Dagong follows a personal path

Scholars don't easily turn into businessmen. Luckily, Guan Jianzhong, the chairman of Dagong Global Credit Rating Co Ltd, is still able to give one-hour talks about his papers - those already published and those to be published.

The Beijing-headquartered Dagong, which has more than 600 employees, claims to be the only large independent Chinese credit ratings service after other rating agencies of a similar size were merged into international companies.

When Guan looks back into the history of his company since he became chairman, he doesn't see a history marked by major deals and leaps in revenue. For him, all the milestones, instead, were the papers he published to advance his theories.