Tan Sri Robert Kuok Hock Nien

Robert Kuok Hock Nien (traditional Chinese: 郭鶴年, born 6 October 1923 in Johor Bahru, Johor), is an influential Malaysian Chinese businessman. According to Forbes his net worth is estimated to be around $14.7 billion on Feb 2012, making him the richest person in Malaysia and second richest in Southeast Asia after Dhanin Chearavanont of Thailand, according to Forbe's List of World Billionaires 2013 which Robert Kuok was placed 76th. As of December 2012, According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Kuok has an estimated net worth of 17.3 billion making him the 40th richest person in the world.

Kuok is media-shy; most of his businesses are privately held by him or his family. Apart from a multitude of businesses in Malaysia, his companies have investments in many countries throughout Asia. His business interests range from sugarcane plantations (Perlis Plantations Bhd), sugar refineries, flour milling, animal feed, oil, mining, finance, hotels, properties, trading, freight and publishing. Biggest source of wealth is stake in Wilmar International, the world's largest listed palm oil company. He was a student from Raffles Institution.

As a Malaysia's richest man, Tan Sri Robert Kuok, is often referred to as the “Sugar King” but the man himself says he does not like the title and deems it a “fake fame”. Kuok, whose empire includes the Shangri-La hotel chain, prefers the title “Hotel King” instead.

“I like hotel but the word king’ is just a fake one,” the 87-year-old billionaire said in an interview with China Central Television (CCTV) recently.

Robert Kuok has been the richest man in South East Asia since 2002. He is in the sugar business. Kuok's father arrived in Malaya from Fujian, China at the beginning of the 20th century, and Robert was the youngest of three brothers, born on 6 October 1923, in Johor Bahru. He claims he began in business as an office boy, and later started a business with relatives' support. In fact, upon graduation, he worked in the grains department of Japanese industrial conglomerate Mitsubishi between 1942 and 1945.

Kuok senior died in 1948, and Kuok and his two brothers and a cousin [Kuok Hock Chin] founded [Kuok Brothers Sdn Bhd] in 1949, trading agricultural commodities. Under the new post-colonial government, Kuok started in the sugar business alongside the government. In 1961, he made a coup by buying cheap sugar from India before the prices shot up. He continued to invest heavily insugar refineries, controlled 80% of the Malaysian sugar market with production of 1.5 million tonnes, equivalent to 10% of world production, and so earned his nickname "Sugar King of Asia".

In 1971, he built the first Shangri-La Hotel, in Singapore. His first foray into Hong Kong property was in 1977, when he acquired a plot of land on the newly reclaimed Tsim Sha Tsui East waterfront, where he built the second hotel, the Kowloon Shangri-La. In 1993, his Kerry Group acquired a 34.9% stake in the South China Morning Post from Murdoch's News Corporation.

His companies have investments in many countries, including Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Mainland China, Indonesia, Fiji and Australia. Businesses in China include 10 bottling companies for Coca Cola, and ownership of the Beijing World Trade Centre.

I choose Tan Sri Robert Kuok Hock Nien as one of my successful entrepreneurs because Tan Sri Robert Kuok believes that in order to success in a business, unity of the employees in a company is highly important. All the employees are in the same family and they have to work together without greed and arrogance. We must practice the values of integrity and honestly. He quotes that ‘success often breeds failure, because it makes you arrogant, complacent and, therefore, lower your guard’. He is the best leader. He uses his willpower and intelligent to overcome any of his problems he faced in his business.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kuok