Pearl River Lighting Liang Zhiyuan: The Global Ambition of the Invisible Champion


China, 30 years of reform and opening up is a history of a bottom-up, gradual change from the edge to the center and a drastic change (although it is superficially a top-down reform policy), this history is still in its midst. Bounced forward.

This is a great era, and this greatness complements everyone around us. This era has spawned the extraordinaryness of ordinary people, and the brilliant achievements created by the hard work of ordinary people have painted the splendid starry sky of the rise of Chinese history.

Liang Zhiyuan, a 45-year-old Guangzhou native, is not shining in this starry sky, but he is quite firm. Although the company's Zhujiang lighting has not attracted attention in terms of scale, its annual sales are only several hundred million yuan, but in the field of professional lighting, Zhujiang Lighting is the largest big brother in the world, with a market share of more than 50%, even in the world. In the market, this company is also a team that competes with multinational giants and makes it unable to help. An iconic event is that their products have entered the world-famous landmark of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the "Bird's Nest" - National Sports

In the fashionable words, this is a "invisible champion." This is the theory of European management guru Herman-Simon. In his view, the best companies in the world are not necessarily the top big companies, but a group of little-known SMEs who are immersed in a certain subdivision. The market has been quietly working for decades to hundreds of years, accounting for 50% or even more than 70% of the global market share. Such unseen small and medium-sized enterprises are the healthiest and most outstanding enterprises.

Greatness and excellence have different definitions in the eyes of different theorists. Liang Zhiyuan’s company is only 24 years old. Perhaps it has not experienced a Chinese recession to prove itself like countless Chinese invisible champions, but it Undoubtedly rushing on the road to the healthiest and most outstanding.

With his own efforts, Liang Zhiyuan has been "lucky" to run along with the wave of this era. Is he really just lucky? Turning on the history of his growth and development of the Pearl River lighting, we will find out that everything they experienced on the road ahead, while exuding strong personal information, also carved the cherry blossoms of the era.

Young tiger

There is an old saying in China: "Because you learn to be bold and be daring first", you can see the important role of guts on the road to success. According to a statistic by the American Entrepreneurs Association, people who do real things in the world are not necessarily smart people, but they must all be courageous.

It is said that Liang Zhiyuan, born in the 1960s, is not fortunate, because his youth was in the turbulent years of the country. He was not as lucky as TCL’s Li Dongsheng, Skyworth’s Huang Hongsheng, and even Suning’s Zhang Jindong. After graduating from high school in 1980, he spent two years at home. After entering a state-owned pharmaceutical factory through a relationship in 1982, he became a stable state-owned enterprise worker and received a fixed salary of 24.5 yuan per month. In the eyes of ordinary people at the time, a fixed job and wages represented stability and food and clothing, which is very enviable.

However, in 1983, when he was only 20 years old, he made the most important decision in his life, gave up the work that was hard-won and what others did not want, and prepared to go to sea to do business. But from the grandfather who made the wooden furniture to the father who worked in the musical instrument factory, there was not much savings left for him. Of course, there was no overseas relationship. How did the business do? His idea began to be strongly opposed by the family and he was considered "I don't want to be in business," but under his insistence, parents made a decision to respect their ideas and gave them the support they could. He started his entrepreneurial career in Nanhai, Guangzhou – doing small business, doing furniture, in short, what to think about making money, and then starting to do lighting. This year, more than a year before the establishment of the first batch of business in the sea (1984) after the founding of New China.

It can be said that Liang Zhiyuan, who is not satisfied, has inadvertently jumped into the tide of the development of the times in a strong desire to become rich. At that time, he did not talk about farsightedness, but apparently, his slender body was filled with strong ambitions and hard courage after unwillingness.



Many years later, when he analyzed the decision of that year, he said with self-deprecation: "It may be because of his own personality, and he wants to rush anything, not afraid of death!"

Until now, he still seems to be courageous. On his desk, there is a model of a cheetah, an aggressive cheetah. Although Liang Zhiyuan denied that it had something to do with his own preferences, he inadvertently revealed a detail that made him feel "fierce." Once he drove, the speed reached more than 200 kilometers at a time! This 1963 rabbit is not only alert, but also likes the feeling of running fast!

People say that the earliest entrepreneurs of reform and opening up are more courageous to create an economy, but who can deny that behind this guts, they have the keen judgment and the wisdom of the superior?

