Zheng Zhigang's "new" world - new integration, new thinking, new future

Text/Liu Yun

Everyone has a holy land in their hearts, and the efforts along the way are not necessarily to see the glory, but the seeds planted in the holy soil will eventually be enlightened.

Down-to-earth, low-key officers, adhere to innovation, flexibility and courage, not only inherit the family's fine traditions, but also join the ideas of young people in the new era, and promote the exchange of business culture between the East and the West... In the process of responding to the call of the state and devoting himself to the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Zheng Zhigang, who is also the executive vice chairman and chief executive officer of New World Development Co., Ltd., the executive chairman of New World China, and the founder of the K11 brand, has been working the dream road of creating shared value.

Recently, Zheng Zhigang accepted an exclusive interview with the media, in which he talked about the positioning and goals of the new world in the integration and development of the Greater Bay Area, and the responsibility and responsibility under the requirements of the development of the new era. In Zheng Zhigang's "new" world, the picture of "new integration, new thinking, and new future" is slowly unfolding.

Zheng Zhigang believes that New World China's headquarters in Guangzhou clearly conveys the confidence and determination to respond to the national development strategy

Grow with the Bay Area and create value with the city

A year ago, New World Group signed a Strategic Cooperation Agreement with the Guangzhou Municipal People's Government to locate New World China Headquarters in Guangzhou, the core city of the Greater Bay Area. What has been achieved a year later?

Zheng Zhigang said that the headquarters of New World China in Guangzhou not only expressed to the society the ambition of New World to base itself on the development of the region with the strongest economic vitality and the highest degree of openness in China, but also clearly conveyed the confidence and determination to respond to the national development strategy. "New World is the first and largest Hong Kong enterprise to invest in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and since the 1980s, New World has invested more than 200 billion yuan in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Since 2016, New World Development has been deeply involved in the Greater Bay Area, and in the education, medical, hotel, residential, financial and insurance and other industrial systems, in the 'industry-city integration' model, the combination of hardware and software will be used to provide service bridges for the city, improve the living standards of customers, and achieve common growth with the Bay Area. ”

Take, for example, the New World Space City project (named "11 Skies"), the Space City at Hong Kong International Airport, is the largest commercial complex in Hong Kong, with a total gross floor area of about 350,000 square meters, which is seamlessly connected to hong Kong International Airport. Adjacent to the traffic landmarks of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, it can easily reach Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and other Cities in the Greater Bay Area, it is not only the hub of the Greater Bay Area, but also the hub of international cities, connecting more than 70 million people in the Greater Bay Area, creating tens of thousands of jobs, and will become a new landmark of the Greater Bay Area under the concept of "one-hour new world Greater Bay Area Living Circle".

As a new generation of helmsmen of the new world, Zheng Zhigang is often touched by the ever-changing vitality of the Greater Bay Area. "In the past few years, I have seen that the cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area are not only getting better and better in planning and management, but also have a growing momentum in science and technology, such as AI intelligence, unmanned driving, unmanned aircraft, etc." In order to help more young people in Hong Kong integrate into the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, New World encourages young Hong Kong people in enterprises to work in Shenzhen or Guangzhou, and young people from the mainland to work in Hong Kong, which Cheng Believe believes is the most thorough way to understand the Greater Bay Area.

In the face of the new development concept of the new era, Zheng Zhigang also began to think about the future layout of the new world. "I think entrepreneurs should develop the habit of being grounded, in addition to looking at profits and looking at data reports, they must also connect with the city, society and customers." Zheng Zhigang said, "If you ask me, what is the new world? I think the new world is about sharing and creating some value with cities and young people. In the new world, what we are promoting is to create shared value. ”

Guangzhou CTF Financial Centre

Traditional Culture Passed on the Torch Chinese stories are timeless

How to create shared value? In Zheng Zhigang's eyes, in addition to developing more creative business models, it is also necessary to tell the Chinese story well. As for telling the Chinese story well, the "post-80s" young business leader said: "It is not enough to 'tell' a good Chinese story, we must make young people resonate." Today, many young people in Hong Kong don't know much about Chinese history and culture, so we need to slowly create an idea that the story of China is actually the story of the world! This is important. ”

