On November 10, 1924, the second boy of the Cai family was born in Zhunan Village, Miaoli County, in the Taixi Plain. When the eldest child was born, it was the time when spring flowers were blooming and thousands of trees were coming to life, so the elders named him "Wan Chun"; when the second child was born, it was the time when the drizzle was drizzling, nourishing all things on the earth, so the adults called him "Wan Lin". ".
Except for farming, there is no income here. Once a typhoon hits, there will be no harvest. The boss, Wanchun, was well aware of the difficulties of survival. After much deliberation, he decided to start a small business. The brothers walked to the intersection, stopped passing vegetable farmers, bought fresh vegetables at cheap prices, and then went to a nearby market to sell them.
After all, it is a small business, and selling vegetables cannot alleviate the family's difficulties. After Wan Chun graduated from Zhunan Public School, he persuaded his parents to move their family to Taipei. Wan Lin was only 8 years old at the time.
After arriving in Taipei, there are more opportunities to make money. Wanchun and Wanlin started selling rice and groceries. The brothers gradually saved some money and considered how to expand their business and make more money.
After hard work, Cai Wanchun founded Dawan Trading Company, which mainly deals in groceries. Due to his good management and Cai Wanlin as his right-hand assistant, the business went very smoothly. They quickly entered Taipei's business circle and had contacts with important figures in the military and political circles, laying a solid foundation for future development.
In the late 1950s, Taiwan's economy gradually improved. However, most of the material benefits brought about by the economic takeoff were owned by capitalists. Workers could only earn a living. They relied on this salary to buy a house, To buy furniture, you have to dig out some money from your teeth and save it. Credit unions became their destination.
The Tenth Credit Union located in Taipei has a strategic location and easy business development. It is a rare and ideal department. But at this time, the management rights of "Ten Faith" are in the hands of others. To achieve this goal, we must fight for the management rights.
The Cai brothers, who are both wise and courageous, each used their special skills to win the management power of "Ten Faith". In 1957, Cai Wanchun served as chairman of the "Ten Faith" Council.
To run a credit cooperative, credit and cooperation are indispensable. Only in this way can it benefit society and the people. The Cai brothers regard "credibility" and "cooperation" as the creed and criteria for their business operations.
The Cai brothers often thought that when they were young, their mother would always grab a handful of rice from the ration and put it into a small jar. Over time, a lot of food was saved. Soon I discovered that the Taiwanese authorities placed special emphasis on stability and regarded social and economic development as the first political need. They made a fuss about small savings and announced: "As long as you save 1 yuan, you can become a 'Ten Faith' customer."
"Ten Faith's 1 Yuan Happy Savings" was a great success and quickly became famous throughout the island. Everyone knows that there is a "Shixin" restaurant in Taipei, and they also know that its operators are the Tsai brothers. The Cai brothers took this opportunity and took advantage of the situation to establish branches in 17 other regions to attract more savers and more funds. The Tsai brothers requested that the Taipei head office and 17 branches all start night savings services, and also provide "smile service" and treat savers as the real "gods."
With the concerted efforts of the Tsai brothers and all their employees, in a short period of time, the number of "Ten Faith" members reached 100,000, and the amount of deposits reached NT$17 billion, making it an The largest credit union in Taiwan.
Looking at the history of the Cai family’s fortune, it was actually the insurance industry that created it. And Cai's entry into the insurance industry has a long history.
In 1961, Taiwan officially opened up private insurance companies. Taiwanese celebrity Lin Dingli founded Cathay Life Insurance Company. Since Lin Dingli lacked financial resources and was unable to raise NT$20 million, he had to turn to Taipei business celebrity Zhang Xiangchuan for help. Unexpectedly, Zhang's financial resources were not abundant, so he turned to Cai Wanchun, a member of Taipei City's first "parliament" and chairman of Dawan Department Store.
In the early 1960s, Taiwan's economy began to change, people's lives improved, and they gradually had more money in their hands. At that time, Taiwan's private insurance industry was booming, and life insurance became a hot topic among people. The prosperity of "Cathay Pacific" has greatly shocked and stimulated the business community. After "Cathay", several more life insurance companies were established one after another. This puts the life insurance industry in a fierce competition situation, which can not but be said to be a pressure and threat to "Cathay".
In order to expand the company's business, the Cai brothers and Lin Dingli set up liaison offices in many large and medium-sized cities after joining, even small market towns. In 1962, they had only 9 liaison offices. By 1967, they had grown to 47 business units. They assign dedicated personnel to live there and handle insurance business all year round; in mountainous areas with inconvenient transportation, they establish business bases and try their best to avoid business gaps.
In 1963, when Cathay Life Insurance Company was founded, the Chua brothers hired local gentlemen to preside over the business of the branch in the region. It is so popular that people come here in an endless stream. In terms of strategic countermeasures, the Cai brothers used savings insurance instead of life insurance as a promotional method to seize a lot of markets.
What impressed Cai Wanlin most during his inspection trip to Japan was the tall financial buildings on both sides of the bustling streets. Therefore, despite the financial constraints at the time, the Chua brothers resolutely invested in the construction of the building. In 1964, the Chiayi Building broke ground, and over the next three or four years, buildings were built in large cities one after another. There are 109 of these buildings. They are like huge three-dimensional billboards, showing people Cathay Pacific's strong economic strength.
As a result, Cathay Pacific's market share increased sharply. In less than a year, it ranked first in the same industry in Taiwan and attracted the attention of the world.
