The Creation of a Skilled Tycoon

Note: This is Part 14 in a series of articles and cases on Asian Conglomerates. Read Part 13 here. You may read more about the Asian Conglomerate Series here, or view all the published cases here.

We’re starting to reach the end of the Asian Conglomerates Series. In these last few instalments I want to show you a handful of interesting instantiations of tycoon skill. After which we’ll close the series with what I think is the most salient property of these individuals (and one that we can copy).

But first, a quick recap.

In How to Become an Asian Tycoon we examined the ‘core arc’ of the Asian tycoon. That arc is, in many ways, the heart of the entire series. I shall reproduce this here, so you don’t have to go back and reread the essay.

Every Asian Tycoon becomes a tycoon in the following way:They get their start in business, which is almost always some form of trading. The fact that it is trading is actually an accident of history. In all the tycoons we’ve examined so far, and in nearly every tycoon we will examine in the future, trading is the only business activity available to them in their youth — either due to colonialism or war. But the