海外华人老字号企业的传承和跨国发展——以马来西亚余仁生为例

Continuity and Transnational Development of Chinese Overseas' Old Brand Business——The Case of Eu Yan Sang from Malaysia

华人企业一般上都难逃"富不过三代"的命运,但一些中国和东南亚的华人老字号企业却能打破这宿命。马来西亚的中药店老字号,"余仁生"自1879年创业以来现今已进入第四代经营。其创办人,余广于1876年下南洋谋生时随身携带了一批中草药和世代累积的中药知识,没想到这竟成"余仁生"的创业基础。他当时在霹雳州务边的小镇上开设了一家药材店,想凭着自己的中药知识解救被鸦片荼毒的华人矿工。药店取名"仁生",意喻为"仁泽众生",由于店主济世为怀因此"仁生"很快便建立起良好的声誉。其子余东璇为了缅怀父亲,毅然在店名前加上自己的家族姓氏,改为"余仁生"。"余仁生"在余东璇领导下迅速打出名堂,其业务除了扩展至马来西亚各地,亦进驻新加坡和香港市场。八十年代后期马来西亚的中药行业风光不再,成为夕阳工业。其第四代接班人有感中药行业必须转型方能走出被市场淘汰的命运,所以"余仁生"于1989年开启了传统中药店转型至现代保健自营连锁店的大计划。其转型计划成功让"余仁生"获得新的生命和持续发展,并在新加坡和香港两地上市。这老字号的成功可说是其经营者善于利用传统中药品做新市场的生意,把产品焦点放在生活化和方便化,如其保健礼蓝可用作送礼,让更多顾客能接受其产品。本文主要探讨马来西亚华人传统中药店之老字号在激烈市场竞争的过程如何转型和变革以迎合现代人的需求,使其企业达到持续性发展。

Chinese businesses always difficult to sustain over diree generations.However there are some old brand businesses in China and Southeast Asia are able to break this myth.Malaysia＇s old brand business in Chinese medicine,Eu Yan Sang since its establishment in 1879 has now is under the management of 4th generation.The founder of Eu Yan Sang,Yu Cuang who migrated to Nanyang in 1876 had brought along some herbs and Chinese medicine knowledge with him and this had become the catalyst for him to start off Chinese medicine business.Yu Guang＇s intention to set up medicine shop is to relief the Chinese coolies from the pains of opium addiction.He named his shop as ＂Yan Sang＂ which meant to help human beings.His son,Yu Dongxuan decided to add their family surname Yu onto the shop＇s name in order to cherish the works of his father.Eu Yan Sang acquired reputation in a short period of time under the leadership of Yu Dongxuan and its business had expanded to various parts of Malaya as well as Singapore and Hong Kong.However during the late eighties,the business of Chinese medicine in Malaysia had become a sunset industry.Its 4th generation successor espoused that Chinese medicine business has to undertake transformation to prevent its demise.Consequently,Eu Yan Sang began its grand transformation to the modern health care franchise business in 1989.This transformation had provided new life and impetus for Eu Yan Sang to attain its sustainable development and hence allowed its public listing in Singapore and Hong Kong.The success of this old brand business relies on the venture of Chinese traditional medicine into new consumer market which produced its comfortable and daily life-friendly products.This paper aims to investigate the transformation and the success story of a Malaysian Chinese traditional medicine shops and its business in the era of intense competition.