Liu Wenjing: Standing before dawn breaks

Chinese entrepreneur

2024-05-18 10:39Published on the official account of Beijing "China Entrepreneur" magazine

"Chinese Entrepreneur" reporter Tan Liping

Edited by Zhang Hao

Header image source: Respondents

"It's 'five o'clock in the morning' and dawn is certain." Liu Wenjing, chairman of Bluesail Medical, still remembers the "four o'clock in the morning" mentioned in an interview with "Chinese Entrepreneur" last year. At that time, Bluesail Medical was questioned a lot by the outside world, but she firmly believed that it was not "dark at seven or eight o'clock in the evening".

This assurance comes from the fact that the company has finally made it through the downward cycle and embarked on its third decade strategy. In the second half of 2023, she clearly felt that "the wheels have begun to turn". In the description of the goals of this strategic period, Bluesail Medical will become "a respected world-class medical enterprise".

Source: Visual China

In the past year, Bluesail Medical's Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Headquarters and Industrialization Base project has been accelerated; The cardiovascular and cerebrovascular business, the anchor of the company's transformation, was reorganized and external strategic investors began to be introduced; Cardiovascular and cerebrovascular products and services have entered more than 8,000 hospitals in more than 100 countries, including more than 70 countries that jointly build the "Belt and Road".

Bluesail Medical is accelerating to get rid of the label of "glove king". This traditional business played an important role in the company's first 10-year strategy, but in the second decade, the cardiovascular and cerebrovascular business became a new driving force.

Therefore, when the outside world thinks that Bluesail Medical has made a lot of money because of the epidemic, Liu Wenjing feels that the past 5 years have been the darkest moment of "the earth is shaking". Because during the critical period of transformation, the company suddenly encountered two irresistible variables - the global epidemic and domestic centralized procurement, which caused the cardiovascular and cerebrovascular business, which undertook the heavy responsibility of transformation, to suffer a heavy blow at that time.

What excites her at the moment is that Bluesail Medical's new vision is resonating positively with the BRICS countries and the countries that jointly build the "Belt and Road". "Governments, hospitals, and experts in many countries hope that Bluesail can come to them." In August last year, Liu Wenjing appeared at the 2023 BRICS Business Forum; In October, he was invited to attend the "Belt and Road" International Cooperation Summit Forum Entrepreneur Conference; In November, he participated in the APEC Business Leaders Summit.

Globalization 3.0

The relatively concentrated actions in the second half of last year conveyed the signal of Bluesail Medical at the strategic level, and Liu Wenjing would use "globalization 3.0" to define it within the company. In her view, at this stage, Bluesail Medical has the opportunity to export Chinese technology, standards and brands to the international market, which is fundamentally different from the previous "1.0" and "2.0".

In the 1.0 stage of 2003~2012, Bluesail Medical became the first listed company in the glove industry in 7 years and became the global industry leader in less than 10 years, with PVC gloves accounting for 22% of the global share. However, although gloves are sold all over the world, they are limited to the globalization of the product market.

In the 2.0 stage of 2013~2022, Bluesail Medical is adapting to the construction of the "Belt and Road" and the industrial planning is evolving to the middle and high-end. It has successively acquired Singapore's Bosheng International and Germany's heart valve company NVT. The cardiovascular business obviously has more market extension value than the glove business, and Bluesail Medical gritted its teeth and took this step, but the digestion, integration and innovation after the merger and acquisition consumed huge resources.

In the 3.0 stage, Liu Wenjing's strategic logic is to go overseas in a deeper way: on the one hand, build a good platform, based on its own resources, lead the upstream and downstream enterprises in the industry to go to sea together, and on the other hand, start exporting China's technology, standards and brands, and empower overseas countries to build their own local industrial chains.

"In the first half of last year, we received invitations from a number of countries that jointly build the Belt and Road Initiative, hoping to build industrial chains for them." Liu Wenjing said that this is a system project, which is much more complex than the previous business. In countries with poor medical resources, Bluesail Medical even needs to provide targeted doctor training services, which requires a lot of preparation.

According to her, at present, in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Brazil and other BRICS countries and the "Belt and Road" countries, Bluesail Medical's medical glove products can account for 20%~30% of the market share, and cardiac stent products have covered about 75% of the total population of the "Belt and Road" countries.

These market foundations will make the "wheels" spin faster and faster. In June 2022, Bluesail Medical's Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Headquarters and Industrialization Base project started in Zhangjiang Science City International Medical Park, which will not only become Bluesail Medical's global innovation and R&D headquarters base, but also an investment incubation platform, a high-end medical device product production base and a global business headquarters.

Gloves don't make great companies

However, the leap from "2.0" to "3.0", Liu Wenjing's challenges are all-encompassing. If you want to export technology, you must first have a product, which must be an independent brand, have a good reputation, be recognized by the international market, and have enough innovation and market competitiveness. Secondly, if Bluesail Medical wants to cover more localized markets, it must also ensure the talent thickness of the international team.

Therefore, the bold jump of acquiring Baisheng International in 2018 is crucial. At the time, the acquisition was considered to be the largest and most complex cross-border medical device M&A in the history of China's A-share market. Liu Wenjing has always said internally that gloves are good products, but they can't make great companies.

After the acquisition, Liu Wenjing retained all the management and teams of the Biosun International and NVT brands, while continuing to invest in them, such as the construction of two new production and R&D buildings in Germany. The team also recruits talents in technology, clinical, and marketing around the world to ensure the localized operation of the business.

"You know, in China, and even in Singapore, the investment capital, construction efficiency and operating costs are much better than in Germany. However, we value that the core gene of this development is people, and Stuttgart is a very strategically advantageous European medical technology cluster. We have such a good team here, and we have to rely on them to build the platform. Where the talent is, the platform should be. Liu Wenjing said.

Based on the same logic, Bluesail Medical now has more than 70 subsidiaries around the world, set up R&D centers and manufacturing bases in China, Singapore, Germany and other places, and has more than 600 patents worldwide.

Now, Bluesail Medical's cardiovascular and cerebrovascular business can be promoted according to the R&D rhythm of "one exclusive blockbuster product per year", and nearly 2 billion yuan has been invested in R&D in the past five years. This has a very obvious positive drive for sales, and only two original innovative products have been launched, accounting for 20% of sales revenue in the domestic region.

In 2023, benefiting from the successive launch of self-developed new products, the growth of domestic centralized procurement products and overseas markets, the sales revenue of the Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Division will return to the scale of 1 billion yuan. "The cardiovascular and cerebrovascular business has overseas revenue of about 100 million US dollars, which is also at the forefront of the industry." Liu Wenjing said. At the beginning of this year, Bluesail Parkson, a wholly-owned subsidiary mainly engaged in cardiovascular business, successfully completed a private equity financing of 900 million yuan.

Asked about the specific details of the third ten-year plan, Liu Wenjing did not give a specific answer, her requirement for the team is to change from the linear growth of the past to the iteration of geometric progression, "This year is the second year, don't limit the future with the current cognition, and don't set limits in life."

Indeed, from the employees of state-owned enterprises going to the sea, to opening the global glove market from scratch, from private enterprises to listing, from mergers and acquisitions of multinational companies, to crossing the epidemic and centralized procurement, and then to facing the international market more deeply, which one is not a new challenge? "Face it openly, calmly, calmly, and joyfully." Liu Wenjing said.

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