Best & Brightest

Robin Li, chairman & CEO of Baidu.com, Inc

Before setting up Baidu, Li worked in Silicon Valley as a leading search engineer at Infoseek. Although the industry outlook was uncertain at that time, he showed great perseverance by continuing with the development of search engine technology.

He returned to China to establish Baidu.com with his business partner in 2000, which provided pure back-end search engine services.

In 2001, he decided to change the business model and launched a search portal for Internet end-users. The transformation brought Baidu.com an annual growth rate close to 200 percent since 2003, and led to a hugely successful IPO in 2005.

Li was awarded "The Best Business Leader 2006" by BusinessWeek and was recognized by some venture capital investors as one of the top five search engine experts in the world.

Baidu.com is now the biggest and most frequently used Internet search engine in China.

Q: Can you share with us your experience and insights in creating Baidu.com?

A: Before setting up Baidu.com, I was just an engineer in Silicon Valley, having no experience beyond technical work. But as a CEO, I had to take care of everything, much of which I had no idea of how to do. This was a learning process of setbacks and trials for me. Although China's Internet sector went through ups and downs in these years, we focused on building Baidu into the best search engine in the Chinese language.

Q: Are there some turning points or milestone events in Baidu's history?

A: In a nutshell, if you want to succeed you need to pay enough attention to detail, rather than just a few turning points. If you can't deal with the details properly, the company simply won't become more and more successful.

But we did make two critical choices for Baidu's growth.

First, we decided to change Baidu from a service provider into an independent search engine in 2001, which then allowed us to establish our presence among consumers. Second, we decided to have an overseas listing in 2005. At that time, there was serious discussion within our company as an IPO would draw more attention as well as competition to Baidu. Meanwhile, some other potential partners offered higher prices than our IPO. It was really a critical decision for us to have a share offering as it greatly helped us in terms of revenue growth, influence, and reputation among consumers.

Q: Now Baidu is the world's largest Chinese search engine. What's your next aim?

A: First, although we are the No 1 search engine in China, the market potential is still huge here as only 10 percent of Chinese are Internet users. Moreover, compared with other countries such as the United State and Europe, the Chinese market is still very small, which represents opportunities for us.

Liu Changle, chairman & CEO of Phoenix Satellite Television Holdings Limited

Liu spent his early years working for China Central People's Radio Station. After working for some years as a reporter, he moved on to further his study at the then-Beijing Broadcasting Institute and graduated in the early 1980s. He returned to the radio station, where he worked his way up to a managerial position. The experience and knowledge equipped him well in developing the right business relationships which subsequently led to the establishment of his own TV broadcasting company.

In 1996, he established Phoenix, which is the only overseas private TV network allowed to broadcast news in Putonghua in the Chinese mainland. Phoenix broke even with its profits after just three years of operation, which is a milestone for a private TV broadcasting company. The company was listed in Hong Kong in 2000.

In China, Phoenix Chinese Channel has an estimated market penetration rate of 14 percent, reaching an audience of 180 million. Phoenix Infonews Channel has a penetration rate of 8 percent with an audience of 100 million.

The "Phoenix" brand value was estimated last year at 23 billion yuan, second only to CCTV in the Chinese media sector.

Q: Running a media business in China is very challenging. What helps you conquer the challenges?

A: It is true that we have to face a lot of risks and overcome many roadblocks. But we can conquer those difficulties if we do things out of goodwill. We do not report news to oppose the government or our audience. In fact we always try to be constructive and act out of good intentions.

With such positive attitudes, we can have better communication with our audience and governments in Malaysia, Singapore and China. Although they may not be satisfied with or feel uncomfortable about some particular reports, generally speaking, they still think Phoenix reports news out of good will and constructively.

Q: What is entrepreneurial spirit in your view?

A: There is something common among all entrepreneurs and there is also something special for entrepreneurs in the media business. I think honesty is necessary for every entrepreneur. For an entrepreneur in the media business, innovation is the most important. Innovation happens every day in media. I think if you are both honest and innovative, to a large extent your enterprise can live well.

Q: What is the driving force of your career? What kind of role does your family take in your career?

A: I have two important driving forces. One is the sense of responsibility and the other is personal interest.

Everybody at Phoenix, including myself, has a strong sense of responsibility that Phoenix should shorten the distance among all the Chinese people around the world and play a very important role in promoting the Chinese culture.

Personally, I am very interested in media. I have spent a long time in the media industry. To me, it is not only a job, but my interest. It is a perfect choice for me to combine work and personal interest together.

