Perfect example of a business magnate
Chinese participants at the World Economic Forum (this year's session ended in Davos, Switzerland, last week) and other international gatherings are becoming increasingly articulate, with Peking University's Justin Yifu Lin, Alibaba founder Jack Ma and Huawei president Ren Zhengfei being prominent among them.
Even among the articulate industry captains, 70-year-old Ren is different, for he seems to know better than others how to engage the audience even without answering the challenging questions.
A day after watching Ren's live interview on BBC on Jan 22, I met with him for afternoon tea at a hotel in Davos. Unlike American or European business tycoons, he doesn't say his mission is to serve the world; instead, he is clear that he wants to "get the money from the pocket of customers". Explaining how a company that started with less than $3,000 in 1988 earned sales revenue of $46 billion last year, Ren said the secret is that instead of relaxing Huawei employees want to work harder.
