an adjacent private dining room. One of them, Liu Yonghao, hurried over to our group and interrupted the filming to introduce himself and invite me to come to his four-hundred-acre project in the heart of the city the next day. Through my translator, I thanked him and said that I would go, pending my next day’s schedule. Upon arriving the next morning at the conference hall, he rushed up to me to greet me at the door. He was followed by a crush of reporters, and TV cameras and microphones were pushed into our faces as we greeted each other and talked. We held up the entire process of entering and were finally asked to enter so the conference could begin. I only found out after I had left Chengdu that he was the second richest man in mainland China, even though he looked like a simple guy, in his open-collared shirt and with his very calm demeanor. His group was not only one of the largest developers, but they also owned the largest privately held bank and the largest insurance company, among other business interests.

On the way to lunch, I was introduced to Mr. Wang Shi, president of China Vanke Group. His company is a listed company on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and is the largest developer group in China. He was a man with whom we had been trying to get a meeting for the past year. Again, when we exchanged cards and talked, the cameras and microphones descended upon us. We were asked by the caterers to go downstairs to a smaller dining room where there was more room, because we were creating too much of a fuss. I followed him down and excused myself to go the restroom, and upon my return, I was asked by the waitress to sit at a different table with my translator. Mr. Wang Shi was at another table with one of the journalists. I said no, that I had thought we were going to dine together, so I went to his table and invited myself to sit, and we had an enjoyable hourlong lunch. He agreed to come to our offices the next time he was in Beijing, which he did. We were unable to ever interest him in our brand, but the relationship afterward was valuable. Today his company, China Vanke Group, is investing billions of dollars in the United States to joint venture with major US developers in New York and California on multiuse projects.

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