Which entrepreneurs in China have served in the military?

Liu Chuanzhi: The "godfather" who is indomitable

Born on April 29, 1944 in Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province. From 1961 to 1967, he studied at Xi'an Military Telecommunications Engineering College (General College). In 1984, he founded the New Technology Development Company of the Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (the predecessor of Lenovo). He is currently the President of Legend Holdings and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Lenovo Group. As of December 2003, Legend Holdings Co., Ltd. had paid 5.45 billion yuan in various national taxes.

As for his career in the military camp, Liu Chuanzhi, today's "godfather" figure in the Chinese business community, has never been shy about saying that it was the military camp that shaped him.

Liu Chuanzhi said, "The success of the enterprise has a certain relationship with me, but not all of it; among this certain relationship, it also has a certain relationship with the character I developed in the military."

The so-called forging ahead in Liu Chuanzhi’s eyes is not about moving forward blindly, but about thinking things through and judging whether they can definitely attack. Once you make up your mind, you must move forward indomitably.

Guo Fansheng: A Confucian businessman who is "good at defeat"

Born in 1955, he went to the mountains and countryside, served as a soldier for four years, graduated from Renmin University of China, and currently works for Huicong Group Company Chief Executive Officer (CEO), known as the "Father of Chinese Classified Advertising" by the industry. The first time I met Guo Fansheng, if I hadn't spoken, I would never have thought that he, who smelled like a scholar, would actually have four years of service in the military. background.

After he joined the army, he was a telephone soldier with a string on his back. Within a year, he became a squad leader and joined the party... These special experiences forged his tenacity.

In 1991, Guo Fansheng resolutely resigned from the "iron job of sitting in an office" and transformed from a researcher at the National Commission for Restructuring into an unknown person riding a bicycle through the streets. At the beginning of his business, he and all the company's employees rode bicycles in the streets and alleys of the city every day to collect quotation information from dealers of various commodities such as home appliances and computers, and then classified and processed the collected information. The latest prices are published in newspapers. However, in the eyes of many people at the time, his "invention" was actually a low-end street advertisement, and many businesses refused to publish their price information on it. But at this time, Guo Fansheng did not back down. Instead, he analyzed the market trend from the temporary defeat and finally believed that he would turn defeat into victory.

Sure enough, the market needs quotation information after all. After a few issues of the information came out, some bosses, big and small, were at their wits end. They cursed angrily while putting money into their accounts.

What turned defeat into victory this time was actually a beautiful and profound revolution in China's information services industry. Today, Huicong is a group company with three independent companies - HC360 Huicong.com, China Search Online, and Hua Media Shengshi, a business data center and a Huicong Research Institute. It has more than 2,000 employees and more than 20 branches.

Wang Shi: A soldier who doesn’t like being a soldier

Born in Liuzhou City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in January 1951, he graduated from Lanzhou Railway College majoring in water supply and drainage. At the age of 17, he enlisted in the army and went to Xuzhou. After serving in the army for 5 years, he was demobilized. He came to Shenzhen in 1983 and later served as chairman and general manager of Shenzhen Vanke Enterprise Co., Ltd., becoming a dominant player in the real estate market.

There are many business CEOs who come from the industry, and Wang Shi, CEO of Shenzhen Vanke, is one of them.

But Wang Shi is different from other bosses. Although he admits that "the training of military life is of great value to my future success"-but, from the bottom of his heart, Wang Shi does not love military life very much: "After I got to the army, I found that my personality might not be suitable for being a soldier, because I prefer to be in the limelight and have my own independent opinions, but it is the duty of a soldier to obey orders. So after five years as a car soldier, , I left the army.”

Indeed, Wang Shi is different from other comrades who came out of the army. He is free, he is unrestrained, he lives according to his own hobbies, and he is frequently exposed in the financial media like a star. , outdoor magazines, TV screens, radio stations...

However, whether he likes it or not, the experience of the army has been injected into Wang Shi's blood until it affects his later life and career. Wang Shi took off his military uniform. Appears serious and stiff.

