Cutting your cloth to suit your style

For example, many manufacturing enterprises have moved to Southeast Asian nations such as Bangladesh and Cambodia. However, Yang thinks Guangdong is more competitive than them with regard to the quality of the labor force.

After a fire broke out in a fashion factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in November, killing at least 117 people and injuring at least 200, Yang said: "Our orders witnessed a considerable increase".

The accident is believed to be the deadliest factory fire in the nation's history. "Production efficiency is what we value most instead of unit labor cost," she said.

In order to increase productivity, Esquel has shifted its management emphasis from labor input to the cultivation of its labor force.

"When it comes to management, nothing is small business," she said.

Young people such as her daughter usually offer a different perspective in looking at problems.

Yang's daughter Dee Poon, who also graduated from Harvard University and now serves as CEO of PYE, the retail brand of Esquel Group, once studied the relation between the female workers' attendance rates and the rate of unplanned pregnancies.

"Once a female worker gets pregnant unexpectedly, there would be a significant number of days that she would be absent from her position." Yang said. "When such cases happen several times, the factory's total production capacity suffers tremendously, especially in an industry in which the majority of workers are female."

In response to this issue, the company provides training classes on contraception to female employees who have limited knowledge of avoiding unplanned pregnancies.

"It works well and the situation has changed in the interests of the company," Yang said. "Enterprises in the traditional industries have to reform," she added.

When talking about the biggest challenge facing the textile sector, she said: "It's about how to get employees to accept new management thoughts in this era in this industry and to allow staff to give full play to their potential and creativity".

Yang said she likes pointing out her employees' areas for improvement in person "relentlessly" before subsequently offering advice.

The thought of retirement has crossed Marjorie Yang's mind, but she said that she still prefers to work, which brings her much more vitality and fun.

In her leisure time, Yang likes playing table tennis, tai chi chuan (a kind of traditional Chinese shadow boxing) and yoga.

"It is the best of times for entrepreneurs like me because the idea of building the nation by engaging in industry' can finally be realized now, a factor that stems from my maternal grandfather," said Yang.