Dr CHAN Edward Kwok Man, the founder of German Pool Hong Kong Limited has been leading his recognized and awarded company to become one of most successful companies in Hong Kong. Dr Chan shares his secrets of success without hesitation.

Dr. CHAN joined the household electrical appliances industry in 1972, and started his own company with friends three years later. Dr Chan took everything personally and fastidiously during the early stage of his business, including products delivery, financial management, production and corporate relations. His efforts paid off as his company developed steadily even with very limited resources and under the economic constraints at that time.

The Biggest Challenge is to Find the Right Partners

Dr. CHAN recalled that the biggest challenge of his entrepreneurship is finding the right partners. Since the company was first registered as an unlimited one, an immediate shut down of the company was resulted as one of the shareholders decided to withdraw. After the lesson was learnt, Dr Chan started his own brand. Collaborating with German companies in research and development, German Pool introduced its first generation of storage water heaters. Since then, German Pool has become the industry leader in the water heater market in Hong Kong. He advised young entrepreneurs that one’s credibility cannot be seen from the outside, and the true success requires absolute business acumen and decisive mind. Choosing the suitable industry to explore, setting the ultimate goals, following strict standards and being steadfast in every task are his profound secrets of success, he said.

During the many years Dr. Chan has been leading the company, a lot of changes took place. He believes that capital reserve is particularly important for a company’s survival in such a fast changing market with keen competition. Instead of sharing profit with shareholders, Dr Chan prefers reserving considerable amount of cash for unexpected needs and to be better prepared for difficult times.

Dr Chan’s Avenue to Success：Sincerity and Hard-working

As a leader of a large enterprise, Dr Chan concluded that his success was not the result of any talent but his sincerity and all the hard work. He treats everyone with a sincere attitude and always finds sharing enjoyable. Dr Chan founded different Chamber of Commerce and joined several Associations to meet and share his experience with other practitioners.

Dr. Chan believes that being hard-working is also critical. He said that every hour was his working hour at the very early stage of his business that regular and normal daily routine was definitely not something he would expect.

A Shift of Factories for Lower Production Cost

Rapid changes in the industry especially price raise in land, production and human resources have been adding pressure to local factories and have caused a massive shift of them to other regions in Southern Asia, Dr Chan, instead, prefers to set his factories in mainland China to avoid language and cultural barriers of hiring foreign workers.

Striking for Better Business Environment by Establishing Chambers

In addition, lacking support from the government is also a challenge faced by electrical appliances industry. Dr Chan mentioned that practitioners need to understand policies and strike for more resources since there is no such that favors the development of this industry at this stage. His purpose of setting up Chambers is to establish the connection between industry practitioners and the government for a better business environment.