Founder of award-winning software solutions business predicts a “golden decade” for private enterprise in China.
“The Chinese dream” is, I think, a very good phrase. It gives us room to imagine, inspiring our imagination and passion. My own Chinese dream is two-fold: to continue to grow the Kingdee brand, helping our 6000 staff to realise Kingdee’s dream and promoting the idea of a “Chinese Management Model”, with the hope to select best practices in various sectors.
I advocate the idea of “following the right path, pursuing the right course”. I hope that more Chinese enterprises gain success; that the “Chinese Management Model” can go global; and that we gain a foothold in the world.
Nonetheless, challenge is inevitable. In 2011 and 2012, Kingdee was in the process of transformation and upgrading. We put more emphasis on the expansion of high-level service personnel, which of course led to a rapid increase in our headcount. At the same time, the changing external environment posed great challenges. For us, the answer has been to establish more partnerships and to harness the power of the mobile internet, and through these actions we changed our development pattern.
I believe the next ten years will be a golden decade for private enterprise in China. The 18th Party Congress Third Plenum is clear that the market will play a decisive function in resource allocation, which means that the private sector, private enterprises and NGOs will all be encouraged to play their roles.
I’ve been lucky enough to get to know some hugely impressive people, including Zhenrong Shi, CEO of the Taiwanese company Suntech Power, and entrepreneur Mr Shi Wang, founder and chair of China Vanke. Mr Shi is very modest, demonstrating some Confucian characteristics, but proposed the idea of “pursuing the right course” which impressed me a lot. I met Mr Wang many years ago and we have been friends ever since. I am impressed by his smartness, his unique insights into problems and his clear-cut stand on not offering bribes, which is not always easy to achieve among Chinese enterprises.
Confucius was in favour of kindness, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and trustworthiness. For me philanthropy is about having benevolence and kindness in your heart and in fact forms part of the idea of “pursuing the right course”. So, I think this is the fundamental element of being a human.
China is a huge market. As long as you persevere in running your business, you will gain success in the end. Perseverance is the key. Xu Shaochun (Robert) is the founder, chairman and CEO of Kingdee International Software Group Company Limited, a leading provider of enterprise management software and internet services in the China and Asia Pacific region.