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400-882-6908On April 10, the workers of Dialogue (a show of CCTV Finance Channel) shot the program “For the Chinese Industry Endorsement” in China Silk Industry Museum on the South Street of Wuxi. The program was hosted by Chen Weihong, a famous host of CCTV Finance Channel. Jiang Xipei, the Founder, Board Chairman and Party Secretary of Far East Holding Group Co., Ltd., was invited to discuss how could Wuxi, the cradle of China’s national industry, commerce and rural enterprises, inherit the tradition and how could industrial enterprises transform themselves under the new normal of economy, etc. together with other well-known entrepreneurs (such as Zhou Haijiang, the Board Chairman of Hodo Group) in the program.
Jiang Xipei shared how he started his own business and explained his version of industrial craftsmanship.
Jiang Xipei is Sharing His Stories
The Original Intention for Starting the Business: Make a Living
“When I was young, I wanted to be a professor. In 1980, after failed in the College Entrance Examination, I ignored the advice from my family that I should take the exam for the second time, and followed my second brother to Hangzhou to learn repairing the watches. Before departure, I set a small goal for myself: Earn RMB 50,000, build a two-story house and marry a beautiful and virtuous wife good at housekeeping.”
Since his brother taught patiently and selflessly and Jiang Xipei learned attentively, he was allowed to start his own business after 56 days. The business was so thriving that three apprentices learned from him and he was very busy.
“Although customers don’t need to wait in other watch-repairing shop, but I may need one or two months to repair. But the customers trusted and chose me. Because I liked the craft very much. It required devotion, patience, hard work and proper cleverness. The watches are precise, so the demand is high. Luckily my repair was quality, price reasonable, service honest, for I knew the word-of-mouth beat all, so my small goal was achieved within two years. After five years as a watch repairer, I earned over 0.2 million RMB.” Jiang Xipei said proudly.
Development of Business: Failure and Bankruptcy
Later, Jiang Xipei developed his business into a watch & clock part manufacturing factory. This time, he was not as lucky.
“The clock & watch part manufacturing is totally different from repairing. You need precise equipment and excellent craft techniques. At that time, I had no users. Even a Shanghai Clock & Watch Factory placed an order out of urgent export tasks, the products made by my family workshop were returned.” The users could tolerate if the watches had an error of one or half minute a day, but the time of my products went short of 24 hours a day and had an error of five to ten minutes.
“Clocks and watches are precise and coordinated. The watch repairers best symbolize the craftsmanship. I believe that, there are few apparatus and equipment demanding more strictly than clocks and watches. With a lack of key technology in manufacturing instrument, I failed and went bankrupt.”
Start from Scratch: Quality First
Just when Jiang Xipei was in trouble, his eldest brother pointed a way out. At that time, his eldest brother was in charge of raw material purchase and marketing in a plastic electric wire factory in Yixing and familiar with market information. So he advised Jiang Xipei to do the business of electric wires.
Jiang Xipei borrowed over 0.1 million RMB from his friends and relatives and went to Anhui and Zhejiang. He took the remaining products in local electromechanical companies to sell in Wuxi and Shanghai. The information asymmetry offered him a good chance. “One truck per two or three days, in a year I paid back the debts of over 0.2 RMB and earned over 1 million RMB.” Jiang Xipei earned the second bucket of gold.
Since he spotted the huge markets, along with two years of experience in doing business, Jiang Xipei wanted to expand, he established five shops nationwide, then opened a small factory. Gradually, the company was thriving and scaling up.
As a private entrepreneur, Jiang Xipei pursued more considerate and satisfied services than state-owned enterprises. He has guaranteed the quality and reasonable price of products for over twenty years, and won many top prizes in the industry. Currently, Far East Cable is the only national quality award winner in the industry and wins national iconic key projects such as Shanghai World Financial Center and Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge.
While rejoiced at the success, Jiang Xipei also experienced the hardship of industry. “We need the best raw and auxiliary materials in the world. We researched and developed year after year with numerous failures, finally we had better materials and crafts. We also look for the most advanced equipment in the world.” Jiang Xipei recalled, “Certainly, we need devoted workers, because every piece of work and product can only be finished by our diligent colleagues.”
Look Forward: Confident in China’s Industry
By looking forward into the future China’s industry, Jiang Xipei was fully confident. He held that, although the financial crisis posed a great challenge for industry, we believed that top-level design can support the industry with increasingly better environment. From protecting the rights of investors and private property, via creating an equal business environment, to becoming the main player in global market competition, we entrepreneurs are improving our senses of honesty and self-discipline, we pursue the perfection of every product, we provide every considerate service that is beyond expectation and we respect customers.
The management, government management based on laws or industry governance management, is growing thoroughly. We believe China can make good products, provide good services. The private enterprises are the hope of China’s future economy and the main player in market competition. We will learn from global benchmark enterprise on the latest technologies and best management to be better than them.
Innovation is necessary, because only innovation can gather the smart talents on the platform of entrepreneurship. Innovation is hard and will falter many times. The majority of enterprises may not survive the bitter winter, but they persisted.
The Far East helps all the core employees to be “business partners”, enables them to feel that the platform is theirs. We need to properly reward them: money, happiness, position, promotion, sense of pride and house. Meanwhile, we need to attract the most excellent talents in the world and focus on the excellent character and performance. We need to convey the message that they are needed by the enterprise, life and era.
The Scene of Dialogue Program
Entrepreneurs including Jiang Xipei (first on the left) are Taking a Photo with Chen Hongbing (middle), the Director Assistant of CCTV Finance Channel
It was reported that, in response to the propose of reviving industries by the central government, CCTV Finance Channel planned the annual key activity of “For the Chinese Industry Endorsement”, invited 50 Chinese industry leaders to endorse the Chinese industry and visit representative industry cradles in China for the purpose of exploring Chinese industry tradition and boosting the industry. Wuxi was selected as among the most representative national industry cradles.
