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Tang Choon Keng (董俊競 / 董俊竞) @ CK Tang (1902-2000)
Founder of 詩家董集團/诗家董集团 or CK Tang Limited.
A native of Raoping in Guangdong province (广东饶平), he was son of a Chinese Presbyterian preacher. His mother sold embroideries to supplement the low income of the family.
In 1922, at the age of 21, CK Tang set out to Singapore, then a British Colony, with only two tin trunks of hand-embroidered linen, and began going from doors to doors selling them, with the help of a hired rickshaw.
As his products were of fine quality and competitively priced, together with high level of service provided, he was able to accumulate his first capital.
In 1932, CK Tang opened his first shop at the present River Valley Road, selling craft products from China. 8 years later, it was moved to a larger premise. By the 1950s, CK Tang had several branches.
In 1958, he successfully bidded with $10,000 for the property lot at 310 Orchard Road.
When word got out of his interest in the land, fellow merchants came flocking to advice him against it, warning him that it was bad business to open a shop on the land which was facing a cemetery.
But CK Tang saw it was located at an intersection of several residential estates and believed in its potential. Years later, when the Singapore government designated and developed Orchard Road as a prime shopping and tourist district, the price of the lands soared from $3/sqm to $6000/sqm.
The shop enjoyed booming business.
I remembered going into this store.
Though it had a very traditional Chinese structure, it was one of the first in Singapore to have air-conditioning and lifts.
In 1975, the company CK Tang was publicly listed.
1979, CK Tang decided to develop the neighouring property lots which he bought years before to build a huge shopping mall and a luxury hotel.
These opened in 1982.
1991, it opened the first overseas branch in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
One of CK Tang's distinctive management philosophy was the focus on people, both as customers and as staff. Emphasis was given to quality of the staff, reasonable pricing and warm service. This became the fabric of the CK Tang's business.
CK Tang believed in investing in the staff. In the business of department stores, frontline staff would be the ones in direct contact with the customers and the image of the store depended on them.
CK Tang has a substantial annual budget for staff training, which included tailored programs for the sales staff, supervisors and management. Course included Mandarin, business, basic computer skills, accounting and operating electrical and air conditionings, communications, product presentation and wrappings, sales techniques, retail planning, product presentation etc.
Supervisors and managers were expected to undergo a minimum of 100 hours of training - which included courses on product research, public relationship, market analysis, time management and purchasing strategies etc.
CK Tang also made the effort to be in touch with the staff at all levels, gaining an understanding from the frontline staff of customers' expectations, product qualities and service provided.
The condusive working atmosphere won numerous loyal, dedicated and hard working staff, many who clocked more than 10 years of service there.
Despite the poor financial results experienced in certain years, CK Tang retained its reputation for good service and reliability.
It was able to continue depending on its staff, far-sighted management and conservative financing.
Tang Choon Keng retired in 1987. He passed away on September 3, 2000.
A staunch Christian, CK Tang's store would be prominently closed on Sundays, a rare distinction in the heart of Singapore's prime shopping district. It was only years after he retired that his successors decided to have the store open on Sundays, but with business hours operating from 1pm only. It was revised later to open at 11:00am.
References
Singapore retail tycoon dies
Official Website of CK Tang Limited
新加坡華裔百貨大王去世
历史名人 (董) - 当代名商
董俊竞 - “以人为本谋发展”
