Style Magazine, 80s
At age seventy, K.S. Sze looks back on a long struggle in the jewellery business and forward to the realization of yet more dreams.
Pearls of wisdom from K.S. SZE
The essence of youth is the belief that there is meaning and ultimate purpose to our long and taxing struggle through life. Those men who can in the autumn of their days look back and see a significant list of achievements and at the same time, look forward to fruitful days ahead, certainly provide living proof that youthful optimism is not an illusion.
K.S. Sze is one such unique figure. He is a loner, one of those determined men who had a dream and realized this dream.
His father died when Sze was only twelve. Leaving his home city near the Great West Lake in Hangchow for Shanghai, Sze followed an uncle as a jeweller's apprentice. During those adolescent years, Sze devoted himself to watching and learning everything about the trade. He explained that his home of Hangchow was the original producer of lake pearls and that the centre of all jewellery activity in those days was in Shanghai. It was almost as if Fate had planned for Sze to be in his business.
While still in his early 20s, Sze had already moved on to becoming a broker in raw stones and uncut gems. Ten years later, he opened his own shop.
He specialized in the purchase of merchandise while his partner attended to the shop and internal routine. Even in the days when travel was hardly the convenient, excessively speedy thing it is today, Sze was making frequent buying trips to the northeastern cities of China and travelling abroad, especially to countries in South East Asia. After the Communist takeover in 1949, Sze evacuated to Hong Kong with his wife and children, unafraid of having to start from scratch again. His partner, on the other hand, was reluctant to give up the old lifestyle and the fruit of their many years of toil. So while his partner gambled on the China of the past, Sze embraced a new beginning in the British Colony of Hong Kong.
Upon arriving here, he set up his business utilizing one counter in a department store. From there, he conducted both the retail operation and wholesale export of lake pearls to Indonesia. The Communists were selling Hangchow lake pearls by the pound during those first few years of their rule. And Sze took full advantage of this extraordinary deal.
In the meantime, he had opened up a two-storey shop in Central Building. There his business grew and his reputation for high quality merchandise and fair prices developed.
When the Mandarin Hotel opened in 1963, it offered one of its seven original shop spaces to K.S. Sze. Actually, Sze was the only jeweller selected among the numerous establishments to operate a business in the hotel arcade. He believes the Mandarin made its choice only after thorough investigation of his background and reputation, so as to protect the hotel's own good name.
Sze responded to the honour. He opened up a K.S. Sze and Sons in the Mandarin before anyone could know whether the retail business would develop into that area. He took a chance and made it work his way.
Two years after the Mandarin shop opened, Sze with consideration for his own age and the increasingly competitive nature of the jewellery business, closed down the Central Building branch. Since then, he has devoted his time and energies to his shop in the Mandarin.
Though he views gems and precious stones as an investment, he also caters to current trends in the market. The latest trend is jewellery accessories, inexpensive items which women buy to match their clothes or to co-ordinate with certain fashions and looks. Perhaps because he has been in the business for over 50 years and seen every range of design in jewellery, he prefers rare gems set in the classic style. His shop, though, has a sizeable collection of both, beautiful intricate items for all times and fun pieces for the season.
An idealist at heart, he attempted in the Sixties to set a one-price policy in his shop. Rather than jacking up the fair price, and then giving the customer a certain discount as is the practice all over Hong Kong, Sze eliminated price haggling by valuing each item at its real worth. For nine months he experimented with this policy against the advice of his employees and customers. He was convinced he could implement honest business practice in the jewellery trade as well.
He argued against the problem of pricing jewellery. You simply compare pieces of the same gem for quality and size.
How would it be different from pricing goods in a boutique or a supermarket? However, response did not meet expectations and Sze had to give up his ideas. He feels this is one of his greatest disappointments but hopes to try it again some time in the future.
At 70, Sze still makes yearly buying trips to Europe and the United States and now represents Harry Winston, the world-renowned New York jewellers, as a buying agent.
Apart from his success as a businessman, Sze has a reputation for trustworthiness and experience here and abroad. His three children, who live in the States, are also doing very well on their own right. He is a firm appreciator of sports, rising at 5:30 each morning to play golf and taking a daily swim after work each afternoon - regardless of weather.
And for his mind and soul, he is an ardent Buddhist, devoting time and concentration to daily meditation. The religion helps him achieve peace of mind, calming his easily excitable and aggressive nature. He denied that his belief in Buddhism conflicted with his role as a businessman: "As a Buddhist, I cannot lie, but as a businessman, I don't want to lie. There's no conflict."
K.S. Sze certainly has accomplished much to be proud of in his lifetime. But he still wants his to be the best jewellery shop in Hong Kong and he still prays that one of his children will return to build and develop what he has begun. With the help of Buddhism, he understands and accepts that certain wishes are realistic and others just dreams.
So he continues, mellowed by age and life but still spirited and determined. Appropriately, he quotes regularly a traditional Chinese saying: "Life only begins at 70".
