Chief Interview| Li Jianquan, Chairman of Prudential Medical: Adhere to altruism to move forward steadily

Editor's Note:

The national "14th Five-Year Plan" and the outline of long-term goals for 2035 propose to promote the "increase in variety, quality and brand creation" of manufacturing products, carry out Chinese brand creation actions, enhance the influence and competitiveness of independent brands, and cultivate a number of high-end brands. As one of the regions with the highest degree of openness and the strongest economic vitality in the mainland, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has emerged a large number of outstanding innovative brands, and has gradually caught up with and led a new round of world industrial and consumption trends in technological innovation, application innovation, service innovation and consumer experience innovation.

In order to further inject brand and innovation into the integrated development of the Greater Bay Area, Phoenix.com Guangdong, Guangdong Guangdong, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Research Institute and Shenzhen Well-known Brand Evaluation Committee jointly launched the "Bay Area Brand Power" topic, from the perspective of brand story, brand going to sea, brand change, etc., to talk to 100 well-known brand entrepreneurs in the Bay Area, tell the bay area brand story, interpret the entrepreneurial spirit of the Bay Area, create a group portrait of China's high-quality brands, and enhance the international influence of the Bay Area brand. Recently, Phoenix Network Guangdong interviewed Li Jianquan, chairman of Prudential Medical.

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"Quality takes precedence over profit" is the imprint of the heart

Cotton, is a natural fiber, the comfort is very high, can be naturally degraded, does not damage the environment. There is such a person, he is always full of cotton, his backpack is always loaded with his own cotton towel, and everyone says the benefits of cotton. He, li jianquan, his dream is hidden in a small cotton.

【Chief Interview】I look at your resume of entrepreneurship and work in the first half, it seems that you have not left cotton, this is fate, how do you describe your relationship with cotton?

[Li Jianquan] When we were the youngest in that era, every household in the New Year's Day may get a little cotton, and the amount of cotton distributed is particularly small, either only enough to make a quilt, or make a few clothes. Since I was a child, my mother used to shake the cotton herself to spin the yarn, and after spinning the yarn, she knitted her own cloth.

[Chief Interview] In fact, it was also a cotton era.

[Li Jianquan] It was the real cotton era, there was nothing foreign in it, and the shirt was particularly comfortable at that time.

Of course, after joining the work, I just started to do medicine, and then slowly made medical dressings, and then set up a dressing department to deal with cotton. There are many new material inventions in the world, but none of the materials can replace cotton for medical use, especially for surgery.

The history of cotton is 7,000 years old, and cotton still maintains a vigorous life, and now who do you say can leave cotton? So I think plants are very magical.

Born in 1957, Li Jianquan went from rural Hubei to state-owned enterprises, and then went to the sea to do dressing foreign trade business, and founded "Steady Medical". At that time, the overall quality of Chinese products was not recognized abroad, and it was even called "rubbish" – taking off this hat was the first goal of Li Jianquan and Prudential Medical.

【Chief Interview】We see that the development of your enterprise is indeed stable enough, "stable and healthy". In 1999, it became the leading enterprise of medical dressing enterprises in the country.

[Li Jianquan] Steady should be said that in the 10 years since the beginning of entrepreneurship, we have achieved the first export in a small field, and we cannot completely say that the leader is the first, but it is the first place in China's medical dressing export.

I think in 10 years I really haven't thought of what kind of first we want to be, and what we want to do is get rid of the "rubbish" hat.

At that time, after I set up the company, I started to open a factory, renting a very small place to open a factory. Why? I just want to do a good job in quality, after renting a factory for another year, I began to buy a floor, a floor to buy, why? When I buy a floor, I don't worry about being driven away by others. Just like this little by little accumulation, the factory is getting bigger and bigger, because we want to do a good job in quality, you do a good job of quality, business will come, it is a complementary thing.

So your current robust group has three important principles, one of which is that quality is higher than profit.

【Li Jianquan】Quality takes precedence over profit. This is also the imprint that we have seen and accumulated in the heart of the earth in the middle of those real practice processes, in the middle of so many years of work.

Only with the brand can there be a price discourse

【Chief Interview】I see that you used to be a processing-oriented export, and then you attached equal importance to brand and processing, why did you realize the importance of brand at that time?

[Li Jianquan] When I was dealing with companies in Europe, the United States and Japan, I was stimulated and hurt in my heart. Why do we want to be an OEM with him? It's because they have a brand, just because they have a brand you have to listen to him, every year to give you a price cut, you have to cut the price, you don't cut the price, sorry, I won't buy it for you.

More importantly, when we in China, for example, lead the industry to a relatively high level, when everyone is on a par, it may be for a few cents to transfer the order to you, he does not talk about old feelings. When this product was made for decades, it was competing with the price, so I began to see this problem.

