China

Liu Jiren, Chairman and CEO of Neusoft Group Ltd

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-11-22 07:48

Liu Jiren is a professor and doctoral supervisor of Northeastern University in the city of Shenyang. His goal has been to find a way for young Chinese scholars to do research, which previously could only be done in the US, in China.

In 1991, Liu founded the Neusoft Group Ltd and, 19 years later, it has become the largest provider of IT solutions and services in China.

It has about 15,000 clients and was China's first Sino-foreign joint venture to be listed.

Its partners include Toshiba, Sony, Hitachi, Panasonic and NEC and its business scope covers telecommunications, electric power, government, finance, medicine, transportation and education.

It has subsidiaries in the US, Japan, Europe, Middle East and Vietnam, and, in China, has six software R&D centers and eight regional headquarters.

There are three Neusoft information colleges and a biomedical engineering college and the company is instrumental in training a future generation of software developers.

It has also given 6.5 million yuan to charitable causes.

Q&A:

Could you describe your experience in running a business for us?

I believe Neusoft's development was closely related to people. When we started, we didn't have much capital or market opportunity. At the start, it's very important to find the right position, the one that best suits you and your resources. This experience has three aspects: paying attention to people; being aware of innovation; and combining ability, resource, and market demand. These three were key to the development of Neusoft during the past 20 years.

Neusoft kept growing during the global financial crisis. How do you explain this?

We started with three people and now we have more than 18,000. Today's difficulties are not something we encountered before. In the past, we encountered difficulties every day, so we regarded the financial crisis as a normal state of affairs. And, we grabbed the chance to work out plans to deal with the crisis. Once you're prepared, your response to a crisis will be swift and decisive.

What plans or goals do you have for yourself and the company?

The growth process of an enterprise is just like that of a person. It's just like climbing a mountain that allows you to see different things at different altitudes. Our next step is to improve ourselves, and sharpen our competitiveness for future survival.