Da Vinci code to success

A bird's eye view of Broad Group headquarters in Changsha, Hunan province. The 15-story red building is New Ark's Hotel, which was built in six days with the company's innovative building technology. Provided to China Daily

Building Technology Innovator Reveals the Art of Doing Great Business

Zhang Yue is more an artist than a businessman. He is no longer interested in making money, but in creating good work. His role model and inspiration is Leonardo da Vinci. In 24 years, the former art teacher has turned his small company of boilermakers into one of the world leaders in the energy-efficient building industry.

"Be it in arts or business, if you want to be outstanding, you should be creative and pioneering in your fields," says Zhang, the 52-year-old founder and president of Broad Group, based in Changsha, in Central China's Hunan province. It is the company's latest invention in sustainable building technology that Zhang hopes will be seen as his Mona Lisa by generations to come.

"Broad Sustainable Building is the best representative to showcase Broad's pioneering spirit," says Zhang. "This sector is Broad's next growth engine."

Zhang Yue is founder and president of Broad Group.

The spirit is very much in tune with China's and the world's aim to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, and will itself be showcased later this year with a BSB project to build the world's tallest skyscraper using the new technology in the space of only three months.

Supported by the government, the development of the "green building industry" in China will create a market worth trillions of yuan, and Broad aims to harvest a large part of it, says Zhang.

"We are developing our BSB business through a franchising system," he explains. "Every franchise will pay 200 million yuan (25 million euros, $31.5 million) to get the rights to construct the sustainable building. So far we have developed six franchises in China and it is expected that in three to five years there will be about 50 in China and 100 in other countries and regions."

Although Broad does not disclose its financial details, its performance is reflected through Zhang's personal fortune of 5 billion yuan, according to Forbes magazine's 2011 list of Chinese billionaires.

But Zhang says he doesn't place too much emphasis on his personal asset growth, and, unlike most companies, Broad has no revenue or profit goals.

"We just want to develop innovative and useful technology to contribute more to protection of the environment. And we believe that in the long term only environment-friendly businesses can survive and prosper in the business world," he says.

The evolution in Zhang's business empire is also in line with the transformation of his personal lifestyle.

In 2001, when his fortune had skyrocketed to $200 million, Zhang indulged in many luxury pursuits, such as buying luxury cars. He was also among the first in China to run private jets and helicopters.

But he curtailed these practices, and grounded his jets after realizing how much CO2 was being emitted by flights.

"When I earned much more money than I could spend in my life, I realized at the same time that excessive energy consumption will result in global warming and pose threats to the survival of our children," says Zhang.

Thereafter, he had only one motive: to save energy and reduce greenhouse emissions.

Similar to how it was for Leonardo da Vinci, art and technology go hand in hand for Zhang in that goal, and in life in general.

Walking into his Changsha office, one is immediately struck by the amalgam of artworks, mostly created by Zhang himself, that hang on the walls, and architectural plans and technical plans strewn across the sofa and desks.

Born in Changsha in 1960, Zhang went to a local university in 1978 to train and later work there as an arts teacher. But bored by the "dull" campus life, he quit and set up his own business in 1988.

"The arts experience is important to me and Broad. If you want to be a successful artist, you should have your own style, and never imitate others' works. So it is with business," he says.

Ma Gan, who is general manager of Broad's energy services division, says Zhang has an acute sense of manufacturing design, be it architectural or for air conditioning.

"Zhang judges the products more from his aesthetic point of view than the business angle, which is very helpful in our products' innovation," says Ma. "Zhang is also a perfectionist regarding every Broad product, and more like an artist than a businessman."

Zhang is the soul of his company and every new product is developed under his instruction. And like a true artist, he doesn't ask the public what it wants. "We never conduct market research for new technologies and products, since customers never know what they need until you show them," he says.

It is this combination of ambition and innovation, insight and opportunism, patience and persistence that many say make Zhang a master of development strategy.

Zhang founded Broad in 1988 with start-up money of 30,000 yuan in his hometown. In 1989, Broad invented the first industrial boilers and developed its business fast through this invention.

In 1992, the company invented the first non-electric air conditioning equipment in China and shifted focus to this industry.