In the past nine years, we have paid attention to the two ends of the "smile curve", and we often learn the two ends of the smile curve, one is research and development, and the other is the brand. With R&D, you can control the innovation of your technology and products in this field. You have a brand, you actually have marketing, you have a terminal, you control the price of the right to speak. So I thought about how I was going to move towards the ends of the "smile curve," and I realized it very early on.

[Chief Interview] Then it should be almost 17 years now. We go global as a robust brand. Tell you about your experience, as our Chinese corporate brand going to sea, what are the most important internal skills that we must first practice?

[Li Jianquan] First of all, the first is your product, no matter how the product is the foundation; the second is undoubtedly to have the ability to market, in fact, the product power, marketing power after the sum is equal to the brand power, this is my summary. Behind these three points is a kind of initial intention, this original intention must not mean that I want to go internationally or where to fish for a bucket of gold to come back, but really want to provide value to others, when you create value for others, your return will come back directly, and this initial intention belongs to the highest level.

21 trials in 18 hours, "driven crazy"

【Commentary】How much imagination space does a "cotton" have? A "pain in the skin" allowed Li Jianquan to discover new possibilities.

【Chief Interview】Around 2005, there is another important technology that you have mastered, called cotton spunlace non-woven fabric.

[Li Jianquan] I had an operation in 2001 called hernia surgery, and in 2003 I had another operation, also a hernia surgery. The first time I had surgery, I felt a little pain in the wind and rain, and at that time I felt that there must be something wrong with the product I used, and I believe that it was easy to drop the yarn head inside the gauze used.

I found some chemical fiber non-woven products, it has no yarn head after cutting on the side, there is no fluff, very smooth. At that time, I was thinking if I could make our gauze products into this shape with cotton materials. Is it okay to do it with this process? At that time, many people said that you were too whimsical, how could gauze be made like this.

[Chief Interview] The traditional cognition is like that.

[Li Jianquan] Yes, it's all gauze.

I'm a person who likes to do things that others don't expect, so we've been working on it since 2003. We went to France, Italy and Germany. At that time, I often traveled alone, and now I sometimes travel alone to save money. I went to Germany for an experiment, and that day I spent 18 hours in the factory and forced them to do 21 experiments, and you think it drove them crazy.

That experiment played a very important role in laying the foundation for our thinking, for us, and that is what I think is achievable.

No standards to follow Products cannot be sold

[Chief Interview] Such a global search for these masters, in fact, this problem is solved, can be used in the field of medical treatment, but then for what reason is not useful?

[Li Jianquan] is also in use now, in 2005 our whole theory of this technology came out, of course, we also registered a patent, in 2005 also put China, foreign equipment to assemble their own, it took 2-3 years to really make products.

As a result, there is no market for the product to be made, why? Because you did not meet the standards of gauze used in medical conditions at that time, you are non-woven, how can you sell non-woven with the standard of gauze? The international community does not have this standard, China does not have a standard, can not sell, I am finished.

This time, the "whimsical" conflicted with the existing market product standards, and Li Jianquan fell into a "dilemma", and pressure from all sides forced him to think of a way out. Is it to shelve progress, or to re-establish usage standards? After several considerations, he decided to start a business for the second time, established the "cotton era", and explored the role change from B-end to C-end, from raw material manufacturers to life consumer brands.

[Li Jianquan] So later in 2009, I felt that it was better to ask for others than to seek myself, and I turned it into a civilian product. We are applying to the state for registration of some standards for medical treatment, but it was not until 2011 that the national standards drafted by Prudential Medical began to be promulgated.

[Chief Interview] Is it that the brand we now know as the "cotton era" came into being in that context?

[Li Jianquan] In the second half of 2009, I registered a company called Cotton Times. We're not just going to just get a patented product out there, I'm going to make a real cotton series of products.

The first is from easy to difficult, easy is non-woven, first push non-woven, and then slowly push to use gauze to replace some of the spun. For example, we first made it with gauze, using gauze to make this kind of towel, bath towel, baby quilt and so on, and then found that the mothers especially liked it, it was breathable and soft and comfortable.

This alone is not enough, cotton products can really cover more people, can do some women's products, and then start to do the shirts and outing clothes we wear today. In fact, it is the most difficult to make out clothes, which requires a certain modern science and technology to be used in cotton, so that it can become wrinkled.

【Chief Interview】I can see that you have a sense of intimacy and pride when you talk about your products. Do you constantly think of a lot of ways to solve the problem in every link?