In 1979, Cai Wanchun, who was under 60 years old, suffered a stroke and was bedridden. Cai's consortium temporarily lost its iron grip, and the industry was immediately split into four major parts: "Qiangguo Group", "Guoxin Group", "Guosu Group", and "Xinglai Group", led by Cai Wanlin, Cai Wanchun's eldest son Cai Chennan, second son Cai Chenzhou, and three The son and fourth son Cai Chenyang and Cai Chencheng are in charge respectively. Cai Wanlin saw that although his brother still had great authority, he could no longer provide unified command, so he expected that the result of the division of responsibilities would be the division of property and family. He secretly cultivated his strength, planted close associates, quickly entered the best state, and waited for the opportunity to come.
Using the opportunity to give up the operating power of "Shixin" as a bait, he took over the "Cathay" stocks from Cai Chennan's three younger brothers and gained absolute control over "Cathay". This trick was Cai Wanchun's habit of killing people with a borrowed knife in the past. Cai Wanlin now used it on his four nephews and immediately saw the effect of killing two birds with one stone: First, he squeezed Chen Nan out of "Cathay" so that he could truly own the "territory" and start building it. his own corporate kingdom; the second is the snipe and clam fight between the four Tatsunan brothers to seize the management rights of "Shixin". Tsai Wanlin then quietly took over Tsai Wanchun's various government and opposition relations with the Taiwan authorities. Because Cai Chen's male brother relied on his management skills and "didn't respect enough" many old employees, these people turned to Cai Wanlin and worked extra hard; unlike Cai Wanchun, Cai Wanlin was not showy and never showed off his various forces. Someone is there to help when needed.
In the second half of 1979, Cai Wanchun could no longer manage the company, and the Cai family immediately disintegrated. Cai Wanlin owns Cathay Life, Cathay Construction, Mitsui Engineering and other companies; the rest of Cathay's industries are run by other members of the Cai family.
After the separation, Cai Wanlin focused his main energy on the construction of Cathay Life Insurance Company. "Cathay" became Cai Wanlin's capital supply station and the economic pillar for him to develop various enterprises.
Although Cai Wanlin's company still uses the name of Cathay Pacific, in fact it has already established its own business, using Linyuan Enterprise as its brand name, and established the Linyuan Related Enterprise Group. He proposed four unique business strategies: First, strengthen "Whampoa-style training". All employees will exercise, run, shout slogans, and sing "Song of Cathay Pacific" at 8:30 every morning. Every year, college students will be recruited as "reserve cadres." Sent to various places to engage in training and supervision. The second is "loving people and spreading wealth". He distributed 400 million stocks to employees above the section chief level, allowing each person to earn 1 million yuan in vain. The annual bonus amount is more than 6 months' salary, making them "everyone is a rich man." ". The third is to advocate "diligence and dedication". In order to equalize internal competition opportunities, Cathay Pacific stipulates that middle and senior managers be rotated every three years, and capable personnel are sent to inspect everywhere to eliminate fraud for personal gain, and all those who embezzle public funds will be dismissed. The fourth is to implement "equal emphasis on quality". He resolutely lowered the growth rate of "Cathay"'s annual turnover and concentrated on optimizing after-sales service. Four ingenious strategies soon enabled Cathay Pacific's performance to rise significantly. In just 8 years, its turnover exceeded the second 100 billion (it took 20 years for the first 100 billion).
Cai Wanlin never gets involved in unfamiliar industries. His secret to managing a company is ruthlessness, accuracy and precision. He also pays attention to cultivating talents and emphasizes management discipline.
The backbone of the Linyuan-related enterprise group is Cathay Life Insurance Company, which is mainly engaged in the personal insurance industry.
Cai Wanlin became the chairman of the company in 1979, starting an important turning point in his career. He emphasized "paying attention to protecting rights and interests and taking social responsibility" and proposed to strive for "insurance for everyone and happiness for every family." Under his leadership, Cathay Life pushed the personal insurance industry to every corner of Taiwan and set up many branches, even as far away as the Penghu Islands. Now the company can collect insurance premiums of NT$150 million almost every day, and Cai Wanlin himself earns a net income of NT$10 million every day.
Cathay Construction Co., Ltd. is another important company of the Linyuan-related enterprise group. Its main task is to build houses, apartments, commercial buildings, and office buildings and then sell or rent them. Due to its emphasis on quality and reasonable prices, the buildings are very popular among home buyers.
In 1981, due to the impact of the world economic downturn, Taiwan's construction industry fell into a depression, and many large-scale companies closed down. However, Cai Wanlin was able to assess the situation and take measures such as preferential housing purchases to get out of adversity. In 1987, the company's turnover reached NT$5.59 billion, ranking first in Taiwan's construction industry.
In view of the limited land resources in Taiwan, the more than 100 buildings built by Tsai Wanlin are rarely sold except for personal use. Even when real estate prices are low and sluggish, we always adhere to the principle of "only rent, not sell." Today, Cathay Group's assets are growing rapidly due to soaring real estate prices.
Since its establishment, Cathay Pacific has recruited college graduates every year as the company’s reserve cadres. In order to stimulate the professionalism of employees, Cai Wanlin, who lacked musical ability, collected the lyrics of "Song of Cathay Pacific" from all employees and recorded them into audio tapes for playing and teaching singing in the company.
Currently, Tsai Wanlin is the richest man in Taiwan. He serves as the chairman of Taiwan Cathay Construction Co., Ltd. and the core figure of Linyuan Enterprise Group. He is known as the "God of Wealth". His personal wealth exceeds US$6 billion, and the total assets of his entire family are as high as US$300 billion.
Cathay Pacific is heading towards greater glory.