Green Reconnecting Commercial Success with Social Progress

　　For Chinese entrepreneurs, the concept of "green" is no longer associated with ornaments or health care products, such as "Chinese caterpillar fungus," "birds' nests," and "medals." Today, "green" is associated rather with key business concepts such as clean energy production, environmental concerns, and other aspects of a changing world.
　　By staff reporter Jia Linnan

　　Are there no more than five Chinese entrepreneurs who fit their deeds to words? Many years from now, people will probably still recall the "confrontation" at the 2011 Annual Summit of Green Companies held in Qingdao, which brought about a discussion on ethics in China and touched a sensitive nerve in China's business arena.

　　In the afternoon of April 22, the forum on "A Lesson from Alibaba: Upholding Values in the Face of Conflict" was so crowded that not even one more person could squeeze in there.  Jack Ma (Ma Yun), chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group and a key figure trapped by the credit crisis suffered by the company, openly unveiled the cause and effect of this turbulence for the first time and gave a reply to questions about how to transform the values of enterprises into core competitiveness. People sharing the stage with Jack Ma included well-known "storyteller" Feng Lun, chairman of Vantone Holdings Co., Ltd.; Zeng Ming, chief strategy officer of Alibaba Group;  and David Wei (Wei Zhe) -"Jack Ma's best brother" and former CEO of Alibaba - who had just resigned as the result of the recent personnel change caused by the fraud case in Alibaba.

　　Igniting the climax was the experienced and prudent chairman of Central China Real Estate Limited, Wu Po Sum. said frankly, "More than forty years ago when I was still a primary student, my teacher had already told us that doing what we say and being true to ourselves were the fundamental principles of conduct. However, in the whole business field in China today, there are no more than five entrepreneurs who dare to resolutely guarantee they can live up to this principle. Jack Ma can be counted as one of them."

　　On hearing this comment, the atmosphere in the room grew somewhat cold. It was Liu Donghua, founder and deputy executive chairman of the China Entrepreneur Club, who took over the microphone in order to break the ice. "Mr. Wu says he has never seen more than five Chinese entrepreneurs who fit their deeds to words, but I've seen many more than that number," said Mr. Liu, raising his voice. The mood in the room rose a bit and became more enthusiastic than before. "The commercial environment in China is not as bad as you think, and the proportion of those who put their words into action is much higher than in other groups. This is my basic judgment and also the truth," added Liu.

　　Applause rose, conveying warmth, improved expectations, and also a bit of mixed feelings. In an era where various conflicts at the macro and micro levels have intensified, how can Chinese entrepreneurs face their responsibilities and be accountable for their actions? When the overwhelming tide of global reform sweeps through China, how can they use innovation to reconnect commercial success with social progress?

　　Up to now, the Annual Summit of Green Companies - sponsored by the China Entrepreneur Club, the magazine Green Herald and the Daonong Center for Enterprise - has been held a total of four times. The theme has changed from "Green Competitiveness: Trends and Actions" in 2008, to "Green Transformation: Forecasting a New Business Culture" in 2009 and "Green Evolution: Governments and Enterprises" in 2010. This year, the theme is "Responsibility and Innovation in a Shifting World - Our Solution." Each of the meetings have gotten better at approaching core issues and have transformed from theoretical exploration to creating constructive solutions. The meetings have held witness to the evolution of ideology concerning green development in the commercial field in China. For Chinese entrepreneurs, the concept of "green" is no longer associated with ornaments or health care products, such as "Chinese caterpillar fungus," "birds' nests," and "medals." Today, "green" is associated rather with key business concepts such as clean energy production, environmental concerns, and other aspects of a changing world.

　　DILEMMA ENCOUNTERED DURING ECONOMIC TRANSITION

　　When it comes to responsibility, is the business world in China really as Wu Po Sum described? At the Feast of Ideas session held on the evening of April 21, Michael Yu, chairman and CEO of New Oriental Education & Technology Group, complained that Chinese entrepreneurs often think too much. "Chinese people feel they must handle all problems themselves. The government, in particular, feels it needs to take on all responsibilities, leaving entrepreneurs unsure of what they ought to do."

