Family fabric

By Liu Weiling and Diao Ying (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-08-20 06:51

The recent removal of tax rebates on textiles - still the company's core product - has brought new challenges.

So Zhou is investing in Cambodia. Hongdou recently acquired a 70 percent share of an economic zone in Cambodia, and plans to open factories there for further expansion to cut costs and avoid trade barriers.

Well aware that textiles always have a narrow profit margin, Zhou has been diversifying his business. In 1995, he acquired a motorcycle company in Shanghai and has gradually developed holdings in real estate and the medical industry. Textiles now contribute about half of overall sales by the company.

His plan is to build Hongdou into an enterprise with sales of 100 billion yuan in 10 years and become one of the top-500 corporations in the world.

Zhou Haijiang answers

What kinds of employees do you like the most?

I like people who are willing to learn and who are ambitious to reach their goals in life and work.

What is the entrepreneurship that you value the most?

A good entrepreneur should have a broad mind to understand the market and control the overall situation. He also needs to have good insight into his own industry.

What books do you read?

I spend at least an hour reading every day. I mainly read the biographies of successful entrepreneurs.

If you have time, what do you want to learn further?

I want to learn more about law, especially laws related to economics and international trade. It is my interest and is related to my business, but it is a shame that I haven't found enough time to learn that yet.

What is your motivation for building your business?

At first it is very simple. I only wanted to help my father and find a job for myself. But now it is to build my company into a more successful enterprise.


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