A group of goats led by a lion can beat a group of lions led by a goat. The sentence indicates that the leader is the soul of the whole group. The ability and quality of the leader can reflect the performance of the group. Meanwhile, it implies the significance of teamwork.

"I remember quite well what the teacher said on one enterprise marketing and management class. He told us how the Chinese character for enterprise is organized. The character of 'enterprise' has the character of 'people' on top, which means people is the most important part of an enterprise. Without people, the enterprise will stop," said Ma Jianping, General Manager of Shanghai Chunri Metal Product Co., Ltd. "The people here refer to both leadership and staffs."

It's very important to understand how to manage

At present, the life span of China private-owned enterprises becomes shorter and shorter, with an average of 3 years or so. Compared with them, 60% of the world's Top 500 enterprises have over 50 years of history. For small and medium-sized enterprises in China, they generally develop in a rapid pace at the beginning, but several years later they stop growing and some go into bankruptcy. "Business leader, to a great extent, should bear the biggest responsibility for the bankruptcy." Ma said, "Having been involved in the industry for ten years, I think the business leader should understand how to manage."

In the late 1990s, Taiwan fastener enterprises transferred their business to China mainland, which brought along with advanced production technology and production equipment and benefited many fastener producers. Ma Jianping, with strong sense in business, became interested in fastener industry. Therefore, he gave up his seaman career, resolutely opened Shanghai Chunri.

As Ma was poor in production technology at first, he decided to begin with the simple part—washer. He said, "It's very important for an entrepreneur to manage capital. It's difficult to distribute the limited capital into factory, equipment and technicians." In the end, Ma decided to rent an old factory first, which saved more money to buy production equipment and hire technicians. "I believe where there is good quality, there is a market. In a word, where there is a market, there is a factory."

His decision was proven to be correct. In 2003, Shanghai Chunri basically completed primary accumulation. In 2004, Ma finally built his factory, which occupies an area of 20,000 square meters, so that the production scales of screws, drywall screws and chipboard screws were further expanded.

Adjust the development trend at the right time

However, good times do not last long. In 2005, many China fastener enterprises entered into a decreasing period, with output increased but lower profits. Shanghai Chunri also encountered their bottleneck. Ma wondered how the problem came up, whether on management or on trade. As early as 2000, Shanghai Chunri introduced network to manage factory's daily management. Statistics showed that profits gained by the factory were indeed slower than the same time of previous year. In terms of trade, Shanghai Chunri had too many orders to handle. So what're the problems? By chance, Ma learned from experts that what they produced were the low-end fasteners. Only top-end fasteners have high value-added. Furthermore, low-end products will be eliminated gradually.

There is no use to just sit there without doing anything. But to find out a new path, where is the way? Although fastener market becomes fierce, the incoming orders are unceasing. Ma had to think about whether to improve the product level and how the company could get rid of the bottleneck.

Since Shanghai has developed into a financial city featured trade and logistics, its consumption level has kept increasing. As fastener industry is a labor-intensive industry, involving environment, land, labors and so on, the production costs continue to grow. It is obvious that expanding production sale is an out-of-date idea in Shanghai area.

In October 2006, Ma decidedly transferred the factory to Jiaxing area. The equipment and production technique in the new factory came from Shanghai Chunri. However, Ma was not in charge of production any more, but shifted to sales, which meant Shanghai Chunri had become a professional fastener trader.

It comes to the 11th year for Ma's business in 2008, which represents the second strategic stage for Shanghai Chunri. Founded in 1997, Shanghai Chunri was originally a professional manufacturer of washers, drywall screws and chipboard screws. This year, Shanghai Chunri gets involved in fastener trade from head to toe.

Ma said, "With years of experience, I notice quite a few small and medium-sized enterprises are on the verge of bankruptcy or has gone bankruptcy, which makes me very upset. But I think I have to acquire knowledge on marketing and management, be familiar with economy, excel in management, and understand macro policy and the industrial trend. Everything should be well prepared before raining. In this way, we can adjust our development trend at the right time. As a result, I read newspaper every day, keep learning and reading books."

To be a devoted and professional fastener trader

Shanghai Chunri always has too many orders to do. Nowadays, Ma can find other factories to be one of their supply chains to help them fulfill the orders. At the same time, Ma can serve customers in devoted and professional manners.

"Before, when producing fasteners, we only focused on 'customer is god'. We satisfy with customers whatever they required. We only understood we had to deliver the goods on time." Ma said, "But today, we get rid of this passive move. In fact, even if the products are the same, the production techniques differ as per different applications. So does the price. As a result, when customers tell us the application of the products and what features are required, we can design drawings for them and develop the most suitable products for customers. Consider customers and make them rely on us are what Shanghai Chunri pursuing."

Since Shanghai Chunri has transformed, some sales persons were poor in technology while some technicians were not good at sales. Therefore, Ma required sales persons to visit workshop every Saturday and communicate with the technicians. Meanwhile, every sales person had to teach technicians on sales knowledge. In this way, the sales persons not only learned professional technology, but also the hardworking spirits of technicians; while technicians learned related marketing skills. Ma said, "I believe a team can truly go on only if it shares information, unite and help each other."

We learn that the development of an enterprise is closely connected with the business leader and the core cohesion of an enterprise. Every entrepreneur is thinking about how to manage a company well and is striving for it. Here Shanghai Chunri' business leader Ma Jianping explained his experience in management and will continue to enrich his management ideas. Maybe 10 years later, he will share another experience with us.

Translated by Alice
www.chinaFastenerinfo.com
www.chinaFastenerinfo.net