Chen Jianhua:Interpret entrepreneurial spirit in the new era with responsibility and duty

“This year marks the 40th anniversary of the reform and opening-up policy and the 24th anniversary of foundation of Hengli Group. As the epitome of the reform and opening-up， Hengli people are always keeping pace with the times and the reform， continuously free our minds， and gather our talents and forces to forge ahead and implement real practice and solid work over the 24 years. With the courage and breadth of mind ‘do whatever should be done in this era as well as responsibility and duty ‘patriotic feelings and regeneration of the country with the industry， Hengli is never obsessed with fantasies or false reputations. It is down to earth， not only leading the‘Southern Jiangsu pattern and accomplishing ‘Hengli speed but also developing from a 27-people small factory into a world top 500 enterprise owning over 60，000 employees.

New acts are needed in the new era； new journey needs new efforts. The Chinese dream is more of Hengli dream”.

Do whatever should be done in this era

As the spring breeze of the reform and opening-up policy is continuously blown， Jiangsu private economy is flourishing like bamboos shoots after a spring rain. In order to change the fate， Chen Jianhua， who was younger younger than 20 years old then， started purchasing waste yarns on a bicycle and learned how to manage his business. Chen Jianhua has had abilities and driving force of seeking for hits own development and grasping the opportunities to take actions in the textile industry for multi-year efforts.

“It doesnt matter how we manage our trade， the industry is the real cause”. Chen Jianhua who was just over 20 years old then in 1994 solely invested to purchase a township factory which was about to experience a bankruptcy， thus becoming one of the first batch of private entrepreneurs in Wujiang. Afterwards， he added preceding network warping equipment with limited capital and distributed to farmer domestic looms in way of selling spindle heads， which drove local people to buy over 600 looms. Meanwhile， he knocked out shuttle looms and introduced 1，200-spindle network wheel， thus starting centering on selling raw materials and outward processing， and an enterprise faced with a bankruptcy became “alive” in his hands.

“This era is changing so fast that the enterprise must keep crisis consciousness， size up the situation and learn to seek for business opportunities in the crisis”. For many enterprises， they had arduous days from financial crisis in 1998 to financial crisis in 2008， but Hengli made a big progress. Just when others were waiting and seeing and even panicking， Chen Jianhua input 200 million yuan to purchase 10，000 looms in 1998， which was the first step made by Henglin for transformation.

“The enterprise will have the possibility of sustainable development only when it is not enslaved to anybody or ‘clutched at the throat”. Chen Jianhua made up his mind to extend towards the upstream in November， 2002， and the first chemical fiber enterprise“Hengli Chemical Fiber” in the Hengli Group was formally initiated. In 2004， stage I of the melt directly spinning polyester filament yarn project was smoothly put into production and Hengli production capacity was at front rank of national chemical fiber industry； in 2007， the globally largest superbright filament project was completed and put into production； in 2010， PET industrial yarn project was started up... Hengli started the first leap from civil yarn towards industrial yarn and became the globally largest industrial yarn production base. Afterwards， Yingkou Kanghui Petrochemic Co.， Ltd. which led overall development of Chinas BOPET and engineering plastics industry and the first national new textile material project with the largest one-time investment namely Hengli （Nantong） new textile material industrial park stage I project were started and put into operation in succession.

While rooted in Suzhou， Hengli has actively responded to the provincial call “coordinated development of southern and northern industries”. As Jiangsu Deshun Textile Co.， Ltd. and Jiangsu Dehua Textile Co.， Ltd. of Hengli （Suqian） industrial part stage I were put into production in succession， Hengli became the largest textile enterprise in the globe.

Besides， Hengli oriented at high-end fiber products in 2011， multiple categories different and functional series of products with different specifications like melt directly spinning ultrafine denier fiber， superbright fiber and high-count porous fiber， non-torque twisted fiber and moisture adsorption & sweat removing fiber emerged in succession... By virtue of unique product advantages， export volume of Hengli Chemical Fiber accounted for 38% of total national output volume of chemical fibers.

In order to create a world first-class enterprise and extend the industrial chain， Hengli started entering the petrochemical industry under the guidance of Chen Jianhua， planning to invest 15 billion yuan on Dalian Changxing Island to construct a petrochemical industrial base. In September， 2012， PTA project with the largest monomer capacity in the world was formally put into production； On Aug. 8th， 2014， the State Council released （2014） No. 28 document to definitely support refining-chemical integration project construction of Hengli. Hengli Petrochemic 20 million tonnes/year refining-chemical integration project will realize commissioning test run in October of this year... At that time， the complete industrial chain “crude oil-arene-purified terephthalic acid （PTA）-polyester（PET）-civil yarn and industrial yarn-textile” will be thoroughly got through by this world top 500 private enterprise in China.

In 2017， total business income of Hengli Group reached 307.9 billion yuan， ranking the 268th place in world Top 500， the 60th place in Chinese top 500 enterprises， the 21st place of Chinese top 500 manufacturing enterprises and the 10th place of Chinese top 500 private enterprises， and both of its enterprise competitiveness and brand value topped the list within the international industry. At present there are two listed companies （Hengli Petrochemic Co.， Ltd. and Suzhou Wujiang Tongli Lake Vacation Village Co.， Ltd.） and over 10 entity enterprises subordinate to Hengli Group namely. It has built production bases in Suzhou， Dalian， Suqian， Nantong， Yingkou， etc. It has realized diversified development of trade， finance and thermoelectricity while centering on new petrochemical and PET materials and textile.