Ren Zhiqiang: A general with pattern thinking

Born in March 1951 in Ye County, Shandong Province, he joined the army from 1968 to 1981 and served successively as platoon leader and staff officer. After retirement, he served as deputy general manager of Beijing Yida Company Manager until 1984. In 1991, he became the general manager of Beijing Huayuan Economic Construction and Development Corporation. He is currently the president of Beijing Huayuan Group and the general manager of Huayuan Group Company.

In July 2004, the results of the equity transaction of the Donghua Plaza project, a Dongzhimen transportation hub project, surfaced. Huayuan Company took over Beijing Urban Construction and became the "new owner" of this 2008 Olympics project.

In fact, as early as 4 months ago, when Ren Zhiqiang transferred the Shangdu project to Pan Shiyi in the later stage, he had already planned and completed the acquisition of the Donghua Plaza project. "If Huayuan exchanged the 'food stamps' in its hands for Pan's 'eggs' in its transaction with Pan, then in the Donghua Plaza project, Huayuan exchanged the 'eggs' in its hands for Beijing Urban Construction's 'Food stamps'". Ren Zhiqiang said frankly.

For more than 20 years, Ren Zhiqiang has led the old and new Huayuan in the roundabout process, taking advantage of the situation and making decisions at every step.

As Ren Zhiqiang said, "A soldier who is good at fighting may not necessarily be a general." The pursuit of 11 years of military career has given Ren Zhiqiang the ability to think "pattern-wise": looking forward and understanding the overall situation.

"Back then, Kong Ming should have respected Sima Yi. When he met his opponent, often when others were still confused, Sima Yi had already withdrawn and admitted his failure. Today's situation in China's real estate industry requires you to do dozens of steps beyond thinking." Ren Zhiqiang said.

Ren Zhengfei: Only through technological independence can an enterprise become stronger.

Born in 1944. Retired from the army in 1978. Founded Shenzhen Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. in 1988. Since then, the company has grown rapidly, with annual sales reaching US$1.5 billion, becoming a leader in GSM equipment, switch products and access systems in the Chinese market. In 2000, he was selected as the third richest person in China by Forbes magazine. His personal fortune is US$500 million.

Due to his low-key life, Ren Zhengfei is called a mysterious figure by the media. There is very little public information about him, but the Shenzhen Huawei Technology Co., Ltd. he leads is well-known.

Ren Zhengfei was born in the military. He often talked to his employees about Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, the three major battles, and the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, and his talks excited the public. He said that on the battlefield, the mission of soldiers is to defend the dignity of national sovereignty; in the market, the mission of entrepreneurs is to defend the market position of enterprises. In modern business war, only technological independence is the foundation. Without its own scientific research support system, the status of an enterprise is empty talk. Therefore, Ren Zhengfei chose the industrial path of technological independence and development of high-tech. In the Chinese switch market at that time, large-scale office machines and user machines basically came from foreign telecommunications companies and their domestic joint ventures. People in the communications circle were very aware of the risks of this industry. Therefore, many people do not understand why Huawei wastes effort and money on scientific research instead of making easy money.

Zheng Yonggang: The strategizing clothing "Barton"

Chairman and President of China Shanshan Holdings Co., Ltd., Vice Chairman of China Fashion Association, Vice Chairman of China Fashion Designers Association, Shanghai Municipal People's Government decision-making consulting expert.

Born in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province in 1958, he joined the army after graduating from high school at the age of 18 and was demobilized in 1979. In May 1989, he took over the Yonggang Garment Factory with a loss of more than 10 million and renamed it "Shanshan". Today, Shanshan owns 21 clothing brands, two listed companies, and total assets of nearly 5 billion yuan.

Zheng Yonggang is recognized as a pioneer in China's clothing industry for his prescient implementation of the clothing brand strategy in the late 1980s. Coupled with Zheng Yonggang's daring, decisive and resolute personality, industry insiders gave him the title: "General Patton" in the Chinese clothing industry.

Patton said: "War is hell, but I like war." Zheng Yonggang said: "Hell is suffering, but Patton likes it. Since he likes it, there must be something joyful about it. This This kind of joy, in my opinion, is to "manage between the lines and win the battle thousands of miles away."

"If I were born in a war era, I would be a general or marshal." Zheng Yonggang, this person from Shan. The person who plays the most important strategic positioning role in the Shan Group has a straightforward explanation of "strategist" as "general", "I basically don't do specific work, I mainly study corporate development strategies."