　　These words drew a response from Professor Xu Xiaonian from the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS). "Chinese people often scramble for control and it all turns into a mess in the end - government officials try to do the jobs of general managers, general managers try to do the jobs of politicians, professors try to do the jobs of parliamentary members, and students act like youth cadres cultivated by the party." Xu Xiaonian's sharp comments received applause from the whole crowd. He continued, "Why can't Chinese people do what they are supposed to do?"

　　Recently, Xu Xiaonian published a book titled There are no Saviors, where he points out that the government, which always takes itself as the savior of society, is the biggest problem. "The economic transition in China is caught up in a dilemma. The main responsibility, in my opinion, lies with the government instead of entrepreneurs. At present, the government's policy goals and the means which they use to carry out policy are at odds with each other. The goal of the green economy is to be 'green,' but policy appears to be 'black'." He listed two examples: First, the crux of inflation control is dealing with the excessive issuance of money, but the government pushed the responsibility of the People's Bank of China onto enterprises and negotiated with those that raised prices; Second, during the last decade, the ratio of heavy industry in total industrial output rose by 10% in China, indicating that China's economic structure was growing  increasingly heavy instead of light. The reasons for this can all be attributed to a government that controls the prices of water, electricity, coal and oil, and therefore causes price signals to malfunction.

　　Therefore, if the core mission of Western entrepreneurs is innovation, then the most realistic approach for Chinese entrepreneurs is to respond to uncertainties. "Only when the government, enterprises and the society jointly establish a new social contract and figure out a system favorable for the growth of green companies can the cost for innovation be lowered," stated Cai Jian, the executive dean of Peking University's Innovation Education and Research Institute and a member of the Appraisal Committee for  China Green Companies Top 100.

　　HAVING IDEALS WITHOUT BEING IDEALISTIC

　　When it comes to the unsatisfying macro environment, the common feeling the distinguished guests present at the annual summit expressed was that the way to make enterprises strong is to expand responsibility. Yet this responsibility requires us to stick to our own duties and return to our origins. According to Zhang Yuyan, director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, we should "defend the bottom line and pursue growth endlessly" and "first prevent the world from getting worse due to our existence, and then make an effort to make the world better."

　　Michael Yu reminded entrepreneurs to never get lost in the excessive imagination of the future and to try to become trendsetters instead of martyrs: "It is best to advance only a small step ahead of the times."

　　"You can never forget that you are an entrepreneur," said Jin Zhiguo, chairman of Tsingtao Brewery Co., Ltd. "Being an entrepreneur is foremost about presenting the best products and services." Jin also proposed the "Godfather Theory": "Chinese entrepreneurs can never become 'the godfather', and the day when they indeed change into 'the godfather' will be the day they fail."

　　Liu Chuanzhi, chairman and president of Legend Holdings Ltd., who is often held to be the "godfather" of the business world in China, also showed up at the annual summit. He had shaved his head bald and joked that he did so in order to save energy and power and show respect to the Annual Summit of Green Companies. Never taking himself to be a "godfather", he explained: "You have to figure out who you are. I'm a typical 'farming' entrepreneur and I put the first priority on my own land. I also care about events all around the world and in China, but my core purpose is to perform the work on my land well." In response to a rapidly changing world, Liu Chuanzhi reminded entrepreneurs to maintain a far-reaching perspective and adjust strategy in a gradual manner instead of rushing to make new plans for the future; despite intense competition, entrepreneurs should never compete with each other blindly, getting lost in vicious competition and destroying the ecology of the industry.

　　At a time when people are generally unsatisfied about the survival environment for enterprises, Liu Chuanzhi again emphasized that "we should cherish but not idealize ideals" He added, "The macro world consists of parts at different micro levels and in varied colors, so decision makers are unlikely to produce decisions that satisfy every micro component." Liu Chuanzhi used his own story to illustrate the ideas he was communicating. "When the macro environment heads into difficult times, I turn to the micro environment for help; when the micro environment experiences problems, I keep still. I'd rather stay still than seek extinction."

　　MORE GOODWILL, QUICKER ACTION

　　The world is entering a new age and reform is coming. This will give rise to new champions. Wu Jianmin, chairman of this annual summit and vice president of the China Institute for Innovation and Development Strategy, proposed looking at things from a different angle: "We should work to keep the next generation from feeling the need to ask us this question: Why did you fail to take advantage of that precious period of strategic opportunities and fail to rejuvenate China?"