Hu Chanming, who heads Broad Group's air conditioning division today, describes Zhang's initiative then as a "very brave and significant step for us, since non-electric air conditioning chillers and equipment was a new concept, and the market was quite small".

But after the government provided incentives for non-electric equipment to relieve stress on the national electricity grid, Broad's sales rose rapidly, and it became the world's biggest seller of non-electric chillers in 1996.

Two years later, its non-electric air conditioners entered the international market. Now Broad has about 60 percent of the market in non-electric chillers. Its products are exported to more than 70 countries.

While non-electric chillers remain Broad's largest source of revenue, Broad has branched out into making other environmentally friendly products, but its latest innovation, Broad Sustainable Building technology, is at the fore.

"The issue of emission reduction is critical. China is in the process of urbanization, but the vast majority of new houses built here are still highly energy and carbon inefficient," warns Zhang.

"It is imperative that China find feasible and replicable ways to reduce emissions from massive construction projects, and BSB is a ready and effective approach."

BSB achieves energy efficiency and carbon reduction through thermal insulation. When it is hot outside, the building prevents cool interior air from leaving and hot air from entering, and vice versa when the weather is cold, says Zhang.

BSB can also be constructed quickly due to prefabrication of units, explains Zhou Xiangjiang, who is responsible for the technology.

"BSB has a short construction time since parts are prefabricated in factories and just require assembling on site," he says. "The streamlined construction method enables us to mass produce sustainable and earthquake-resistant skyscrapers that cost 10 times less on average than conventional structures."

It is this scale of speed and effectiveness that Broad aims to ultimately prove with its ambitious plan to build the world's tallest skyscraper at 838 meters in Changsha within just three months.

Sky City One is scheduled to cost $628 million (502 million euros), less than half the cost of the $1.5 billion Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai, the current world record holder, according to Forbes. This is because the Chinese one will be built 20 times faster, claims BSB.

Most of Sky City One's 220 floors will be apartments for 17,000 people, with the rest earmarked for a hotel, school, hospital, offices, shops and restaurants.

Work is to start in November with completion due in January - though the central government has yet to grant final approval, says Zhang.

As a pioneer in the area of rapid prefab construction, Broad Group has already demonstrated its BSB concept through 16 other demonstrations including the six-story Broad Pavilion at Shanghai Expo 2010, built within a day; the 15-story New Ark's Hotel at Broad's headquarters within six days; the Broad Pavilion at the 2010 UN Climate Change Conference in eight days; and a 30-story prototype hotel in Changsha in 15 days. The building times do not include ground work.

Having been tested to be able to resist a 9.0-magnitude earthquake, BSB was also recommended in an United Nations Environment Programme report on the rebuilding of Sichuan after its catastrophic earthquake in 2008.

According to China's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15), constructing energy-efficient buildings is an effective way toward reducing energy consumption by 16 percent and carbon emissions by 17 percent for every unit of GDP by 2015.

"Stimulated by government policies, more participants in the construction industry have now realized the importance of making buildings more energy-efficient and consuming less energy," says Zhou Jingmin, professor of architecture and urban planning at Tongji University, Shanghai.

Zhou also says innovative and environmentally friendly architecture has become a priority for industry leaders in promoting their brand and business.

Having more than 200 patents on the technology, Zhang says that innovation has been the soul of Broad since its foundation, and this is what distinguishes Broad from its competitors.

"We now have an R&D team of almost 400, one-10th of our total workforce," says Zhang, who as a technology enthusiast, spends most of his time in R&D, and gets by on five hours of sleep daily.

"Many of my friends say that I am somewhat stupid because I spend too much time in technology innovation and don't have much time to enjoy myself. But for me, the most interesting thing is developing new technology to contribute to the cause of environmental protection," he says.

"Broad should set an example for others, since no other company like us has put so much emphasis on environmental protection."

In May 2011, Zhang was awarded the Champions of the Earth Award by the UN Environment Programme for Broad's commitment to fighting climate change.

Like Da Vinci, Zhang and Broad may be remembered and honored for centuries to come.

Contact the writers at huhaiyan@chinadaily.com.cn and fengzhiwei@chinadaily.com.cn