Fan Li

Fan Li (范蠡) was an advisor in the state of Yue in the Spring and Autumn Period. He had been to the state of Wu as hostage with King Goujian of Yue. Three years later they came back and he helped Goujian to carry on a reform. At last Yue was able to defeat the state of Wu. After the victory he resigned and renamed himself Tao Zhu Gong (Chinese: 陶朱公; pinyin: Táo Zhūgōng; literally "Lord Tao Zhu"). He became a successful businessman in his later years and was famous as a rich person.

He managed a pharmacy selling traditional Chinese medicine. The pharmacy originally included only two elderly employees, He Bo (Chinese: 何伯; pinyin: Hé Bó) and De Shu (Chinese: 德叔; pinyin: Dé Shū in Mainland China, Dé Shú in Taiwan). The business began to expand only when Tao Zhugong hired He Bo's youngest son, Xiao Wen (Chinese: 小文; pinyin: Xiăo Wén).

He wrote a book known in English as "Golden Rules of Business Success" (simplified Chinese: 经商宝典; traditional Chinese: 經商寶典; pinyin: Jīng Shāng Băo Diăn; literally "Manage Business Jade Advice"). This book remains popular today as its advice is sometimes considered timeless. It includes Twelve Golden Rules and Twelve Golden Safeguards describing the art of successful business management.

The Twelve Golden Rules are as follows:

• Be a good judge of character.
• Be customer-oriented.
• Be single-minded.
• Be captivating in your sales promotion.
• Be quick to respond.
• Be vigilant in credit control.
• Be selective to recruit only the best.
• Be bold in marketing your product.
• Be smart in product acquisition.
• Be adept in analyzing market opportunities.
• Be a corporate model.
• Be farsighted in developing a total business plan.

The Twelve Golden Safeguards are:

• Don't be stingy.
• Don't be wishy-washy.
• Don't be ostentatious.
• Don't be dishonest.
• Don't be slow in debt collection.
• Don't slash prices arbitrarily.
• Don't give in to herd instinct.
• Don't work against the business cycle.
• Don't be a stick-in-the-mud.
• Don't overbuy on credit.
• Don't under-save (keep reserve funds strong).
• Don't blindly endorse a product.

Cartoon versions of this book are widely available in Singapore, both in Mandarin Chinese and in English. The Mandarin version includes Hanyu Pinyin and an English translation for each of the original business principles.

References

Xu, Hui. Jīng Shāng Băo Diăn: Táo Zhūgōng Shāngxùn. 2nd ed. Singapore: Asiapac Books Pte. Ltd., August 2002. <See http://www.asiapacbooks.com/product.asp?pid=299. English translation available at http://www.asiapacbooks.com/product.asp?pid=60&cid=43.>id:Fan Li ja:范蠡 vi:Phạm Lãizh-classical:范蠡