Here are two reports about him in 1999 and 2009 respectively:
Tomorrow, the World
Singapore's High-tech Hero Wants to Log You in
By ERIC ELLIS September 23, 1999 TIMEasisa
Web posted at 7 a.m. Hong Kong time, 7 p.m. EDT
From the outside, it's just another eight-story industrial building in suburban Singapore. But step inside and you could be on the set of the next James Bond thriller, the ultra-high-tech lair of a quixotic autocrat bent on world domination.
The Dr. No figure is one of Singapore's most colorful Netrepreneurs, K.K. Fong, whose very company, I-One International, hints at his over-arching goal to be Asia's Internet king. (Sounds like ... "I Want International?")
Silent suited operatives tap into massive databanks housed in windowless lofts and are linked by sliding doors that turn seamlessly into walls after they are passed through. The square-jawed team connects by video-link to colleagues around the world, via 24-hour cameras, and they are then beamed to an Arctic-chilled executive suite filled with Chinese antiques.
If he wasn't so jolly, Fong Kah Kuen could easily be the Bond genre's archetypal scheming genius. With his vision-a-minute patter his speech oozes charisma. "I am not a technologist. I am an enabler," cackles the 46-year-old Netrepreneur. "I want this to be part of everyone's life." Was that a hint of maniacal laughter?
Fong fashions himself as the flag-bearer for Singapore's "wired island" approach to technology. Fong's touch-screen Internet street kiosks on Singapore's shopping thoroughfares dispense everything from news and weather to e-commerce, banking and beyond. Want to see if your girlfriend is in your favorite Boat Quay hangout? A couple taps as you walk by a kiosk and a Webcam scans the bar. Send her flowers, or an e-mooncake? Tap again for a live video-conference with a florist and then a baker. You can do it from Orchard Road, from the housing board's heartland or from New York City via the Internet, with all of the details logged into Fong's vast databank. At least that's the theory.
The reality is far more mundane. After a sparkling debut in March followed by a wildly successful public offering, Fong's booths, so far, seem to have failed to capture the wider public's imagination. Part of the problem is that they are difficult to use, ergonomically awkward and quite slow to boot up pages. Skeptics, and I'm one of them, say their best use so far is to shelter from Singapore's sudden rainstorms. Everyone seems to have experimented with one to go shopping and, anecdotally, four out of five say they seem like a good idea but need a lot of work.
Fong, however, is undaunted and says he is a man ahead of his time. He aims to have as many as 8,000 kiosks sprinkled across the island-and beyond to the rest of Southeast Asia, where Internet access is still limited by low incomes and selective technologies.
If all goes to plan, that day will make K.K. Fong richer than Croesus. He's already doing well. Fong took I-One International public on June 28 in a US$30 million float that by the end of the first day of trade was suddenly worth US$150 million, such is the local fervor for anything to do with e-commerce. That a businessman like Fong is anywhere near a stock exchange in an ultra-regulated corporate regime like Singapore is remarkable, and evidence of the technological revolution under way. Nine months ago, Fong had committed one of the gravest sins a manager can do here-not pay his share of the Central Provident Fund, Singapore's enforced national savings plan that anchors the island's economy and wealth.
I-One was then called Xpress Print, a hard-copy printer of bank and stockbroking research reports, items not exactly in high demand during the financial crisis. The bankers knocking at his door weren't always clients, he jokes. Profits were down 80%.
Then the vision thing happened for Fong. I-One was born and Singapore had a new high-tech hero, albeit one double the age of the average geeky Netrepreneur and who had never used a computer until he was 35. Come what may for I-One's clunky kiosks, that in itself suggests anyone can be reborn on the Net.
冯家权的别样人生
2009-1-2 bbs.ymzww.com
当有人问:“如果再失败了怎么办?”可能许多经过失败的人还心有余悸不知如何作答的时候,他却掷地有声地答道:“不会再有下次了。”是谁有这样的气魄?自信?自负?这个毫不犹豫作答的人就是速印控股公司的总裁冯家权。他用自己别样的人生展示给人:失败了怎么办?
