中集集团副总裁、中集车辆集团总经理李贵平受邀为密西根学院2018届本科毕业生作主旨演讲
Honorable Dean Peisen Huang, members of faculty, parents, the graduates:
I was a graduate of Business School in 1986 when Shanghai Jiao Tong celebrated its 90th anniversary. I missed the re-union party at the 120th anniversary because I was in the process to wrap up a major acquisition in the United Kingdom. I did prepare something to share with my classmates and buddies. I have to wait for two more years to do this. I want to thank JI for this timely honor.
Shanghai Jiao Tong was a phenomenal experience for me. Academic life was tough. I learnt the idea of Final Elimination during my freshman year. After we finished the first semester, two guys from Sichuan decided to stay at the school. Frankly speaking I was a little puzzled by their decision. When the 2nd semester started, I found these two guys were relaxed because they passed the make-up examination.
I was an A student during the freshman and sophomore year. At that time, the Xu Jia Hui campus was never lack of opportunities but the chance to meet girls. I got my first job on the campus to be an administrative assistant at the Choir. I worked there for one semester. I had better odds but never got any serious date. This is where I learnt the sad lesson that improving your odds doesn’t guarantee success. The administration position at Choir helped me to connect with the Youth League Committee. I got my second job on the campus to run the “Only Club” aka 昂立沙龙。 The Only Club was a hangout place for the students. As it was just a place sponsored by the Youth League Committee, it didn’t make any money. Together with five classmates, I turned that operation into a fashionable dating place, which was like a Starbucks with the dim light and romantic music, and more importantly with beers. That was truly the highlight for my campus life. I learnt how to create something from nothing and I learnt how to connect with the right people who can improve my career or life. More importantly, I met my wife there.
At Shanghai Jiao Tong, I learnt a lot about new ideas in technologies and economics. I was convinced that Chinese economic reform would bring rapid development to the Chinese economy. So I decided to start my career in Shenzhen, the pioneer of the Chinese economic reform in 1980’s.
I looked back to my 32-year career at CIMC Group, a Shenzhen based company. What really makes me prosper is that I learnt how to create and how to organize the process of creation. Creation to me is fate. It can be met but not seek. When the opportunity of creation presents to me, I just jump on it. When I make it successful, it becomes the sweetest moment of my life. Just think about my experience with the Only Club.
Creation is the result of brain burning critical thinking and gut-twisting trial and errors. The progressing of creation is similar to our daily walking practice, say for 10,000 steps. What matters is how many steps we can finish per day instead of how big one step is. As long as we keep creating, the odds for success improve. As I mentioned before, best odds doesn’t guarantee the success. The way of creation is full of hardship and adversity. Take lack of fund for one. Take lack of support from the peers for two. To large extend, the success of creation depends on how well we can deal with the adversity. At last, I have to say that the creation stops when the team runs out of resources and options without success. The situation could force the project to fold. But creators shall always look for next opportunity to start over again.
I am going to offer one example. In 1988, I was summoned to the general manager’s office. He told me that the booming of airport construction was about to start. CIMC should be in the position to provide passenger boarding bridge (PBB). There were only less than 30 units of PBB in China in 1988. They were supplied by US and Japanese manufacturers. There are 3,000 units in China now. That was a great opportunity to create a product the market needed and yet no one was truly in the position to supply it economically. On the other hand, we had no engineering team available to do the design, no fund for a prototype, no partners or suppliers for collaboration.
I took the job and established a research team. It was me and a part-time consultant. He was a retired engineer from a national design institution. In 6-month time, my partner and I developed the concept of the product and the master layout. We were ready to start the design process. With the help of my partner, I contracted his previous employer to do the detailed engineering to fulfill the design. I found 5 engineers from CIMC to join the task force so that we could prepare the operation while doing the design. I spent a lot of time to meet the suppliers during the design process. I also found time to meet the different airport authorities to introduce our design and gain feedbacks. Luckily, CIMC secured a contract for two units of PBB for Tianjin Airport in 1990. The contract was valued at 400,000 USD. It was huge for us at that time because we had not even built one prototype. Nowadays CIMC provides over 100 units PBB per year in China. CIMC exports 50 units per year to European and Asian market.
When we started creation of PBB, the timing could not be better even though the resources was not there. I jumped on this opportunity of creation no matter what were the odds for success. I can tell you that one of the initial five engineers become the CEO of CIMC Tianda, a IPO listed in Hong Kong stock exchange. Another one started a general aviation company called China Express Air and become the chairman of the company.
I, of course, moved on. I took another opportunity to create the IMO tank containers business for CIMC. In 1999, there was no IMO tank containers made in China. Now, CIMC sells 15,000 units of such products to the global market. I took a 24-year old colleague, Leo Yang, as my partner. His contribution boosted the sales and improved the margin. His career grew at full speed. He became the president of CIMC Enric a few months ago.
After spending 16 years of my career at CIMC creating the products and business, I realize that it would be more valuable to create a platform to launch and accommodate variety of creation. I started a plant from green field. This is Shenzhen CIMC Vehicles. I was the first general manager of this plant. Shenzhen CIMC Vehicles turned out the first marine chassis for North America market, the first dry van trailer for China market. It is remarkable that Shenzhen CIMC Vehicles became the first Chinese company to export trailers to Japan. In 2013, I used this plant as the platform to launch an extensive development on the modular design and the next generation of manufacturing process. This effort leads to the creation of the first Light Tower plant in Dongguan.
I was appointed as the CEO of CIMC Vehicles Group in 2010. Nowadays, CIMC Vehicles operates 25 trailer plants around the world. It employs 10,000 people in China, 3,000 people overseas. Its revenue reached 3 billion USD in 2017.
During the last 8 years, I have generated a lot of initiatives to overhaul our product designs, to transform our aged production lines and to re-model our organizations. I present such opportunities to young colleagues. They jump on the opportunity of creation. They are going through the brain-burning critical thinking and practicing the gut-twisting trial and errors. I provide the resources and sometimes options. I see quite a lot of success. I reward these lucky people generously. I see folding as well. I offer everything but criticism. There are plenty of creation projects going around. No sooner the wound is licked, and then the creators find another project to start over again.
I think the experience during the last 8 years has transformed me from a creator to a global leader. A global leader is capable of defining the problem generated from the global operation; is capable of facilitating the analytical architecture, capable of presenting the problem as an opportunity to creation.
Recently, the most talked-about issue is the trade friction between USA and China. I invited 6 old boys from Shanghai Jiao Tong to have a meeting at my office. 6 of us represent 6 public companies in Shenzhen. Our combined revenues from US market could easily exceed 1.5 billion USD per year. Most of the products are quite sophisticated, such as data routers, medical apparatus, electronics products, and trailer products. The issue is unprecedented, it is complicated and the sequence is quite serious. After the meeting, we are all determined to handle the situation like a creator. We all agree that the trade friction is not going to be tamed by a short-term negotiation. We all agree to take the heat to go through this gut twisting process. We all agree to fund the rebuttal action. We all agree to find the right stake-holder as our partners. If we can’t win the rebuttal, we will re-invent our American operation and reach out to our customers again. Does it sound like a creation project?
In line with the promise of globalization and the challenge of globalization, I want to exhort each of the graduates here to engage the complexity of the globalization. The complexity shall generate enough opportunity for you to create and for you to lead. You can find so many others with the same interest, see the barriers and create the way to cut through them.
I hope you will come back to here 30 years from now and reflect on what you have done with your talent and energy. I hope you will judge not only on your creation, but also on how well you have presented the opportunity for others to create, on how well you lead the others to navigate through the rough waters of the globalization.
Good Luck.
