Chen game for the Gome draw

Chen Xiao came to Gome as nothing more than one of the many senior executives in November 2006 after his company, Paradise, of which he was chairman, was gobbled up by his new employer, Huang Guangyu.

Both men were prominent players in the fiercely competitive consumer electronics market of China, but their personalities and business philosophies are poles apart. The reserved and mild-mannered Chen, a tall and lean-looking native of Shanghai, stands in sharp contrast to the flamboyant and pudgy Huang, who exemplifies the take-no-prisoner business style of a Chaoshan entrepreneur.

Nobody had expected Chen to last more than a few months in the go-go corporate culture of Gome.