施賡巽的智慧之珠
年屆七十的施赓巽，回想過去在珠寶業上悠長的奮鬥，並展望將來有更多夢想可以實現。
年青的本質就是一個信念：相信生命是蠻長而艱苦的奮鬥是有意義和基本目標的。那些能夠在他們暮年的日子裹，回顧過去自己種種有意義的成就，並同時展望將來有成果的日子的人，正是活生生的明証，表明有年青人的樂觀想法並不是一種錯誤的概念。
施賡巽就是這樣一個獨特的人物，他是一個果斷的人，不但有夢想而且能夠將夢想實現，誠然是不可多得的人才。
在他十二歲那年，父親去世，他離開近杭州西湖的家鄉，去到上海跟隨一個世伯，當珠寶商的學徒。在這一段年少的日子裏，施賡巽就全心全意地去觀察和學習，一切有關營商的事情。他解釋由於參家鄉杭州是湖珠的原產地，而當時上海又是珠寶貿易中心，所以就好像是命運早而安排他投身這個行業的。
剛好二十出頭的年紀，施賡巽成爲珠寶業經紀，買賣未加工的玉石和未經琢磨的寶石，十年之後，他開創了自己的商店。
店內一 切的事務由他的夥伴主理，而他則專責購貨，雖然當時的交通沒有今日方便快捷，但他仍然經常到中國東北各人城市買貨物，甚至前往海外，甚至是東南亞一帶的國家。
1949年中國共產黨取得政權之後，施賡巽帶同妻子兒女撤退來香港，他必須重新開始，但他不畏懼。另方面，他的合夥人則堅持不肯放棄往日的生活方式以及他們多作來辛勞的成果，所以當他的夥件留在內陸甘心爲過去而冒險的時候，施賡巽就在香港這個英國民地接受新的開始。
當他一到達香港，就利用百貨公司內的一個櫃枱建立他的事業，在那裹他除了經營零沽之外，還同時處理湖珠批發出口到印度尼西亞。在共產黨立國初年，杭州的湖珠是採用按磅銷售制度，而施賡巽就充分利用這項特外買資，獲益不少。
當時，他已經在中建大廈開了一間兩層的商店，業務蒸蒸日上，而貨品質地上乘，價錢公道的美譽不逕而走。
1963年文華酒店開幕時，將原有的七個商店舖位之一，提供給施賡巽，而事實上，他是由衆多的團體中被揀選出來在酒店商場經營生意的唯一珠寶，他相信文華酒店為了保障良好的聲譽，必定對他的背景和名譽徹底調查之後，才作出抉擇的。
施赓巽以行動回報這項殊榮，在文華酒店開設了施賡巽父子珠寶店，在未有任何人曉得零沽生意在這樣一處地方究竟是否有可為之前，他掌握了機會，憑他的經營法獲得成功。
文華商場的珠實店開業兩年之後，施賡巽考慮到自己的年紀和珠寶業競爭的日漸激烈，於是結束了中建人厦的分店，自此，他將全部的時間和精力集中於主理文華商場那邊的店子。
雖然他認爲珠寶和玉介是一項投資，但他亦沒有忽略迎合市場上的新趨勢。目前最新的趨勢是一些價錢不太昂貴的珠寶飾物，是女士們買來配襯衣服，或者用以與一些特别的時裝和款式調合。或許由於他經營珠寶業五十多年，見過很多系列的珠寶設計，所以他喜歡將罕有的寶石鑲成古雅的款式。但在他的店舖裏，仍然有大量貨品，包括適合經常配戴漂亮奪目的款式，和時髦精緻的飾物。
在六十多歲的時候，他心中且有一個理想，他嘗試為珠寶店設立不二價制度，以代替香港珠寶界一般將價格提高後再給顧客定額折扣的習慣。
施賡巽淘汰了討價還價，而標明每一項貨品的真正價值，在不理會顧員和顧客的勸告下，他試驗實行這個制度達九個月，他當時深信珠寶貿易也可以履行忠實的營業慣例的。
他反對在珠寶定價上會有問題，他認為可以將同類同質和同樣大小的寶石加以比較，是很簡單的事，這跟精品店或超級市場內貨品的定價又有什麼分別？
可是，反應却不如理想，施賡巽不得以要放棄這個意念。他覺得這是他最大的失意之一 ，但希望將來有機會再作嘗試。
在他的七十高齡，施賡巽仍然每年親自前往歐洲和美國各地購貨，而現今更成了舉世知名之紐約珠寶商哈利溫史敦（Hang Winston）的購貨代理商。
除了是一個成功的商人之外，施賡巽還贏得本地和海外公認值得信賴和經驗豐富的美譽。他的三位子女都在美國居住，而且在各自的發展上有很好的表現。他是早起運動的恒久支持者，每日淸早五時三十分他例行打高爾夫球，而每日下午工餘則去游泳——風雨不改。
他是一個熱心的佛教徒，每日一定抽出時間全神默想，以滿足精神上和心靈上的需要。宗教幫助他的思想得到寧靜，緩和他易衝動和急進的個性。他否認佛教信仰與商人的工作有所衝突，他說：「作爲一個佛教徒，我不能夠說謊，而作為一個商人，我不想說謊，所以二者是沒有衝突的。」
施賡巽的一生中已成就了很多足以令他自豪的事，但他仍希望他的商店是全香港最出色的一間珠寶店，而他更祈求他其中一位子女將來能回到這裡建立和發展他已經開創了的事業，藉着佛教的幫助，他明白到而接受一種想法，就是正確的願望是可以實現的，而其他一切只不過是夢想。
雖然年齡和生命繼續使他更形老練，但他仍然很有生氣和很果斷，他正恰好適當地引證了一句諺語：「人生七十方開始。」