The leader has no boundaries

After doing more than a year of small business, Liang Zhiyuan ran a collective unit in 1984 and officially registered and established the Zhujiang Lighting and Sound Factory. At that time, the national policy was: Allow private individuals to be self-employed, but they were not allowed to set up factories. ). He said: "It is purely accidental to choose to do lighting. I have never thought about dreaming before. It is not a matter of deliberation with the light. At that time, when we were doing furniture and lighting, we had an occasional chance to find spotlights, turn lights, glass balls. The lighting of the class is very popular, the price is a few hundred or even a thousand dollars. I have investigated it again. There are not many such products in the market, most of which are imported goods. Only a small factory in Guilin is produced in China." He immediately realized There is a big business opportunity here. He decided decisively to do this kind of product! If there is no venue, rent a small place in the school as a factory. If there is no worker, ask the relatives and friends to find it. If you don’t understand the technology, you will open up other products. Simple processing equipment wants to make it homemade, and what about the product sales channel of this unnamed small factory? Liang Zhiyuan relies on a kind of tenacity, not afraid to eat "closed door", and repeatedly knocks on the door of the state-owned cultural distribution unit manager (if there is a national Guangzhou South Building, one of the top ten state-owned shopping malls, Guangzhou Performance Equipment Business Department, etc.). Hard work pays off, Guangzhou Nanfang Building and Guangzhou Performance Equipment Business Department have quickly developed into distributors by helping to sell products on their behalf. In this way, hundreds of thousands of yuan of products can be sold in one year. In the era of ten thousand households, this was a bad thing. But he did not satisfy, but he continued to move forward with confidence!

In 1987, he used the opportunity to participate in the Chinese cultural performance materials ordering conference to sell the products to the whole country. This year, Zhujiang Lighting has fully entered the domestic market sales channels, and the annual production and sales volume has reached nearly 10 million yuan, marking the arrival of the era of Pearl River lighting development.

Prior to this, Liang Zhiyuan had a number of positions, researched products, developed customers, and traveled by train and car to sell his products everywhere, but sales were not ideal. However, by the end of the 1980s, with the in-depth development of the country's reform and opening up, the demand for cultural market expanded rapidly. At this point, Liang Zhiyuan saw that this was an opportunity for rapid market development. So he immediately adjusted his sales strategy, continuously posted advertisements in newspapers and magazines, and increased publicity. As a result, the products that were produced began to be in short supply, and the customers who took the initiative to come to the goods were in constant stream. Liang Zhiyuan said: "At that time, we shipped the goods to the whole country, and all the shipments were by air. The customers felt that the trains and cars were not fast enough - the logistics at that time could not."

Here, he made three important choices: entering the lighting industry; marketing channels across the country; and strengthening advertising to establish the Pearl River brand. It can be said that the opportunity of the outbreak of growth in the industry has been sharply seized, which has led to another leap in the scale of development of the Pearl River lighting. By the early 1990s, the annual sales of Zhujiang Lighting had reached 100 million yuan!

Quality first

Success is the pass for the winner, or the epitaph of the loser? This sentence seems strange, but when the door to opportunity opens, business and banknotes flow in, only a few people move to develop bright eyes. But the end result is often that success is just blowing a soap bubble to most people, and immediately turns around and pushes the failure to the public.

The great success of the market has begun to test the enterprise invisibly. If it can be held, the enterprise may be able to go further, but unfortunately, many people fall into the trap of success and then are abandoned by the market.



However, Liang Zhiyuan once again insisted on "lucky". He had long thought of a truth from the sporadic return of customers. Users buy your products, and ultimately depends on the quality of the products. The quality control of the products is not good. It won't last long. If you look short-sighted, just look at your eyes and try to make quick money. Sell it just fine. If you don't care about quality, you should only be a sea god, and you must die. In a meeting, he warned the backbone of the business: "Business is a business that you have to do every day. Doing business is to be a human being. Our customers are also our friends. If things don't work, they can't sell. If things are not good, they will be tired." Friends, deceiving friends is tantamount to deceiving themselves." In line with this concept, he spent a lot of energy in production management to control product quality and insist on quality first.

Lighting is a fast-changing industry. He not only insists on quality control, but also focuses on product technology updates. In tracking the latest products at home and abroad and conducting research and development in a timely manner, Liang Zhiyuan spared no effort. Once there are new products in the market, he will buy back and organize research and development personnel to analyze and research. He personally spends all day in the factory, organizes personnel to tackle problems and keeps the Pearl River lighting. The products have always been at the forefront of domestic counterparts.

