Chen Jianping, A Wage Earner: Seven Billion Dollars In Fortune

Chen Jianping, a more than 20 year old migrant worker, has made hundreds of millions of people in 7 years. wealth 。

The path he chose represents the only way to upgrade and transform traditional manufacturing industry in Shenzhen. In the early June, the modest young man received an exclusive interview with reporters.

Start with 100 thousand yuan. Entrepreneurship

Interviewer: it's hard to believe that you've been so successful in such a short time. Can you tell us about your first job?

Chen Jianping: the first job was to make statistics in a hardware factory. After 3 months, he jumped to a factory in Tangxia to do warehouse management.

So fast job hopping is because the hardware factory is too long to read and attend classes, but I didn't think of the impulse of learning at that time. Study logistics, warehouse management and graphic design. In order to have more time, I finally quit my job and went to a computer training school, and I learned 5 sets of software in one month. The school boss simply asked me to give lessons to other students during the day and study free at night.

After the Spring Festival in 2002, I think there should be a bigger stage. I went straight to Shenzhen. I found a family this time. Advertisement Companies do design.

The work in Shenzhen has made me feel a lot of vision. I gradually started the impulse to start my own business. In 2003, when PDA was the hottest, I recognized the Case (shell, jacket), which was also a lonely industry at that time. I think the Case industry will rise with the maturity and expansion of the personal electronic equipment market.

As for the start-up funds, I put together all my savings, about sixty thousand or seventy thousand yuan, and found a friend to borrow 100 thousand yuan, and then recruited two salesmen and a merchandiser. After the Spring Festival of 2004, our alliance technology company started this way.

As a street owner, read a EMBA.

Reporter: if there is some luck in this industry, there will be a continuous growth in the industry. Why are you so lucky?

Chen Jianping: that's really a brand new market. When I first entered, the gross profit of the product could reach 60%. And the product line is also extending. In 2005, a European customer came to Jia Meng, and his mobile phone caught our attention. It was a domestic market which was later called Dopod 818. We realized that it was a fire engine, leaving the customer to leave the cell phone, and immediately opening the mold to produce its series of jacket. Later, the market confirmed our judgement. This series we have done for half a year, and the profit is very good. So we choose to enter the industry is a lucky thing, but as the saying goes: luck is reserved for those who are prepared.

Reporter: you can only say that you are lucky enough to choose a hot product. {page_break}

Chen Jianping: ha ha, this is indeed a small probability event, but these are enough to make us through the difficult period of the initial stage. Just like the theory of probability, you can't rely on such an unreliable thing to help you in the big business. In the final analysis, it is the competition of product, cost, management and business mode.

Jia Meng slowly began to let me feel the pressure from the expansion of geometric progression, and the problem of management began to emerge. I just want to be nervous and have to make up this lesson. At the end of 2004, I signed up for EMBA class in Zhongshan University. One is to learn knowledge of management, and more importantly, I want to find some management talents in my classmates.

Huang Xin entered my vision at this time. I realized that he had a lot of business management, so he invited Huang Xin to join in half a few times, but he was rejected. He said impolitely, "your temple is too small!" in the past two years, I sincerely touched him.

In March 2006, Huang Xin formally joined Jia alliance.

I don't know who is the first.

Reporter: is it like NBA that the introduction of a giant star has the power to compete for the championship? Because the introduction of a professional manager has changed the face of the company.

Chen Jianping: of course not such a simple matter. To be more precise, we are once again ready for the opportunity to knock.

The expansion of this market is beyond the expectation of almost all people. Secondly, Apple's strong brand has gone out of the world, giving the industry a great advantage. Because Apple brand's market positioning makes its Case positioning to high-end, luxury development, profit margins have greatly improved, after all, Apple brand fans are some people who are not so sensitive to price.

Reporter: if not a professional manager to change the face of the enterprise, is it a "apple" to change the fate of the enterprise?

Chen Jianping: Apple certainly has a profound impact on us, and its impact on us is actually more than that of the market. It was under the influence of Apple products that we began to establish the development direction of high-end and branding. We created a R & D team of more than 60 people and launched nearly 300 products every year. Just one iPhone4, we produced more than 100. The company is also working with some manufacturers of raw materials to develop new products with some degradable, environmentally friendly and special functional materials.