Q: What is your advice to young entrepreneurs?

A: Never yield to frustrations. Every entrepreneur has to face lots of difficulties and frustrations during their career. The point is how to deal with them and conquer them. Whether you could have a successful business depends on whether you could keep on fighting despite repeated setbacks.

Horst Julius Pudwill, chairman & CEO of Techtronic Industries Co Ltd

Pudwill came to Hong Kong in the early 1970s as an executive with Volkswagen. He liked Hong Kong so much that he decided to stay and started his own business.

He co-founded Techtronic in 1985 together with his business partner and began producing rechargeable battery packs.

Over the past 20 years, through organic growth and successful integration of major acquisitions, Pudwill has pioneered the expansion of Techtronic into a global company with annual sales of over HK$22 billion and the second largest electric power tool supplier in the United States with a 20 percent market share.

Pudwill is known as the King of Power Tool Maker and Techtronic has been named as one of the emerging-market companies that have the potential to reach the top rank of global corporations.

Q: Obviously you're a very successful entrepreneur. Maybe you can share with us a little bit about what you see is the real entrepreneurial spirit and what makes someone a real entrepreneur.

A: Well, you have to have a vision; you have to create a culture of trust; you have to be prepared to take risks and not give up; and execute. And determination is very important. And if you put all that together, I think you will be a successful entrepreneur. And of course you have to do things that other people have not achieved yet to bring your company to another level, try different things, and drive the business day by day.

Q: When you were young, you were working with Volkswagen and you had wide exposure working around the world. When you came to Hong Kong, you started off with Volkswagen. So what made you decide to actually stay in Hong Kong, and start your own business in Hong Kong.

A: When I came to Hong Kong I had traveled extensively around the world, and it was very strange what happened. When I arrived in Hong Kong, I said in the first week, this is the place I'd like to stay and to live, and settle down, and make this my future home. And that's what I did from day one. I made Hong Kong my home - I did not come here on a temporary basis. I knew, somehow, that I would stay in Hong Kong.

Q: Up to now, TTI is a very successful company. And you are also a very successful business person. What motivates you and drives you nowadays?

A: Well, what motivates you, first of all is you have a commitment. And what motivates me is really the success which we all enjoy. And I think we have set an example for Hong Kong that nothing is impossible if you are prepared to execute and you have a passion.

Q: Obviously it is very difficult and it takes a lot of determination and courage to relocate to a foreign country. So when you first came to Hong Kong, was it tough for you, and what did you learn from your initial experience when you started off working and living in Hong Kong?

A: Well, I was lucky. I had traveled to other parts of the world before in my previous job, and I had learnt over the years, how to respect other cultures, people, and for me, Hong Kong was the most easy place to adapt to. This part of the world, it was very easy to communicate with people, they were willing to work with you, and we all had a set of common objectives.

Q: Being a very successful entrepreneur yourself, what kind of advice would you give to someone who wants to become an entrepreneur. What kind of advice would you give them?

A: I would advise everybody to become an entrepreneur. However, you have to find out what you want to do, what is your strength and what is your weakness. And you have to be prepared to take the challenges, the risks involved, and if you are really determined and decisive about what you have started, and never give up, then you will succeed. It requires a lot of determination, and I think everybody can succeed.

Song Zhenghuan, president of Goodbaby Group

Song was a deputy headmaster of a school when he was asked to manage a loss-making tooling factory owned by the education bureau in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, 17 years ago.

With technology innovation such as the swing enabling functions and a small bank loan, he transformed the ailing factory into Goodbaby in 1989, producing baby strollers. He showed great entrepreneurial spirit and vision by refusing to sell his innovation rights for a quick profit.

The company's products are now sold through a substantial distribution network in China, which includes six specialty stores, 35 branches, 40 chain stores and over 5,000 sales counters.

Goodbaby has become the No 1 stroller manufacturer in China since 1993 and No 1 exporter to the US market since 1999. Fortune reports that Goodbaby currently makes one in three strollers in the United States.

Q: What does entrepreneurial spirit mean to you?

A: I think perseverance is the essence of entrepreneurial spirit. You must persevere in your social responsibility and your business philosophy. You must also have the perseverance to do things bit by bit on the road to create a large business.

Q: Goodbaby pays lots of attention to innovation and it owns more than 2,400 patents. Could you share with us your experience and what are you most proud of?

A: When I was asked to manage the loss-making factory in 1988, we didn't have the ability to do the processing business. The only thing we had was our own intelligence. So we were wondering if we could create something new.