Liang Zhiyuan believes: "Product quality includes not only the quality of products, but also the updating of product technology. Continuous improvement of product quality and rapid introduction of new products are the basis for the sustainable development of manufacturing enterprises."

In the mid-to-late 1990s, Chinese karaoke, disco and other entertainment projects developed rapidly, with mass entertainment venues all over the country, and entertainment venues were mainly private. Due to the increasing market demand, there are hundreds of large and small enterprises that have entered the stage lighting production during this period. Among them, 70% of the manufacturers are concentrated in Guangdong. Competition began to heat up. Some companies did not pay attention to product quality and product technology updates. Counterfeit parallel imports began to flood and the market became turbid. These directly led to the rapid reshuffle of the industry. Under the baptism of the market, some enterprises disappeared. The era of the easiest to make money has passed.

Liang Zhiyuan's Pearl River Lighting has won a reputation in the domestic industry for its insistence on “Quality First, Technology Leading”, and has won a reputation among customers and has grown stronger in the market competition. By the year 2000, Zhujiang Lighting had become the first in the industry.

Global ambition

In 1993, after the state implemented the macro-control policy, the scale of infrastructure construction was greatly reduced, and the lighting market once entered a period of moderate development, and the competition in the industry became more intense. Liang Zhiyuan’s eyes began to invest in the international market.

During the participation in the lighting and sound exhibition, Liang Zhiyuan has already contacted some foreign merchants. Because of the popularity of the Pearl River lighting, some foreign businessmen took the initiative to come to the door and asked Zhujiang Lighting to do some OEM (OEM products). In the past, these jobs were mainly done in Taiwan and some countries in Southeast Asia. China's labor costs are low, and they are willing to transfer them. Of course, they hope to reduce costs. However, foreigners have higher requirements on product quality. If the order is placed, the original management method, production site, processing equipment, etc. of Zhujiang Lighting will definitely not work. What should I do? Liang Zhiyuan bites his teeth and picks up! This means that the Pearl River lighting needs to expand the factory building and Spend millions of dollars to update the original production equipment, retrain management staff and production staff.

However, in the heart of Liang Zhiyuan, the world market has a vast sky. As long as the products manufactured by the company can enter the international market, even if it does not hit its own brand for the time being, even if it costs a lot of money! "The processing equipment at that time is not enough, made in China. The level of craftsmanship is not high, and the standard of products is relatively low, but I feel that it is impossible to enter the international market without good equipment and high manufacturing level." Liang Zhiyuan recalled.

Under the dual promotion of its own development needs and the strict requirements of OEMs, in 1994, Zhujiang Lighting and foreign companies jointly established a new plant with an investment of more than 50 million yuan in Yingbin Road, Panyu, Guangzhou. Liang Zhiyuan took the lead in introducing international advanced production lines and the most advanced all-digital processing equipment. One of the CNC punching machines ordered from Japan cost more than 7 million. This equipment was one of the whole of China. In this process, Liang Zhiyuan's investment in research and development is even more spared. Special funds are drawn from the sales revenue for research and development of products, and new technological changes in the field of stage lighting are tracked. The company has already officially registered the “Zhujiang” trademark in China. The international market has not yet launched its own brand, but the OEM OEM business has been completed according to international standards. In Liang Zhiyuan’s view, this is a very meaningful transition period: “We At that time, the gap was still relatively large, and it did not have the ability to compete with first-class brands on the international stage. We also need to build up our strength. Through doing the OEM business, through interaction with internationally renowned brands, from management to technology, or market operations, I have learned a lot." Through several years of OEM, Zhujiang Lighting's manufacturing technology and product quality have taken a new step.



In 1996, he participated in the International Light and Sound Exhibition in Frankfurt, Germany for the first time. This is the largest industry exhibition in the world. The Pearl River Lighting also paid a high price to book the booth in advance, although there are still some gaps with Taiwan's products. However, Zhujiang Lighting has won more and more customers at a more favorable price, including some big companies. However, in the process of cooperating with foreign businessmen, Liang Zhiyuan is increasingly unwilling that 90% of the profits in the OEM business are earned by foreigners, leaving only 10% of them! "The people eat meat, we are cheekbones; People eat white noodles, we eat wheat bran. Eating white noodles is sure to be stronger than eating wheat stubble - we have realized the power of the brand." Liang Zhiyuan said, "In the era of product power, product quality is the key to success or failure of the enterprise. Whether to provide products that the market needs, whether to continue product innovation determines the strength of the company's competitiveness. However, now that the society has entered the era of brand power, the brand has become a weapon for enterprises to compete in the market, and the competitive advantage of the brand has become the decision of the company. The key to negative."

