Approximately half (52%) of Asia’s female billionaires are
first-generation entrepreneurs. They tend to be younger
than their female peers elsewhere (an average age of 53 in
Asia compares with 59 in the US and 65 in Europe). Some
have been educated in Europe or the US, before returning
home and implementing western business practices, which
complement local business traditions.
One female billionaire relates how the classic Asian
pattern of saving hard to pay for a western education,
where she gained experience of western business
practices, fostered her success. “After working in a factory
for some years, I saved sufficient to study abroad and
get a degree,” she said. “However, when I came back
to my home country it was less the degree but more the
knowledge of how to do business in the western world,
and how to raise the appropriate financing for my new
business idea, that helped.”