[Li Jianquan] Yes, because in general, I think all kinds of products in this world can be created by people who really want to bring a sense of comfort to others or bring a sense of experience. For example, in the cotton era, I may have done it for 7 years, 8 years, no one knows me Li Jianquan, but I sometimes go to the conference, people say this is Li Jianquan, no one knows me, saying that he is "cotton era", ah! Eyes lit up!

"If we don't take the lead, who else will contribute?"

At the end of 2019, the sudden outbreak of the new crown epidemic disrupted the rhythm of people's lives, and for a time, protective clothing, medical masks and other materials fell into a state of shortage. At the critical moment, the steady medical factory worked overtime, fought in the front line, and insisted that the product did not increase in price.

【Chief Interview】Can you recall the special time of 2020, how did you and your employees spend it?

[Li Jianquan] I remember the most difficult moment, from the evening of January 20, 2020, my plane landed in Hong Kong from Paris, after landing, I urgently called several factories to ask about the situation, he said are we on three days off, go early and return early?

I don't know if COVID-19 is a cold or a virus like SARS in 2003. I said that since there is no stock, we are doing protective products, especially the factory where we make masks, I said that you must tell the staff, do ideological work, let them not take a holiday, go back to eat a New Year's meal and come back.

On the 30th (Chinese New Year's Eve), he went to call and then on the morning of the first day of junior high school told me if I could let it go for three more days, and I was in a hurry, and I said a paragraph, I said that communists were born and died in times of crisis, and walked in the front. We are a private enterprise, we do medical products, this kind of thing happens on our doorstep, if we don't take the lead, who else will do this contribution? As a result, he played my words on the factory floor with a tweeter.

【Chief Interview】This is your thought work that is both straightforward and simple and sincere.

[Li Jianquan] Yes, he broadcast my WeChat voice several times, no one in the factory asked for leave, at that time it was already the 21st, the 22nd returned to the factory after eating the New Year's meal, and the 23rd announced that it had been closed.

In the entire two months and 10 days from the end of January to March, Wuhan and the whole of Hubei were at the most critical juncture, and 70% of masks and 70% of protective clothing were provided steadily. Of course, it also includes some infected hospitals across the country, and also ensures the supply of several relatively large hospitals in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.

On January 21st, I found that some people have already speculated on the price very high, we as this enterprise, I as the president of the China Medical Dressing Association, our company is undoubtedly a relatively leading enterprise in the association.

Therefore, on January 21, 2020, before there was no lockdown, we took the lead in understanding the control of prices, and we directly sent an open letter on our public account and Weibo to indicate that stable masks do not increase in price, which means that stable masks do not increase in price, and others are better not to increase prices. Although the price of masks has risen dozens of times and raw materials have risen dozens of times, our terminal has never increased in price, and I think this is what we are going to do.

【Chief Interview】This is also the embodiment of a sense of social responsibility of the enterprise.

[Li Jianquan] should do this, my company is not to make quick money to start, but really rely on innovation, really create value for others, so that we can get returns.

"People do not live up to Qingshan, Qingshan will not fail me"

Love running, backpacks, self-driving cars, this is The employee's perspective of Li Jianquan, always adhere to a simple sustainable lifestyle. The same is true of Li Jianquan's business, which has been stable and long-term for thirty years.

[Li Jianquan] In my 2022 New Year's message, I said that Prudential Medical has gone through the first 30 years, we are the second 30 years this year, and the first thing we have to do is industry, industry, science and technology. Then we, as an industrial company, we must at least create wealth for the country, and when the industry is done well, other industries can rely on the real economy and create more wealth.

The second is undoubtedly to adhere to the basic management, the basic management will never be outdated, do not do a good job of the foundation, how do you do a good job in the industry? Basic management includes the application of all the advanced technologies now, especially for the industry, we have to embrace the applications of AI technology, automation, intelligence, and intelligence, and at the same time to do a good job in digital applications, so we have invested a lot in these fields over the years.

Of course, there are many more, and later I said that we have to go further, and we still have to stick to three.

The first is our altruistic values, including our vision and mission, which must be adhered to.

The second is "people do not live up to Qingshan, Qingshan will not fail me", as a leading enterprise, we must be as an example of environmental protection, carbon peaking, carbon neutrality. I said that we want to take the lead in achieving 3 to 10 years ahead of the national standard before the national carbon peak in 2030 and the carbon neutrality standard in 2060, which is what enterprises must do.

Finally, I said that in China we must persist in following the Communist Party.

Producer: Chief Interview

Director system: Xu Huchuan

Producer: Liu Jiayi

Director/Producer: Huang Min

Art Direction: Zhao Hongfu

Moderator: Dong Chao

Copywriter: Lin Jiu

Post-editing: Liao Zening

Visual design: Lei Baomin