"We are not about profit alone.
We want to make things
that are small and beautiful.
Things that make people feel happy
and that help build community.
Things that are new and creative,
that combine the past with the future.
Things that add compassion to the world."
Meet Tommy Zhang:
A Process Businessman in China
(scroll down for a short word of appreciation
from an American business professor)

My name is Tommy Zhang . I live in Hangzhou, China. I am founder of the business Tom-Horse.
Tom-Horse is a small craft company in Hangzhou. We design and produce creative crafts, focusing especially on Chinese culture crafts: that is, crafts that integrate Chinese cultural images with new, contemporary designs from popular culture. In this way we appreciate traditional culture and at the same time promote novel, cultural development. We believe that the past is important and also that the future is important. We believe that change or process is part of life.
My own journey to Tom-Horse has a “process” dimension. I worked in the IT field for more than 15 years, up until 2012. But this work was not fulfilling; I wanted to do some kind of work that truly interested me.
I was following a subjective aim, but this aim was not true to my heart. Ever since childhood, I had loved arts and crafts, so I decided to start my own business in the crafts field. It took me six years to develop Tom-Horse; I started with a staff of three persons. Now, as I write this, Tom-Horse has a staff of twenty-five. It began with $10,000 annual sales and now has sales of two million dollars a year.
Our business model is simple. We initiate and design the crafts, and then we send the blueprint to the factory, where workers produce the crafts. After assemblage and quality check, we send the products to the retailers or to chain-stores. Then customers buy them at the stores and enjoy them. Most of the time, the Tom-Horse crafts are selected as gifts, and when the people receive them, they feel surprise and happiness. We think of this as “a business circle” where benefit goes all around. We cooperate with the factory, the delivery company, the wholesalers, and retailers.
A kind of community is created. We appreciate the fact that as people participate in the business circles, they enjoy a sense of beauty in the crafts themselves and also that they become connected to one another. We see this sense of beauty and also the feeling of connection as part of the “process” way.
There is another side to our business that is “process” in spirit. We are not concerned with profit alone. We concerned with our staff, our business partners, our customers. We know that connections can be positive or negative, constructive or destructive. We know that compassion and care are what connections look like when they are positive. In a culture of compassion and care, everyone benefits. So we want Tom-Horse to communicate and embody the idea of a compassionate business.
This idea of a compassionate business is itself new. In former times businesses were about money alone. We want to change that. This willingness to change is part of our very essence. We at Tom-Horse believe in novelty. We are interested in preserving traditional culture and preserving the best aspects of modernity, and we are also interested in newness and adventure. At Tom-Horse we take creativity and openness to novelty as a key to human fulfillment and business success. We know that everything is flowing and changing all the time. We know that human beings cannot and need not cling to their pasts and avoid new ways of living. We hope that our products and our ways at Tom-Horse exemplify such a new and constructive way. We are a “process” business in China.
A Word of Appreciation from an American Professor
Dear Tommy Zhang,
Thank you for your essay. We are "on the same page," as we say in America. In my 32 years of teaching business and accounting to college undergraduates, I’ve taught the concept of increasing the value of your firm by taking care of all stakeholders, not just the stockholders. By stakeholders, I mean the specific entities he mentions in the article: “the factory, the delivery company, the wholesalers, and retailers” and “our staff, our business partners, our customers” and I would add the local community as well as the environment to that list. Businesses that are concerned with profit alone don’t last very long and usually go down quickly in flames. Balancing the needs of all stakeholders is the best way to increase the value of a business and ensure a long life. That’s a sustainable business model. Good work, Tommy. I hope we meet someday.
Dr. Lyle Rupert
Hendrix College
Conway, Arkansas USA
Dear Tommy Zhang,
Thank you for your essay. We are "on the same page," as we say in America. In my 32 years of teaching business and accounting to college undergraduates, I’ve taught the concept of increasing the value of your firm by taking care of all stakeholders, not just the stockholders. By stakeholders, I mean the specific entities he mentions in the article: “the factory, the delivery company, the wholesalers, and retailers” and “our staff, our business partners, our customers” and I would add the local community as well as the environment to that list. Businesses that are concerned with profit alone don’t last very long and usually go down quickly in flames. Balancing the needs of all stakeholders is the best way to increase the value of a business and ensure a long life. That’s a sustainable business model. Good work, Tommy. I hope we meet someday.