How to make China's story a global story? Let people around the world know China and understand China? This requires skill. People familiar with Zheng Zhigang know that K11 is a key brand launched by Zheng Zhigang to take over the family business, and his personal Weibo certification is also "K11 founder". As a brand focusing on the concept of "art + business", Zheng Zhigang has always given K11 the responsibility and responsibility of promoting the integration of Chinese and Western cultures. As early as 2010, the K11 Art Fund began to promote the globalization of contemporary Chinese art. "We have helped many curators to help Chinese culture and art go global, and we have also cooperated with different art museums to tell Chinese stories on a global scale." Frankly speaking, such a platform has been built for a long time, and K11 also proposed the concept of 'cultural Silicon Valley', which means to let hundreds of designers and architects incubate works in K11 like a cultural incubator. ”

As a highly regarded "new generation of cultural business leaders", Zheng Zhigang has always paid attention to the "millennials" and "Generation Z", and in the operation of K11 for more than a decade, Zheng Zhigang's role is more like that of a curator of a large-scale art exhibition than a shopping mall builder in the traditional sense. With the landing of K11 in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan and other cities, people enjoy various art exhibitions in addition to shopping, becoming a gathering place for hipsters.

But if you think that K11 is mainly to promote the art and culture of the modern and contemporary world, it is wrong, it also carries the dissemination and recognition of traditional Chinese culture. "I like to study China's intangible cultural heritage, I like to approach craftsmen, learn and support them, and preserve and preserve Chinese crafts that are on the verge of being lost, such as Baibao inlay and Screw Inlay in the north, Guangcai and Gray Sculpture in the south, as well as wooden buildings in Ningbo and silk crafts in Jiangnan." Zheng Zhigang said, "One of the ways we let people around the world know About China is to exhibit, photograph, write and study traditional crafts, hoping to help these crafts pass on and continue in the hands of contemporary and next generations." ”

Unwilling to pursue a comfortable life, inherit the spirit of humility

What is life? What is its significance? Everyone is looking. For Zheng Zhigang, the curiosity from childhood to adulthood makes him more willing to pursue some spiritual ideas. "Culture is a spiritual concept, our family is in the Greater Bay Area, in addition to a patriotic and hong Kong original intention, for our generation, not only to pursue the roots of culture, but also to think about how to serve the future development of the country."

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Originally, compared with many business people, Zheng Zhigang, who has a good starting line and business resources, can choose to be stable and comfortable, but he is always "tossing" himself. In 2020, the new crown epidemic suddenly came, Zheng Zhigang played his role of "CSV (Creating Shared Value) to create shared value", New World is one of the earliest Hong Kong enterprises to participate in anti-epidemic donations, whether it is to aid Wuhan, or to support Guangzhou, Hong Kong to fight the epidemic, New World not only responded at the first time, donated funds and materials at the first time, and used the group's diversified advantages to invest in public utilities with an innovative spirit. At the time when masks were in the greatest need, Zheng Zhigang invested in the construction of mask production lines, united dozens of non-profit institutions, and set up "self-service mask extractors" in the streets and alleys of Hong Kong. At the time of Hong Kong's fight against the epidemic, New World also made a "Share For Good Love mutual delivery" mutual aid platform, which very quickly linked beneficiaries, donors and public welfare organizations, becoming the first large-scale material donation matching platform during the epidemic in Hong Kong.

These don't look like traditional businesses do things, but the new world does, why? "Frankly, this is our philosophy and responsibility, and our vision, which is the concept of 'creating shared value' advocated by New World Group." Zheng Zhigang said.

As the third generation heir of the New World Group, Zheng Zhigang has his own sea of stars, and he has learned to be humble from his father and grandfather. "It is difficult to be tolerant without a mind, and the new world advocates focusing on the needs of long-term development of society, putting the commitment to society in the first place in the development of the company, and achieving a win-win situation between enterprises and society, which is also the concept that our elders have been inheriting." Zheng Zhigang said.

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Source | Yangcheng Evening News Yangcheng Pie

Image | Respondents provided

Editor-in-charge | Liang Dongxian