On October 20th, 2016, the “Tsinghua Students Dialogue with Board Members” was in full swing as part of the series of activities of Tsinghua SEM 2016 Advisory Board Meeting. Andrónico Luksic, Chairman of Luksic Group, and member of Tsinghua SEM Advisory Board, entered Tsinghua SEM classroom and gave Tsinghua students a speech about his views on China and Latin America’s business relations.

Andrónico Luksic, Chairman, Luksic Group

Heading one of the largest conglomerates in Chile, Mr. Luksic first offered his view on China’s economy based on his business experience in China. He expressed great confidence in China, stating that China will continue to grow not just in terms of global economy and politics, but also in the digital arena. He felt that tapping on China’s pre-existing technology and infrastructure, Chinese enterprises will be able to find significant opportunities in the South American market and are welcome to take part in and making use of these opportunities. Under his and the Luksic Group’s generous support, the Tsinghua Center for China-Latin Management Studies was established in 2010 and the Conducting Business in Chile-China MBA exchange program was introduced in 2007, and Mr. Luksic hopes to continue to bridge the differences between China and Latin America’s businesses to promote more business opportunities and general mutual interests in investments.

Mr. Luksic also touched on the issue of succession in the Luksic Group, crediting his father for the groundwork he laid before passing the baton to him and his brothers. His father created a unique incentive mechanism of having a foundation manage profit from the company, and have the foundation allocate profits to family as compensation for their work in the company. He also stated that by listing the company on a public stock exchange, the company’s annual performance was open for public’s scrutiny, which helps the company realize areas of improvement that they may not be aware of.

Mr. Luksic then shared with us his mountain-climbing experience. The general public only knew that he summited all Seven Summits without prior mountaineering experience, but little was known about his motivation and the struggles he went through. He shared, humorously, that he tried out mountaineering in a bid to woo his current wife, and it proved to be successful. Although he thought about giving up, but after thinking about the amount of effort he had invested in mountaineering, he decided to persevere. The hardest moment for him was after summiting Mount Everest, where he was overcome by joy and cried so hard that he ran out of oxygen. Quoting Mr. Luksic, “If you are convinced that you can do it, you can make it”, so through the support of his friends and his willpower, he managed to return safely.

Group photo

Last but not least, Mr. Luksic concluded the session with some advice on students’ college life and future development, saying that college experience is invaluable because it teaches us to think and analyze alternatives, and encouraged students to read newspapers on a daily basis to catch new ideas, and use it to build a better work, and to be “citizen of China and also of the world”. (by Adeline Goh Yun Ni)