Another impact Apple has on us is that you have to be a rule maker. Nowadays, we are already the market leader, with annual sales exceeding second third. But we always say that we are second of the industry. When we ask who is the first time, we all do not know.

The success of "apple" can be said to give us an excellent business opportunity. The market will always have a mainstream brand and mainstream products, today is "apple", tomorrow may be "orange". As long as we are ready and able to learn and change, we will never lack opportunities. {page_break}

Focus on employees and partners

Reporter: being the boss, having the biggest market resources and the right to speak, this feeling must be very cool.

Chen Jianping: of course it is. However, I think that enterprises are to share with others, share products, ideas and services with end users, share value chains with suppliers and distributors, share market development with competitors, and share profits with colleagues and shareholders.

My point is that if I have achieved a little success in my career now, sharing with others should be one of the secrets of success. I can say that in my supplier circles, word of mouth is very good, credit is very high, and the price is not harsh.

A company called "Kelly" is one of our core suppliers for many years. In the second half of 2009, "Kelly" was faced with major changes, and the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. We made two unusual decisions. One was to advance the payment to Kelly in advance. The two was that I borrowed 5 million yuan to Kelly to tide over the difficulties. With our support, Kelly came back to life and built a new production line.

Reporter: in fact, this is also maintaining the ecological balance of the whole industry.

Chen Jianping: Yes, no one can earn all his money by himself. Maintaining a good industry ecosystem is good for everyone. As a boss, we must be willing to share the fruits of enterprise growth with employees. This is also the only way to maintain enterprise ecology. Zhang Yuhui, manager of JAPOD material department, is the oldest employee. In the past 7 years, the boy who had never graduated from high school had the chance to improve every year, and he could get excellent employee bonus at the end of each year. In 2008, Zhang Yuhui's father's eye disease was unconscious. I made a special call to Zhang Yuhui, who came home to visit him, so that he could take care of his father while he was at ease.

From OEM to OBM

Reporter: This is a very low threshold industry, the technology is not high, and the experience you mentioned above does not seem to be enough to ensure your core competitiveness.

Chen Jianping: Yes, the problem you mentioned is actually a big problem for me over the years, and this is also a big problem for a large number of Shenzhen manufacturing enterprises like ours. In April of last year, we set up a company -- investment in Chong Chuang, which is a breakthrough and solution for transformation. It is also a dream that I have been doing for many years. I am doing my own Case product brand, x-doria.

As a foundry and OEM, we have done the best in the industry. Although we have our own brand and R & D products, the factory brand is not a professional thing. Belkin, China's Shenzhou digital, and even the famous Foxconn are all examples of factory brands. But not without brands, of course. We also have a very mature business model. There is no doubt that there will be no problems in the past few years. There will be no loss or risk. But I always don't want to be reconciled. Just like you open shoe factories and have made shoes for Nike and Adidas all your life, you may have earned a lot of money, but you never have your own business.

Reporter: now some big shoe factories in Dongguan are also pushing their own brands.

Chen Jianping: This is the only way. The traditional manufacturing industry is facing an inflection point. Take our Case industry as an example. If you are a foundry, the cost of doing OEM is completely transparent. How much is the amount of silica gel, how much money you earn and how much profit you make, when you talk about it, you have no bargaining power at all. And the brand is different. A x-doria mobile phone set made in China is priced at 300 yuan in the mall. In fact, the price I will purchase from the manufacturer will not exceed 40 yuan. The price of the channel I will give will not be less than 90 yuan. As for how to achieve the price of 300 yuan, we should take a look at how to cultivate, maintain and promote the brand.

It's like Burberry, a 100 - pound shirt at London's senior department store and about 10 pounds at the Shenzhen garment factory, and it's about 30 pounds for the mall, and our goal is to make such a brand. But we have some differences with these traditional luxury brands. We are in a new industry, and have already had very mature experience in process design and manufacture, and the ability to grasp the trend of consumption is also quite mature. Compared with shoes and clothing, the brand of traditional consumer goods industry should be less difficult.