Dr. Lyle Rupert
Hendrix College
Conway, Arkansas USA
Chinese Translation
我们不仅为了获利。
我们要做的东西是这样的:
小而美;
使人感到快乐;
帮助建设共同体;
新颖而有创意;
联结过去与未来;
给世界添加共情心。
遇见汤米张:
一位具有过程思想的中国商人
(谢邦秀 译)
(向下滚屏,查看一位美国商贸教授的简短致谢辞)
我是汤米张,家住中国杭州,是杭州唐马仕文化创意有限公司的创办人。
唐马仕是杭州的一家小工艺品公司。我们设计和生产创意工艺品,尤其专注于中国文化工艺品:即将中国文化意象与流行文化的当代新设计相结合的工艺品。这样,我们重视传统文化,同时促进新颖文化的发展。我们相信过去重要,未来也重要。我们相信变化或过程是生活的一部分。
我自己走向唐马仕的历程具有一种“过程”维度。我在IT领域做了15年多,一直到2012年。但这项工作不能实现我的个人抱负;我想做一种真正令我感兴趣的事情。
我当时在追随一种主观目的,但该目的并非我的内心所求。我从小就喜欢工艺品,因此我决定在工艺品领域开创自己的事业。我花了六年时间发展唐马仕;一开始只有三个人。现在,在我写此文之时,唐马仕已有25人。刚开始的年销售额为1万美元,现在一年的销售额为200万美元。
我们的经营模式很简单。我们首创、设计工艺品,然后把图纸送到工厂,工人在那里生产出工艺品。通过组装和质检后,我们把产品发送给零售商或连锁店。然后顾客在商店里购买并享有它们。大多数时候,唐马仕工艺品会被选为礼品,收到它们的人会感到惊喜、快乐。我们认为这是一个各方都受益的“商业循环圈”。我们与工厂、快递公司、批发商以及零售商合作。
共同体被创造出来。我们很欣赏这样一个事实:当人们参与到这种商业循环圈时,他们自己会在这些工艺品中享受到一种美感,也会感到变得彼此关联。我们把这种美感和关联感视为“过程”之道的一部分。
我们公司还有另一方面具有“过程”精神。我们并不只关心获利。我们亦关心我们的员工、我们的商业伙伴、我们的顾客。我们知道关联可以是积极的或消极的、建设性的或破坏性的。我们知道共情心和关怀是一种积极的关联。在一种具有共情心和关怀的文化中,每个人都会受益。因此,我们希望唐马仕能够交流、体现一种共情企业理念。
这种共情企业理念本身就是新颖的。在过去,一些企业只在乎赚钱。我们想改变这一点。这种改变的意愿是我们企业文化精髓的一部分。我们唐马仕相信新颖性。我们感兴趣于保护传统文化、保护现代性最好的方面,我们也感兴趣于新颖与探险。在唐马仕,我们将创造性与向新颖性开放视为实现人类满足和企业成功的关键。我们知道,一切都总是在流动、变化。我们知道,人类不能也不必固守其过去、避开新的生活方式。我们希望,唐马仕的产品和经营方式可以例示这样一种新的、建设性的方式。我们是一个具有“过程”性的中国企业。
一位美国教授的致谢辞
尊敬的汤米张,
感谢你的文章。正如我们在美国所说,我们“所见相同”。在我为大学本科生教授商业和会计课程的32年里,我教授的概念是:提升公司的价值要关心所有利益相关者的利益,而不仅仅关心股东们的利益。我所说的利益相关者指的是他在文章中提到的那些具体存在:“工厂、快递公司、批发商和零售商”和“我们的员工、我们的商业伙伴、我们的顾客”,我还要在此清单中加入当地共同体和环境。只关心盈利的企业不会长久,通常很快就会毁于一旦。平衡所有利益相关者的需求是提高企业价值并保其长久的最佳方法。这是一种可持续的经营模式。干得好,汤米。希望我们有相见之日。
