A "Kingly" Businessman

as I was unpacking some boxes I came across a letter that a family friend once wrote about my dad. It fills me with respect and awe for my dad and his actions everytime I read it. What an inspiration he is to me. He passed from physical form when I was 13 years old, about sixteen years ago, and is greatly loved and missed to this day...

This letter allows me to peer into another world, a world long gone, and yet a world scintillating with individual acts, both large and small, done by unassuming people like my dad that continue to reverbrate through the ages. It was written in 1991, a year before my dad's passing, by a good family friend, Dr. Georg Specht:

     Almost three decades ago the owner of the Hong Kong-based German trading company "Schmidt & Co.", Mr. Ewald Hübner, visited the headquarters of an international aid organization for developing nations, "Misereor", in Aachen, Germany. He was accompanied by his most trusted coworker, a Mr. Günther Buchholtz.

     This was my first meeting with Günther Buchholtz. At that time I headed the public relations department of Misereor. The founder of the Caritas Hong Kong organization, prelate Carl Vath, who was at that time constructing a large hospital for the poor in the British colony with the help of Misereor, for which Schmidt & Co. was supplying the medical and technical equipment, held both gentlemen and their company in high esteem. In those years the company wasn't noted for its size or for some unusual dynamic, but rather for its solidarity and reliability. The opinion of the experienced prelate, having previously been a businessman in Canton and Shanghai himself, was based on his knowledge of the company that reached as far back as to the time when the company was a prominent trading company in China, with subsidiaries in a number of other far east Asian nations. The second world war had destroyed that company, like many others. In 1953 that company was re-founded in Hong Kong by Mr. Hübner, the previous chairman of the Shanghai subsidiary.

     I no longer remember what we talked about in my office at that time, certainly generalities about the social problems of Hong Kong, which was overpopulated with refugees, and about projects sponsored by Misereor. What remained in my memory was the calm, rational way with which Günther Buchholtz related, as well as his inviting personality. A competent man who instilled trust.

     Soon thereafter I moved with my family for a couple of years to Hong Kong. Since that time the families Buchholtz & Specht have established a friendship. We were not enganged with each other on a professional level. On occassion, we played a game of cards, far too seldom, as I regret today. Ingrid Buchholtz and Hedwig Specht both taught German at the local Goethe Institute. Before Ingrid's great work, the German Swiss International School, was not only founded, but was able to operate properly, we left Hong Kong. I took on the leadership of the German Caritas Group's international department in Freiburg, Germany.

     In the ensuing years I came to know Günther Buchholtz as a businessman, to which I would like to add the prefix "kingly". I don't know, if he likes it. After all, in our age of democracies, we do not respect monarchies much in general, rightly so, or not. But there also have been kings who have been respected, honored, and even loved, since the people had been able to live joyously and in peace under their reign. Such rulers had wielded their power with a great sense of responsibility as servants for the benefit of the people, having been just, reliable, and having secured the peace.

     Such virtues can also be granted to a businessman. Aside from his co-workers, his customers are his people. It is a mutually enhancing relationship. The well-being of the employees and their families, hence potentially the well-being of a great many, depend on the well-being of the company in which they work, and on the actions of the principal. And the customers -- naturally, they all would like to be treated as "kings". On the other hand, their purchases enable the continued existence of the company. A Tai-pan (translation: great leader, a term used in Asia in rare cases, such as when people display extraordinary leadership) carries a great responsibility. Only if customers, employees, shareholders, and finally he himself, are satisfied, will he be able to sleep well at night.

     I think of those years with gratitude, in which Günther the businessman made our customer wishes his very own concern. We profited from the wealth of his technical expertise, his experience, and his knowledge of the land and its people. Neither the products nor the skills of the receivers had to be overextended if the desired purpose was to be fulfilled. A cheaper, simpler machine was often better, since locals could handle it, and since replacement parts and appropriate maintenance was available. Quite a few hospital directors have benefited from Günther Buchholtz' good advice in that they did not receive their super modern (and super expensive) machine, even though it was at the very top of their wish list. It wouldn't have matched the hospital, the skills of the doctors and technicians, the possibilities for adequate maintenance, and also not the financial strength of the hospital, which would have had to finance such machine. Günther Buchholtz helped us use our always limited resources as economically and efficiently as possible.


     I'll never forget those weeks when a sudden change in climate destroyed all hopes for a vegetable harvest in an Asian country whose population was hungry. If the farmers still wished to harvest vegetables that same year, they needed to sow new seeds within six weeks. However, the entire nation did not have any seeds anymore.

     Whoever would have rummaged through the rooms of Schmidt & Co. would perhaps have found an abundance of the newest Leica cameras, super modern medical equipment, the newest scientific gadgets, lab instruments, and futuristic electronical devices -- but not a single seed. Schmidt & Co. does not deal with seeds. Nevertheless, Günther Buchholtz acquired vast amounts of diverse, exactly detailed vegetable seeds from China, Taiwan, and the USA, within an incredibly short time span of only six weeks and was able to ship them to the designated country in time. The farmers were able to harvest their vegetables.

     That's why I gratefully call Günther Buchholtz a "kingly" businessman, and my friend.

© 2009 Martin Adams. All Rights Reserved. http://www.MartinAdams.com This work may be shared and distributed for non-commercial purposes as long as the work and this copyright notice is left intact in its entirety. For commercial uses, please contact the author.