In 2000, Liang Zhiyuan began to seek to promote his brand to the world through internal and external alliances, and negotiated cooperation with a world-renowned Danish company. However, the imbalance of peer relationship stimulated his ambition to promote global brands: "Since people are more than ten In the past year, I have created a world-class brand, and I believe we have the ability to do it!"


Invisible champion

According to Herman-Simon, the world's most prestigious management guru and visiting professor at Harvard Business School, the eight empirical indicators of the global mature stealth champion make these companies stand out: 1. The goal of the invisible champions is to become a leader in their own field. Global leaders, do not think about it; 2. They are highly focused companies, emphasizing depth rather than breadth; 3. They combine their unique know-how in product and know-how with global marketing; 4. They are not alone Technology or market wins, but through technology and market to drive to win; 5. These companies are highly innovative regardless of product or production process. Their innovation activities are globally oriented and continuous; 6. Invisible champions create strategic competitive advantages in product quality and service. They are always intimately intimate with their most powerful opponents; 7. The invisible champions rely on their own strength. They don't believe in strategic alliances; 8. Invisible champions have a very strong corporate culture, which is associated with excellent employee recognition and enthusiasm, the selection of new employees is very demanding, corporate leadership is outstanding, and generally They have been at the helm for decades.

In 2001, Liang Zhiyuan promoted the consensus of the corporate leadership team and made a milestone decision: lost fantasy, lost OEM, started the global independent brand road, officially launched the “PR” lighting brand to the world, and gave the new “PR” Connotation: P (Pure) stands for pure, R (Reliability) stands for reliability, conveys and marks the professional and reliable Pearl River lighting products that the company has launched to the world! At the same time, Zhujiang Lighting has started a series of "upgrade breakthroughs" for itself!

The first is to recruit international talents. The company spends millions of dollars to hire European and American people in the industry's top companies responsible for research and development and sales to be responsible for the company's product technology research and development and overseas market development and brand promotion. This is unimaginable for a small private enterprise. However, Liang Zhiyuan believes that this money is worthwhile. He said, "To enter and establish a foothold in the international market, to be a truly international company, we must first have international talents. Talents are the core element to promote enterprise development!"

The second is to improve corporate management. In terms of management, Liang Zhiyuan summed up eight words: "system, standards, means, integration." The company has established two major systems. In 2001, the company invested millions of established “ERP-Enterprise Resource Network Management System” to manage enterprise operations. In 2002, it introduced ISO9001 quality management system management quality, adopting international IEC60598-2-17: - 1984 standard production, at the same time, passed the "CE", "UL" and other international standard product safety compulsory certification, according to the "standardized good behavior enterprise" requirements to establish and implement standardized management. At the same time, the purchase of a number of production lines and advanced testing and testing equipment, and people-oriented integration, Zhujiang lighting products from the design, development, production, sales and service management, customer-centric, information-based core, continuous optimization The enterprise management system and process integrate internal and external resources to improve the accuracy of decision-making. As a result, the company has achieved a new competitive advantage in terms of product quality, operation speed and cost control.



The third is independent research and development, and dare to innovate. Constant technological innovation is the driving force behind the sustainable development of the company, and it is also an important force to support the brand. As early as 2000, Liang Zhiyuan recognized this law and proposed a research and development strategy of “independent research and development, dare to innovate”. Every year, more than 8% of the funds from the sales revenue were extracted as research and development funds for new products. The R&D center and laboratory built a team of nearly 100 R&D talents. While adhering to independent research and development, we dare to innovate. We have established strategic partnerships with Philippe, the world's top 500 company, to collaborate on cutting-edge technology; and co-founded the “Image and Light Technology Laboratory” with Guangzhou University. "Building "Stage Lighting Technology R&D Center" with Shanghai Theatre Academy; Establishing "Lighting Technology Research and Training Base" with South China Normal University. Through the effective integration of internal and external technical resources, Zhujiang Lighting's technological product innovations continue to innovate, such as the power to shake the headlights series, super-powered headlights series, architectural lights series. The company's fist product - Jinneng moving head light computer light series products passed the "Ministry of Science and Technology Research Projects Project Experts Acceptance Meeting" acceptance, experts identified the series of products to reach the international advanced level, in many core technology areas, the Pearl River lighting has exceeded certain international well-known brand. At present, Zhujiang Lighting has obtained more than 80 technical patents. Zhujiang Company, which has its own technology patents and intellectual property rights, has been highly recognized by government departments while being respected by domestic and foreign counterparts. In 2004, Zhujiang Company was recognized as a national “high-tech enterprise” and in 2007, “Pearl River” was It is recognized as a famous trademark in Guangdong Province. The leading technology has made Zhujiang Lighting highly valued by the Ministry of Culture, and was invited to participate in the drafting of "General Technical Conditions for Lighting in Song and Dance Halls", "Photometric Testing and Labeling for Stage Lighting", "DMX512-A Transmission Agreement for Stage Lighting" and other national cultural industry standards. .