　　"What is of utmost interest to Chinese people?" Wu Jianmin asked. "It is to maintain the momentum of development and international cooperation. If this trend is cut off, the coming generations will surely condemn us," he responded.

　　Zheng Bijian, former deputy vice president of the Party School of the Central Committee of CPC and president of the China Institute for Innovation and Development Strategy, put forward a question during his keynote speech: Will China repeat the mistakes that Germany and Japan committed in the first half of the 20th century, and the Soviet Union in the second half of the 20th century? He gave his answer: The peaceful rise of China will not bring revolution and war to the world, but will contribute opportunities, markets, mutual benefits and a win-win situation. "China has more rather than less convergent interests with the world than ever before, and the conditions for creating common bodies of interests are becoming more adequate, rather than more insufficient." Zheng Bijian looked to the future: "In the second decade of the 21st century, the road for China's peaceful rise needs to be further specified, and an important trend is to expand and deepen the convergence of all parties' interests and build up common bodies of interests in different fields and at varied levels."

　　Guo Guangchang, chairman of Fosun High Technology (Group) Co., Ltd., gave evidence to back up the opinion of Zheng Bijian. He strongly believed that commerce would be the best means to realize mutual benefit and create win-win situations. He is now working on connecting China's driving forces - urbanization, industrialization, and entrepreneurship spirit with a surprising innovative capacity - with global resources. "We are not taking a fierce or adversarial stance. Instead, we are taking the initiative to integrate global resources to form more communities of interests and link together to become 'companions in the same trench'."

　　The constantly deepening of globalization leads to an infinitely open system. Every enterprise is situated in the global economic ecology, so to isolate oneself from the outside world is to deviate from the spirit of the times. Chinese enterprises are already able to allocate global resources. Even for a small enterprise, if it doesn't have a global perspective and the ability to organize their global resources, it will also be very passive. Fosun hopes to create an investment platform with China's driving force backed by global resources," Guo Guangchang said.

　　In a very real sense, the Internet era has already arrived. A new round of science and technology reforms represented by cloud computing, the Internet of Things and the mobile Internet is accelerating penetration into all economic and social fields. In a speech titled Commercial Modes in the Internet Era, Zhang Ruimin pointed out that "Enterprises must conform to the times. In the Internet era, if an enterprises doesn't have its own business models, its survival will prove very difficult, let alone its growth or transformation into a green company." To be exact, the dominant role has shifted between enterprises and consumers during the Internet age. Enterprises were at the center during the industrial age, while initiative in the Internet age has already been firmly grasped by consumers. In this new environment, large-scale production must be transformed into a new form of customized production; regarding marketing, prices and ads will be far less influential than consumer experience.

　　As Thomas Friedman, the "Foreign Affairs" colum mist for The New York Times, mentioned recently in a special column, "In today's wired world, the most important economic competition is no longer between countries or companies. The most important economic competition is actually between you and your own imagination…Today, just about everything is becoming a commodity, except imagination, except the ability to spark new ideas."

　　The war between new and old commercial civilizations will also continue to undergo a difficult seesaw period. Zhou Qiren, dean of the National School of Development at Peking University, once stated that many Chinese businessmen did not take values and morality as their bottom line; instead they saw it as a low-risk and high-profit game of intelligence where those "clever" enough often earned the most. About 1% of suppliers at Alibaba were involved in the recent fraud case there. If it had happened in another enterprise, it would only be a trivial problem in normal operations. However, in Jack Ma's opinion, the fraud incedent was as threatening as an avalanche, and he swore to fight against any dishonesty in the enterprise. Some people criticized Jack Ma for keeping too-high a profile, but Jack Ma responded that, "We keep a high profile because we persist. Now that our corporate value has been established, we will stick to it to the end."

　　The more goodwill there is, the quicker action will be. At the annual summit, Jack Ma faced David Wei and illustrated the meaning of "brotherly love": "David Wei has gotten numerous medals, but it was I that gave him his 'battle scar.' I believe he will thank me for this scar when he is 70."

　　For the new commercial civilization in China, with its growing pains, such words also have profound implications.

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