美国阿肯色康威
亨瑞克斯学院
莱尔.鲁伯特 博士
我们要做的东西是这样的:
小而美;
使人感到快乐;
帮助建设共同体;
新颖而有创意;
联结过去与未来;
给世界添加共情心。
遇见汤米张:
一位具有过程思想的中国商人
(谢邦秀 译)
(向下滚屏,查看一位美国商贸教授的简短致谢辞)
我是汤米张,家住中国杭州,是杭州唐马仕文化创意有限公司的创办人。
唐马仕是杭州的一家小工艺品公司。我们设计和生产创意工艺品,尤其专注于中国文化工艺品:即将中国文化意象与流行文化的当代新设计相结合的工艺品。这样,我们重视传统文化,同时促进新颖文化的发展。我们相信过去重要,未来也重要。我们相信变化或过程是生活的一部分。
我自己走向唐马仕的历程具有一种“过程”维度。我在IT领域做了15年多,一直到2012年。但这项工作不能实现我的个人抱负;我想做一种真正令我感兴趣的事情。
我当时在追随一种主观目的,但该目的并非我的内心所求。我从小就喜欢工艺品,因此我决定在工艺品领域开创自己的事业。我花了六年时间发展唐马仕;一开始只有三个人。现在,在我写此文之时,唐马仕已有25人。刚开始的年销售额为1万美元,现在一年的销售额为200万美元。
我们的经营模式很简单。我们首创、设计工艺品,然后把图纸送到工厂,工人在那里生产出工艺品。通过组装和质检后,我们把产品发送给零售商或连锁店。然后顾客在商店里购买并享有它们。大多数时候,唐马仕工艺品会被选为礼品,收到它们的人会感到惊喜、快乐。我们认为这是一个各方都受益的“商业循环圈”。我们与工厂、快递公司、批发商以及零售商合作。
共同体被创造出来。我们很欣赏这样一个事实:当人们参与到这种商业循环圈时,他们自己会在这些工艺品中享受到一种美感,也会感到变得彼此关联。我们把这种美感和关联感视为“过程”之道的一部分。
我们公司还有另一方面具有“过程”精神。我们并不只关心获利。我们亦关心我们的员工、我们的商业伙伴、我们的顾客。我们知道关联可以是积极的或消极的、建设性的或破坏性的。我们知道共情心和关怀是一种积极的关联。在一种具有共情心和关怀的文化中,每个人都会受益。因此,我们希望唐马仕能够交流、体现一种共情企业理念。
这种共情企业理念本身就是新颖的。在过去,一些企业只在乎赚钱。我们想改变这一点。这种改变的意愿是我们企业文化精髓的一部分。我们唐马仕相信新颖性。我们感兴趣于保护传统文化、保护现代性最好的方面,我们也感兴趣于新颖与探险。在唐马仕,我们将创造性与向新颖性开放视为实现人类满足和企业成功的关键。我们知道,一切都总是在流动、变化。我们知道,人类不能也不必固守其过去、避开新的生活方式。我们希望,唐马仕的产品和经营方式可以例示这样一种新的、建设性的方式。我们是一个具有“过程”性的中国企业。
一位美国教授的致谢辞
尊敬的汤米张,
感谢你的文章。正如我们在美国所说,我们“所见相同”。在我为大学本科生教授商业和会计课程的32年里,我教授的概念是:提升公司的价值要关心所有利益相关者的利益,而不仅仅关心股东们的利益。我所说的利益相关者指的是他在文章中提到的那些具体存在:“工厂、快递公司、批发商和零售商”和“我们的员工、我们的商业伙伴、我们的顾客”,我还要在此清单中加入当地共同体和环境。只关心盈利的企业不会长久,通常很快就会毁于一旦。平衡所有利益相关者的需求是提高企业价值并保其长久的最佳方法。这是一种可持续的经营模式。干得好,汤米。希望我们有相见之日。
美国阿肯色康威
亨瑞克斯学院
莱尔.鲁伯特 博士