The mechanics of success

Industrialist Lily Chiang Lai-lei still remembers childhood days when her father would return from work early, smelling strongly of mechanical oils. The lubricants were so pungent that she and her sisters could smell them in their sleep in their San Po Kong home.

'At that time, the [machinery] factory was very close to our home,' Dr Chiang, now Executive Director of Chen Hsong Holdings, recalled. 'My daddy would hug and embrace me and my sisters on his return from work every morning.' During lunar new year and other activities organised by the company, heavy machinery was always in the background. She grew up with it. Later, she forged a career out of understanding it.

Dr Chiang is the only female voice on the general committees of both the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Hong Kong Industries. The chamber's general committee is influential in deciding economic and business policy, and last week she was re-elected with the highest number of votes, 936, in an election which saw seven candidates running for six vacant seats. Tomorrow , she will join the chamber's delegation to Beijing to call on the Chinese Government to relax foreign investors' rights for domestic sales in China.

'As a female who works in the field of mechanical engineering, I don't find it very tough to be in my position,' said Dr Chiang. 'Anyone who sits in any position has to be actually devoted to the job to secure harvests, regardless of whether they are men or women.

'In the field of mechanical engineering, people in general are more straightforward. And because you are a woman, they may treat you in a gentler manner.' At the age of 13 she left the territory to go the United States to further her studies. On her own in a foreign country for the first time at such a tender age, she learned to look after herself.

'The biggest difficulty which I encountered is that I did not know English at the time,' she said. 'Three months later, I could speak English fluently.' It did not occur to her at the time that she would follow her father, Dr Chiang Chen's footsteps in the mechanical engineering profession. She had dreamed of becoming a teacher or a nun. 'I wanted to become a sister [when I was small] because I studied in a Catholic school,' she said.