2009 'Entrepreneur of the Year' awards

Editor's note: The Entrepreneur of the Year (EOY) Awards is a program created by Ernst & Young to identify, salute and reward outstanding Chinese entrepreneurs who have made significant contributions to the economic growth and prosperity of China.

Ernst & Young announced the winners for 2009 on October 30, including those in consumer products, real estate, service, industry, technology and energy.

China Daily is the exclusive English-language media partner of this program. We are pleased to publish interviews with the 12 winners, as well as presenting their profiles:

Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Automobile  Holdings Ltd, Automotive Category Winner

Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd, Automotive Category Winner

Li Shufu founded Geely in 1986 as a maker of refrigerator parts, and subsequently moved into decorating materials, motorcycles and then cars. Following his huge success in the motorcycle business in the mid 1990s, Li's ambition was to break into the automotive sector. Li managed to start China's first privately owned automotive company in 1998, a sector that was then dominated by State-owned firms.

Geely is now China's seventh largest carmaker, manufacturing popular and budget cars. Li succeeded in the car industry despite the capital-intensive nature of the business, and without having to resort to importing technology and capital through joint ventures, as State-owned firms had done. Geely is now looking to shift up another gear to become a global carmaker. It has bought a stake in the company behind the iconic London taxi-cab, and it recently bought an Australian company that is one of the few independent automotive transmission makers in the world.

Li has donated over 1 billion yuan ($146.5 million), including money for the Sichuan earthquake relief effort, education for the poor, universities, research institutes and others. Li ranked 14th among the top philanthropists in China in 2009.

Q: Can you share with us the most valuable experience you gained in starting your business?

A: My most precious experience is that one should always stand on solid ground and go to the front line to learn what the truth is. You should also be good at drawing on the lessons of the past to make progress.

Q: Which achievement in Geely's history has made you feel most proud of your company?

A: There are many. First, I feel proud of our achievement in personnel training, which we have always given priority to. We have successfully attracted skilled staff from both at home and abroad to come to Geely and create a training system to help with further staff development.

Secondly, after we gathered this staff, we fostered a creative culture, which effectively stokes the passion of our people in terms of innovation.

Also, we regularly study market trends, as well as the changes taking place in our country and around the world, in order to adjust the future plans of our company. For example, we were initially in the refrigerator business, at a time when household appliance had just entered the Chinese market. Then we switched to building materials, as Chinese consumers became more well-off and many families began to spend money on their homes. After that, we started to make motorcycles and automobiles, gradually entering larger industries and moving on from smaller ones.

In May 2007, we implemented a strategic transformation, moving from price competition to competing in terms of brand, quality, technology, service and corporate responsibility. A fundamental change has taken place in the company's way of doing business. We want to lead all our management and staff to learn to jointly compete in a new way.