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Song Zhenghuan, chairman and CEO of Goodbaby Group, displays a stroller that was produced by the company in 1992. [Photo / China Daily] |
Luckily Song Zhenghuan loves kids.
You could say, he was destined to serve them.
From when he co-chaired a high school in East China's Jiangsu province, to his running today of the world's best-selling children's stroller brand, Goodbaby.
In China, the company is known as Hao Hai Zi - that translates into "good baby".
It controls almost half of the country's stroller market, with revenues of 2 billion yuan ($315 million) last year.
Its list of other corporate statistics makes equally impressive reading:
It's the biggest supplier of strollers in North America and Europe; it provides two out of every five strollers sold in the United States; it now has customers in more than 70 countries; it makes over 10,000 strollers a day under 15 different labels for mostly overseas brands; it employs 100 engineers, designers and market researchers; and a 20,000-square-meters R&D center is staffed by another 200 researchers.
So when you consider that its founder had no experience of making anything before, let alone a world-beating piece of engineering, this truly global business started just under a quarter of a century ago, is a staggering success story.
Song said his number one aim is to create the world's best-known brand of infant and child products. And by that list of achievements so far, he is clearly well on the way to achieving it.
Ask him what's the most crucial ingredient in making his business such a success and the 64-year-old former teacher provides a simple answer: "Innovation and marketing are always the key."
It's a doctrine he uses throughout the interview with China Daily, as he sits in his bright, airy, spacious office, lit by natural light shining through tall glass windows.
The former educationalist may not be as well-versed in the curve of different components of a value chain, but he exudes an enthusiasm for his product which is infectious, and has guided the dramatic and spectacular development of what is now a global leader.