Long strides

Like many, Zhu Guofan puts family at the top of his priorities - but his "family" is large, numbering in the tens of thousands. They are all from his rural home province and work for his company, the nation's largest foot massage chain.

Born to a poor rural family in Xinxiang in central China's Henan province, Zhu is now a successful entrepreneur, founder and chairman of Liangzi, which means "good children of good families" in Chinese

Established in 1997, the company now has more than 400 wholly owned and over 700 franchise outlets at home and abroad with brand value exceeding 300 million yuan.

Zhu Guofan, chairman of Liangzi

Liangzi's nearly 31,000 employees are all from Henan, and most are natural brothers and sisters or parents and children.

About 30 percent of the employees started when the foot massage company was founded and 70 percent have been working for more than three years. In 2006 and 2007, not a single employee quit .

"Liangzi has a cohesive force, we have the same background - from rural Henan. We have the same aim to live better and we have the same responsibility to support the family," says Zhu, who usually addresses employees of Liangzi as "villagers and children".

Better conditions

Zhu says his duty is to take care of and provide services for everyone in the family and make them feel comfortable and happy.

He says he should provide them with sound living conditions, a decent income, development and promotion opportunities and friendly relations.

Spacious and clean dormitories, good home-style meals, clothes for the four seasons and colorful spare-time entertainment are all part of the package.

The average monthly salary at Liangzi is over 3,000 yuan, higher than that of in the industry in general.

"Villagers and children of Liangzi are all from rural areas and the top concern for them is making a living. Stable and higher relative salaries are the bread-and-butter to make them feel secure and happy," says Zhu.

To stimulate employee enthusiasm and provide promotion possibilities, a flexible and competitive payment mechanism divides salaries into 136 levels ranging from 1,500 to 20,000 yuan a month according to expertise and work performance.

"There is no salary ceiling in Liangzi," Zhu stresses.

Primary and continuing professional training also offers development opportunities for employees not only in the firm but also in society.

"If villagers and children quit from Liangzi, they can easily find jobs depending on massage skills and traditional Chinese medical knowledge they have learned here," says Zhu, still with a trace of a Henan accent, though he left his hometown more than 10 years ago.

When the company selects apprentices, it sets priorities on village girls and women who usually do not have the same education and employment opportunities as boys and men due to historical male-oriented traditions in rural China.

Learning and practice to rise from an apprenticeship to the level of a technician is not easy. The work starts at Liangzi's training facility, now located in the Beijing suburb of Huairou.

Apprentices are required to spend three months in initial training. "In addition to physical improvement, they will first learn medical theories involving the structure of the human body, the corresponding relations between its 62 reflex points and various human organs, as well as rubbing and kneading techniques," says Zhu.

Apprentices also receive corporate culture orientation. A tenet of Liangzi is that "good children use effective medicine to get conscientious benefits through excellent technology and service".

"There are rules everywhere, as in a nation or a family," says Zhu.

Li Yueli, a first-class masseuse, came to Liangzi with her sister in 2003. "In the training facility, our accommodation is free of charge and we also have uniforms," says the 20-something girl. After three years of work, the sisters have helped their parents build a new two-floor house in their hometown.

"Now people in our village have changed their view that sons are better than daughters and foot massage is no longer regarded as an inferior job," says Li.

The Liangzi brand name has been registered in the United States, South Korea and Japan. Branch stores have opened in Seoul, Turkey and Malta, and the company has plans for further international expansion.

The overseas branches offer wider development and promotion opportunities for villagers and children, according to Zhu.

In addition to honest work and career development, Zhu, as head of the family, offers care to its members - from birthdays and festival celebrations to weekend entertainment, from travels to Lhasa and Yunnan and even Thailand, or to New Year hong bao pocket money.

Though some employees complain at times about Zhu's parental management style, they say they are attached to and depend on him.

According to insiders, different from many other industries, professional skills, work experience and individual compassion are crucial in foot massage. Skilled and talented technicians are the top asset for any foot-massage company.

They say Zhu's family-style human resource management helps retain talent, maintain corporate culture and pursue sustainable development.

Though Zhu declines to disclose exact business performance figures of privately owned Liangzi, he says annual turnover had a two-digit increase in each of the last three years.

Family loyalty

When 39-year-old Zhu was young, he certainly had no idea he would one day be a successful entrepreneur. But as the only boy of a poor single-parent family, he decided to earn money to help his mother support the family since he was only 10.

"I don't think I am a lucky businessman, as I have failed so many times, but I believe I am a lucky person, who can always get support from the family," Zhu says.

Without finishing his middle school education, Zhu's early career included stints selling ducks and chickens in an open-air market in his hometown of Xinxiang as well as running a roadside stand hawking barbecued meat sticks. But all of the businesses failed.

Then he noticed the popularity of the local foot masseuses who worked in rundown shops. Supported by his mother and wife, the determined man decided to offer an upscale version of the service.

After founding his first shop in February, 1997, he was astounded by its instant popularity and obtained his first small windfall of 10,000 yuan. "Every day, over 100 people came to the shop," says Zhu, still amazed at his success. "Back then I didn't understand the concept of a chain store - but my brother-in-law suggested I open another shop," says Zhu.

Liangzi then experienced rapid growth through its own chain and franchised expansion and Zhu moved the company's headquarters to Beijing, seeking a further wave of success.

The man brought his family with him. "I cannot separate with them," says the tall and muscular Zhu with hair dyed in red.

But due to unchecked expansion and the unexpected SARS crisis, Liangzi had its ups and downs in 2003 to 2004, including bankruptcy of its Shanghai branch that lost 1.5 million yuan and closure of Beijing stores because of the epidemic.

But Zhu did not give up. "A faith supports me - my family needs me to recover," he says, adding that villagers and children of Liangzi also prompted him to restart.

Liangzi has emerged from its difficulties and started to expand in a sound way by decreasing franchised stores and consolidating directly operated outlets.

The entrepreneur has set a target of making Liangzi to a premier foot-massage corporation in China by 2017, with 80 wholly owned outlets nationwide and monthly sales at each store of 1.2 million yuan. More overseas operations are also expected.

Despite his busy schedule, Zhu spends significant time with his mother, wife and three children.

Climbing Beijing's Fragrant Hill on the weekend with his mother, who is in her 70s, or accompanying his wife shopping and playing with his girl, 12, and two sons at 10 and 2 - these are his happiest moments, Zhu says.

When he has time he will cook hometown dishes for the family.

This Spring Festival, he led some of Liangzi's villagers and children to Sanya, a well-known sea resort in South China's Hainan province.

"I live for my family and the family supports me," he says.

Apprentices receive training in one of Liangzi's foot massage centers.

(China Daily 02/25/2008 page12)