At that time, children's products manufactured by Chinese enterprises were very backward compared with foreign companies. The quality of children's life is very much related to economic development. So we made a decision on our business focus: we wanted to make a contribution to the improvement of children's quality of life.

So we created a brand new multifunctional baby stroller, which can also be a cradle. In three years, we became the market leader in the baby stroller industry in China.

So to some extent, we were forced to become innovative, and we could not give up later on. We can keep our leading position only if we keep on innovating.

Q: What is your plan for international expansion?

A: Like other enterprises, we have our own international strategy. But we don't immediately have to promote our own brand or to set up our own sales network or to directly do business with Wal-Mart. We are still thinking about how to strengthen international cooperation. It is like a drama, which needs both the hero and the heroine. We want to be one of them.

For the moment, the role we need to play is to study the international market, the characteristics of their demands and their fashion and trends so that we can keep dishing out industry-leading products. For the time being, we don't want to take the risk of making our battle line too long.

Wong Kwong Yu, chairman of GOME Electrical Appliances Group

Growing up in a humble family, Wong left school at a young age.

He showed his business acumen by taking advantage of the price differentials that existed between southern and northern parts of China in the mid-1980s to earn his initial capital by selling electronic products.

In 1987, Wong and his brother started GOME and the retailing business in home electrical appliances. In three years, business grew rapidly under his innovative business model such as direct purchase from manufacturers and advertisement of retail prices in newspapers. Good customer service, price guarantees, extended warranties and a "no questions asked" return policy helped promote GOME's brand among customers.

GOME successfully executed a reverse takeover and was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2004. In 2005, GOME became the largest household electrical appliance retail chain in China with revenue of HK$18 billion.

Q: What are the milestones that GOME has experienced?

A: Briefly, there are three. The first is when GOME was established, and when it became a nation-wide popular brand through expanding chain stores and mergers and acquisitions. Now we are expecting another milestone: that GOME can successfully enter into overseas markets and become an international brand.

Q: What is your comment on your style as an executive?

A: From the perspective of staff, I am too serious and strict with them, because I always strive for perfection. But I am easy to communicate, and willing to listen to others.

Q: What has built GOME into what it is today?

A: Farsighted vision, a right choice, and a perseverant approach, these are key points leading to GOME's success. While many belittled China's home appliance retailing market, we firmly believed the sector would be promising someday, and stuck to what we think was right, and now we have more than 800 stores in China's 180 cities, and 200,000 staff working for GOME.

Q: What is GOME's future plan?

A: We have set a target of sales revenue worth 150 billion yuan by 2010. We will be expanding by having more stores and maximizing sales and profits. But a more important thing is GOME expects to be a trendsetter, a rule maker, and a real leader in the home appliance retailing industry. We expect the industry could keep prospering, which would eventually benefit Chinese consumers. We will try to dabble into more niche markets in China like mobile phone retailing. We are planning to open cell phone stores in 2007.

Yang Yuanqing, chairman of Lenovo Group Limited

Yang joined Lenovo after university as an entry-level salesperson in 1989, and became its CEO at the age of 37 after working at the company for 12 years.

He pioneered the company's transformation from being a distributor of foreign branded PCs into the leading PC manufacturer in China. Lenovo became market leader in China in 1996 with his innovative pricing and sales distribution strategies. The company has held the position ever since.

Lenovo's acquisition of IBM's PC division represented one of the biggest and highest profile overseas acquisitions ever made by a Chinese mainland company. The transaction helped to elevate Lenovo into one of the world's top three PC makers with operations in 66 countries and revenue of over HK$100 billion.

Q: What's the secret for Lenovo's success?

A: In the first place, you should have great ambition. When we were just an electronic products distributor, we wanted to make PCs of our own brands. After that, we aimed to become the largest computer maker in China, and then in the Asia Pacific. And now we are trying to become the world's largest.

Moreover, good execution is important for us to realize those aims. A lot of entrepreneurs have great ambition but only a few can deliver. Last but not least, you should have good learning ability not only from books but from the market and the customers, as well as competitors.

Q: With employees all over the world, how did you adjust in the transition process?

A: It's really difficult, but you just have to do it. For me, I used to be in charge of a Chinese business but now our global business. Moreover, I'm now the board director rather than CEO, which means I need to pay more attention to strategic aspects rather than detailed problems.

Changing from a domestic company to a multinational one, you have to spend more time and cost on communication, especially between Chinese employees and overseas staff.

(China Daily 02/05/2007 page7)