站在世界舞台上的浙商

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Editorial Committee For Standing Tall:Zhejiang Businessmen on the World Stage

Preface

I

On September 19, 2014, Jack Ma, Chairman of the Alibaba Group’s Board of Directors, appeared at the New York Stock Exchange. After over a decade of growth, Alibaba finally went public, setting a new record for the biggest IPO in American stock history.

The New York Stock Exchange, home to the world’s top-notch enterprises, witnessed the glorious moment of the world’s largest e-commerce company.

Surprisingly, never before had any public company provided such a grand and legitimate occasion for Chinese people’s concerted jubilations as Alibaba did.

Chinese entrepreneurs, represented by Zhejiang businessmen, inched toward the center of the world arena from the 1990s onward. They took the initiative to associate with global business giants and sit with the high-ranking government officials for negotiation over the next investment opportunity. These scenes have constituted a majestic spectacle of the Chinese economy over the last decade and more.

In 1978, China raised the curtain on its reform and opening up policy and joined the WTO in 2001, gradually transforming from a developing nation with a negligible economic aggregate to an economic body at present whose GDP ranks second in the world. The fertile business soil of China is an infallible and immense source of nutrients for the development of Chinese enterprises, even infusing a growth impetus into the world economy.

Zhejiang is located at the southern tip of the Yangtze River Delta in the southeast coastal region of China, facing the East China Sea on the east and bordering Shanghai. As one of the smallest provinces in China, Zhejiang covers an area of 101,800 km2 which accounts for just a mere 1.1% of Chinese territory. However, it is the most economically active region in the country. As inconceivable as it sounds, about eight million businessmen have come from Zhejiang province, conducting every sort of trade in the most remote corners of the world, earning themselves the “Oriental Jews” title. Amid this elite business group, Jack Ma stands out as its most eminent representative.

II

We looked far and wide, scrutinizing hundreds of entrepreneurs from the agricultural-age founders to the industrial-age explorers, then from the industrial-age pioneers to the Internet-age adventurers, and finally selected 20 representatives that have been taking an active part in global commercial activities and embody the unique qualities of contemporary Zhejiang businessmen. Their entrepreneurial journeys have inspired innumerable touching ballads eulogizing the indomitable spirit of mankind; they have set ideal examples on how to win in the game of life, better serve the society and create lasting value. In the future, they are bound to walk even farther.

Indubitably, the countless stories of the indomitable pioneering of international enterprises have deeply touched Chinese entrepreneurs. As in the case of Henry Ford who inspired Li Shufu, founder of Geely Holding Group, to set foot in the automotive industry, or of Warren Buffett whose pioneering spirit spurred Guo Guangchang, Chairman of the Fosun Group, to follow his steps and graft global resources onto China’s dynamic development, resulting in the emergence of numerous fresh business opportunities. Or of Japan’s Toyota that spurred numerous Chinese entrepreneurs, who were endeavoring to step into high-end manufacturing, to imitate and then rise above the examples it set. A fresh tide carrying abundant opportunities is reaching the shore of China, the world’s new factory.

On a daily basis, the overseas commercial civilizations grow more intertwined with Zhejiang’s business culture which originated from the Southern Song Dynasty. The encounter between America’s creative business mode, Germany’s advanced management experience, Japan’s meticulous craftsmanship, and the business practice of Zhejiang businessmen, who keep progressing with the rise of China, is creating brilliant sparks of innovation. Through open collaboration and communication, the former barriers formed through preconceptions are being demolished and the crystallization of a new commercial civilization is taking shape with the concerted efforts of each and every nation.

It is the shared aspiration of all the entrepreneurs on this planet to revolutionize the lifestyles of mankind and perpetuate world progress. From this perspective, all the entrepreneurs in the world think alike — after they take over the duty and mission of wealth management given to them from God.

Let us take a moment and look back on the grand entrepreneurial epic of Chinese entrepreneurs. The pioneering and adventurous spirit in Zhejiang businessmen is a perfect embodiment of our Zeitgeist. Like the successful European and American entrepreneurs, Zhejiang businessmen have propelled the progress of the times. We firmly believe that the next Morgan-style banker, Carnegie-style steel magnate, or Steve Jobs-style icon are bound to emerge from the Orient.

III

China is a nation with very fine etiquette where five thousand years of human civilization keeps evolving. The G20 summit not only provides a window displaying the hospitality of the Orient, but also constitutes an opportunity for the world to better understand China.

Business is a process of integration. Due to business, the earth has become a big family. Business is a fluid language that dissolves the barrier of estrangement while the entrepreneurs are the founders and most loyal practitioners of the principle of seeking the widest possible common ground amid differences.

The G20 summit is aimed at building an innovative, dynamic, interactive, and tolerant world economy and the Chinese entrepreneurs including Zhejiang businessmen have undertaken the mission endowed by the era. Zhejiang businessmen have become the participants and coordinators of this colorful commercial world and are bound to turn into the shapers of the emergent new order someday in the future.

Editorial Committee For

Standing Tall:Zhejiang Businessmen on the World Stage

14 July 2016

The First Chinese Businessman to Appear on the Cover of Time

In 1991, Lu Guanqiu accepted the exclusive interview by Time and as its cover figure became the second Chinese after Deng Xiaoping to make it onto this magazine’s cover. Without even a junior high school diploma, Lu is hailed as a “peasant theorist or a theorist lacking traditional education” by the masters of management studies.

Lu Guanqiu’s self-discipline is notoriously stringent: he invariably sets aside one to two hours for reading and making notes however busy he is. His long-kept working habits are epitomized in his daily routine : gets up at 5:10 a.m.; arrives at the company at 6:50 a.m.; gets off work at 6:45 p.m. and goes back to his farm cottage built in 1983 for dinner with his wife; watches Xinwen Lianbo and Topics in Focus from 7 p.m.; deals with the unfinished files of that day at 8 p.m.; starts to read books and newspapers at 9 p.m.; takes a shower at 10:30 p.m. and then resumes studying; goes to bed at 12 p.m. sharp.

While leading Wanxiang in innumerable commercial battles over the years, Lu Guanqiu has also authored over 120 theoretical articles that address the crux of the Chinese economy, making himself one of the most prolific entrepreneurs in China.

(Yao Jue)

Foreword

The G20 summit is China’s most significant platform for diplomatic display in the year 2016.

Entrepreneurs constitute a passport for global communication. Business is to communication what music is to language, capable of evoking an empathy in every nation on this planet.

Zhejiang businessmen epitomize the entrepreneurial spirit emerging after China’s reform and opening up. Taking on various active roles in the global arena, Zhejiang businessmen are superb masters that do business with the whole world; their stories overlap entirely with the story of the integration of the Chinese economy with that of the world’s.

In order to better and more comprehensively display the history of development and innovation of Zhejiang businessmen and present the interactive history between Zhejiang businessmen and the Chinese and global economy, we have presented 20 eminent Zhejiang entrepreneurs as the protagonists in On the Rise: Zhejiang Businessmen on the World Stage.