Business / Companies

Serving 46 bosses a challenge

By Chen Yingqun and Ji Tao (China Daily) Updated: 2014-04-28 06:35

Gary Locke (second from the right), the first Chinese-American ambassador to China, attends an event held by the China Entrepreneur Club. The club's mission is to promote entrepreneurship and sustainable ways of developing business. Provided to China Daily

China Entrepreneur Club's leader plans events for industry titans

Many people complain about how difficult it is to please their boss. Spare a thought then for Cheng Hong, who has 46 of them, all highfliers who demand a lot of themselves and of others.

Cheng's job is to come up with activities that will appeal to these bosses, people who run business empires that employ tens of thousands of people and whose motto could well be "Success".

Cheng is secretary-general of the China Entrepreneur Club, founded in 2006 and comprising 46 leaders of the top private companies in various industries across the country.

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The club, which aims to promote the business leaders' entrepreneurial spirit and sustainable business, is a nonprofit, but, as you might expect with such an outfit, Cheng runs it like a business.

But coming up with ideas for events, making them work and getting these powerful people to take part are three different things.

"They are leaders who give orders to thousands of people and always have many options," Cheng says. "I cannot make them come to our activities just because they're members. All I can do is plan worthwhile activities, things they will think are worth the time and effort."

Those activities, developed by about 40 people who work for the club, include: an annual international visit of a week or two that includes meetings with top government officials, businesspeople and academics; visits to members' companies to point out problems and to learn from one another; China Green Companies Summit, an annual economic business forum on sustainable business development; overseas study opportunities for entrepreneurs, charity programs and many others.

Liu Chuanzhi, founder and honorary chairman of China's largest PC maker, Lenovo Group Ltd, and who is chairman of CEC, attends about 20 of its activities a year, which is far more than the number of activities he attends from his own company. Michael Yu, chairman and CEO of New Oriental Education & Technology Group, is a frequent visitor to CEC offices, on the fifth floor of a building near Zhongguancun, often referred to as China's Silicon Valley, in northwest Beijing.

Liu Donghua, founder of CEC, says CEC's success is largely due to the "golden team that Cheng Hong leads".

Cheng, ever faithful to the business spirit, refers to all activities that CEC initiates as products. As with any product manager with an eye on consumer feedback, Cheng says that if members give an activity the thumbs-down, staff will look at it again to see if it can be improved.