The fourth is international operation. Liang Zhiyuan's global vision and marketing charm are even more amazing. Under his leadership, the company has formed an entrepreneurial spirit of courage to surpass and lead. In China, the participation of large-scale projects in the country, the "Bird's Nest" project of the Beijing Olympic Games, and the main venue of the Special Olympics in 2007 - Shanghai's 80,000 people's sports taste more than a dozen provincial-level and above TV stations including CCTV and many large domestic ones. The theater, the Pearl River lights have beaten domestic and foreign rivals in the bidding, and become a "product supplier" that does not cost money but is a real name. In the international arena, Zhujiang has always attached importance to the construction of marketing and sales channels. At many exhibitions with great influence in the world, Zhujiang Company is indispensable every time, and it must occupy an important position. At present, Zhujiang's sales channels are spread over more than 60 countries and regions around the world. Companies in the United States, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, Russia and other countries that sell the world's top professional lighting brand products have cooperated with the Pearl River. The sales of “PR” brand products represent the era of Zhujiang Lighting’s “PR” products competing with the world’s top brands. The “PR” brand has become quite competitive in the international professional lighting field. One of the brands of power and influence.

Zhujiang Lighting is making great strides toward its global dream. Since 2001, Pearl River lighting sales have grown at a rate of more than 30% per year. The share of the international market now accounts for more than half of the company's total sales. The structure of export products has also begun to change, the share of high-end products is growing, and the share of low-end products is becoming less and less. The domestic high-end product market has also changed the situation that imported products dominated the world, and the share of imported brands is becoming less and less.

The continuous brand strategy has made three major changes in the focus and operation mode of Zhujiang Lighting: from the original OEM OEM production to the private label production; from exporting to developing countries to exporting to developed countries such as Europe and the United States; From the production of high-intensive labor and low-profit products to the production of self-owned intellectual property, high-tech, and high value-added products. These changes have enabled Zhujiang Lighting's production management, process control, quality management and other enterprise management levels to achieve a leap from quantitative change to qualitative change.

Information technology is bringing a revolution in the field of professional lighting. Lighting is no longer an art of purely environmental expression, and lamps and beams themselves have become part of art appreciation. Networked lighting, networked control equipment, networked management software, automatic alarm system, sound and photoelectric synchronization and other technologies in the field of lighting, bringing unlimited business opportunities for professional lighting companies. The construction of the 2008 Olympic venues and the corresponding urban supporting projects, the Shanghai 2010 World Expo and the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, the construction of large-scale theaters and other cultural infrastructures throughout the country, and the emerging urban theme lighting The project will further magnify the market demand potential of professional lighting. These will certainly lead the next development peak of China's professional computer lighting industry.

Looking forward to the future, Liang Zhiyuan clearly recognizes his own advantages and the gap with his international counterparts. He can be described as confidant: “The pattern of full competition with internationally renowned brands is already there. We are technically weak and have enough prices. Advantages, still challenging now is the further improvement of international management and service capabilities. We are seeking cooperation with internationally renowned consulting companies, and hope that in a few years, we will take another step in the international business capability."

In the eyes of Liang Zhiyuan, the ultimate goal of the company is to create the world's top professional lighting brand. “It is not easy to be a factory. It is even harder to be a brand. We are now a bit of a success, but creating a top international brand is a long way to go. Career. We will experience more and more severe tests." Liang Zhiyuan said. It’s difficult to know how to do it, and knowing that it’s difficult to go ahead. Is this an entrepreneur’s paranoia or a happy life in the pursuit of pure career? This has always been a problem that lingers in Liang Zhiyuan’s mind. He used it. In the past 30 years, the business experience of the sea has forged a top Chinese brand in the professional field. This is a good answer, but it is still not the end. In his heart, let the Pearl River PR light illuminate itself, illuminate China and illuminate the world. Shining a more dynamic and awkward world is a strange temptation that motivates him to keep moving forward on the road of life...
Edit: LC-HY

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