冯家权生于一个关系复杂的大家庭,其父有三妻十三位子女,经常周旋于三个家庭之间。冯母常常为冯家权在家族中的地位担忧,时常拿他和其他兄弟做比较,这种比较使得冯家权从小就聪明,敏感,自尊,好胜,养成了不服输的性格。国中时他给小学生补习中文,薪水高过当时的校长。20岁高考时凭借研究命题规律,他以优异成绩考入顶尖的新加坡国立大学读工商管理。
也许正是这种不服输的性格和他的领悟力使他在遭遇挫折后仍能勇往直前,成就了他别样的人生。
冯家权创业时才16岁,相当于我们的初中毕业生。他承包了一笔手袋生意,他将产品交给与父亲有密切关系的印刷商去印刷,结果严重偏色被拒收,为此他母亲赔付了几万新币。冯家权严肃检讨自己,不能轻信裙带关系,这在他以后的公司运营中都是严格的纪律。
16岁的失败并没有给冯家权留下阴影反而给他上了一堂有意义的课。20岁时,冯父隆重向人介绍其子是顶尖大学的大学生时,冯家权退学开始开创自己的事业。这是一次成功的创业,最风光的时候整个新加坡都在用他的产品。最后由于合作伙伴挪用资金创业以失败告终。冯家权又总结了失败经验,找自身原因,发现自己的长处是做销售而非管理,这为以后公司的管理运作提供了宝贵经验。
冯家权从人生早期的两次失败中总结的经验对他来说不仅珍贵,而且还增强了他挑战人生的勇气。对于六岁就跟着父亲制版、烫金的冯家权来说,最熟悉的行业是印刷,他决定在此行业一展身手。他总结了父亲的业务流程:广告公司设计,印刷公司印刷,印刷后的加工制作才轮到父亲这个纸盒制造商,而所得的利润是微薄的。为什么不创立一个把印前、印中、印后甚至派送业务全部包揽的公司呢?这种思索最终促成了“一站式”印刷。然后,冯家权又设立分印模式——在靠近客户的地方设立印驿站,专门负责为客户提供设计、翻译和打样的服务,这样不仅扩大了自己的盈利范围也大大提高了印刷速度,方便了客户。到了20世纪八十年代,冯家权创立的速印集团已经占据了新加坡财经印刷市场95%的份额。他又成功了。
1999年,全球范围内掀起了互联网狂潮。他不顾异议将公司改名为“一指通网络国际有限公司”进军网络。当时的冯家权身价一度飙升至8亿新币,位列新加坡富豪榜前10位。然而和其他互联网公司一样,“一指通”也在2000年遭受了互联网寒流。其股价迅速缩水,冯家权也负债数亿,从事业的最高峰一下跌到最低谷,他不得不变卖房、车以及其他能卖的还债。他建议公司董事会关闭“一指通”,把印刷业拓展到市场经济已经有了一定规模的中国内地,而公司董事们对此都持怀疑态度,冯家权于是辞职,从自己一手创立的速印集团退出,只身来到中国内地。
在中国内地,冯家权选择了长沙一家濒于倒闭的印刷厂,每天他都在厂里工作16小时,凭着对印刷业的熟稔,他很快使厂子起死回生,业务量大增,变成了设备一流客户资源备受瞩目的印刷厂。然后他挥师南下深圳,在深圳创办了印驿站,仍然以财经印刷市场为目标,以速度取胜。到目前为止速印控股在中国已有9间印驿站。到2005年仅用4年时间他就还清了巨额债务。2006年他回到新加坡,将中国业务和新加坡业务合并。如今,他又把满人生之舵,挺立在风口浪尖,仍然是时代的弄潮儿。
像从前一样,冯家权又从这一次的起落中总结了经验:冷静,不能盲目做超出能力的事情,失败了再从自己熟悉的领域找回自信。要保持生活的热情和积极乐观的心态。从失败中学习经验能积累人生的大智慧。所以当有人问:“如果再失败怎么办?”冯家权会说:“没有下一次了。”
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