New | Crown Worldwide boss cautious on expansion in China
Jim Thompson is the founder of logistics company Crown Worldwide, an 'Asian growth story' that found its success in relocating people and goods
Having spent 50 years in the relocation business, Jim Thompson, the founder and chairman of logistics firm Crown Worldwide Group, has witnessed the evolution of the international expatriate community - from one dominated by people from Europe and North America to a more globalised version. But he remains cautious about expanding in China.
Unlike the more conventional logistics firms, Crown has focused more on moving people around instead of just goods.
As logistics firms benefited from a globalised supply chain, Crown has gained from the globalisation of corporations, which need to assign their executives to different parts of the world.
"When I started, what we thought of a customer was an expat if you had a [list] of all your shipments, Mr Smith and Mr Jones, in Western names," Thompson said.
"That's changed completely now. If you were to look at our board, there would probably be more Asian names, or Indian names."
"I think the reason is because I don't think [mainlanders] take much with them [as they move]," Thompson said. "Let's use Huawei as a case. If they were to assign a guy to Europe with family, they wouldn't probably ship much for that family.
"Western families tend to be accumulators of a lot of furniture mainly because their houses are big. So they have bigger shipments. To a certain extent, Chinese families are not used to packing up a bunch of goods and shipping them. I don't think the Chinese companies would even sponsor that."
Frequent policy changes on the mainland have also been a reason for the slow expansion.
"Still a lot of laws are interpreted differently throughout the country," Thompson said. "So we thought we should be relatively cautious. You hear so many stories about disasters that take place. Business disasters. We want to understand it. We kind of went pretty slowly."
Chinese families are not used to packing up a bunch of goods and shipping them. I don't think the Chinese companies would even sponsor that
In contrast, Thompson has been close to Hong Kong and is known for having close ties to the government. He was awarded the Gold Bauhinia Star in 2003, and also played a key role in the controversial Harbour Fest that same year, which was designed as part of a plan to boost the city's recovery from the Sars outbreak but ended up with huge debts.
Thompson started his business moving furniture in Japan in 1965. In 1969, he opened an office in Hong Kong, which later became the company's headquarters and his home for 36 years.
"It was a time in Hong Kong just after the Cultural Revolution had kind of calmed down," he said. "During the Cultural Revolution, while most of the problem was in [mainland] China, there were red guards in Hong Kong, and it was a difficult time in many ways.
"Many foreign businessmen had left Hong Kong, either temporarily or permanently because they thought Hong Kong would collapse and fall to China, because China was out of control.
"By 1970, that had calmed down, and business people were coming back."
As there was basically no competitor providing similar services in Japan and Hong Kong, Crown was successful right away.
With anxiety about the Cultural Revolution in mind, and looking at the recent political disputes over Hong Kong's electoral reforms, especially the disputes between the Occupy campaign supporters and the anti-Occupy activists, Thompson said the city remained a good place for business. He said he was of the view that the electoral reform was not perfect but there might be concessions three to five years later.
"The concern whether China will be heavy-handed or change the system, I haven't seen it," he said, "The chief executive is considered to be closer to China than most previous ones. That might be. I don't know.
"I am optimistic. I think China has got enough on their plate. They don't want to worry about Hong Kong. They have huge problems … pollution, corruption. That's why I think they have to focus on those problems more than they have to worry about Hong Kong."
He said the Chinese authorities should keep the country under control, especially as corruption had become a widespread phenomenon.
"Whatever [President] Xi Jinping or hopefully his successor can do to scare those people who were corrupt, and imprison them in some cases at the highest level, then I think it's a positive for China," he said.