“Build a world first-class enterprise and create an international famous brand”. The blueprint has been drawn， now the race against time begins.

Innovation is on the way forever

“This era is not an era of ‘big fish swallowing little fish but an era of ‘fast fish swallowing slow fish. We have done whatever others have not done or dont dare to do， or we have taken a lead， and this is innovation and this is success”. It can be said that as early as the beginning of the entrepreneurship， Hengli determined innovation as the soul of founding a business. Hengli has to continuously extend the industrial chain and step towards the upstream in order not to be clutched at throat， and only in this way can raw material bottlenecks can be got through one by one”.

For each Hengli project over the 24 years， the“never fall behind within 10 years” concept has run through from process， equipment， planning and design to management pattern and this is what makes Hengli“innovative genes” and this is more the “obsession”of Hengli people. “To be a one-hundred enterprise， Hengli must have overturning innovative thinking and introduce high-end talents so that professional people are doing professional things. Hengli can remain invincible only through continuous innovation”.

He crossed the river by feeling the stones （muddled through） without management experiment at the beginning of the entrepreneurship. All old equipment were knocked out， international first-class advanced equipment and management experiment were continuously introduced， and here came the “cat-snake theory” （others retreat but I am making a progress when the crisis comes）， which guided Hengli to exceed enterprises within the same industry all the way； adhering to the people oriented concept， Hengli started technological innovation from civil yarn and industrial yarn production to production of polyester film and engineering plastics， and then entered the fields of oil refining and fine chemical engineering... Chen Jianhua who dared to think， take actions and strive always kept pace with the innovation.

Therefore， Hengli has persisted in implementing two major projects： brand strategy and marketing strategy. On the one hand， it has strengthened independent innovation to continuously improve core competitiveness； On the other hand， it has actively extended domestic and foreign high-end markets and seize the initiatives. Depending on Hengli national-level“enterprise technology center”， Hengli has recruited technical experts from foreign R&D; institutes at high salaries to construct an “international R&D; team”. The“Hengli international R&D; center” and “Hengli industry-university-research base” to carry out R&D; of different high-end products so as to lay a solid foundation for the enterprise innovation system from product R&D; to technological reserves.

In 2011， the “critical technological development of high-quality melt directly spinning superfine denier polyester filaments” project self-researched and developed by Hengli Chemical Fiber had the honor to win second prize of national scientific and technological progress award. As the first enterprise realizing scale production of high-quality polyester fiber in China， Hengli ranks the first place in both product profit rate and competitiveness within the industry. In addition， Hengli Chemical Fiber is the only company which can realize scale production of products with below 7D specifications in China， output of products of 50D and below accounts for 25% of total output of the company， and authorization rate of patents of inventions has reached 100% for many years. 4.5 micrometer ultrathin film and gilding transfer basement film self-researched and developed by Kanghui Petrochemic makes Hengli become the first enterprise which can produce this type of ultrathin film products using global melt directly film pulling method... Up to now， Hengli Group has undertaken over 60 key national-level， provincial-level and guild-level scientific and technological planning projects. The company has won honorary titles like “national technological innovation demonstration enterprise”， “key new high-tech enterprise of National Torch Plan”， “national textile technological innovation demonstration enterprise”， etc. ， successively.

President Xi Jinping put forward in the reports of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China that China should accelerate the construction of a manufacturing power， accelerate the development of advanced manufacturing industry and promote deep integration of the internet， big data， artificial intelligence and entity economy. In the eyes of Chen Jianhua， this has defined the transformation and upgrading direction of Chinese manufacturing enterprises. Therefore， Hengli starts promoting intelligent interconnected transformation and digital management innovation of products， continuously strengthening high-end technological breakthroughs and key market breakthroughs and guiding Hengli to develop towards high quality.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China， Hengli has input nearly RMB 1 billion to carry out intelligent factory transformation and created workshops into “a world of robots” in ways like “machine replacing manual work”， “automatic replacement with machines”， “complete sets replacing single units” and “intelligent replacing digital”. There is the first set of complete-flow digital and intelligent spinning equipment within China in Hengli chemical fiber FDY spinning workshop. The system has realized real-time monitoring and remote monitoring of equipment operation and quality data by virtue of the internet， IoT and other technologies. Under artificial auxiliary inspection tour， robots make dialogues with automatic assembly lines through software connection so as to complete the production. The review process of sales order which took 4 hours from receiving the order to goods delivery at the highest speed in the past， but now it only takes 10min at most in the “textile group network” system.

Especially the information-based system independently researched and developed by Hengli has comprehensively covered enterprise resource planning， manufacturing flow， operating management， energy conservation and emission reduction and quality monitoring， and each detail is optimized， quantified and standardized； “Hengli cloud service platform” in the construction can provide services like product promotion， business interaction and order tracking so that numerous customers can inquire the quotations， give orders to purchase， pay the price of goods， and master the progress whenever and wherever possible， and thus a real-time intelligent management of businesses is realized. Labor cost of Hengli Textile has been saved by 80% with efficiency improved by 700% by building intelligent workshops and introducing internationally leading SAP enterprise management system as well as information-based， digital and intelligent construction. It takes the lead to realize transformation of traditional industries using“big data” within the same industry.

Innovation taken as the flag， Hengli is always on the way.

The patriotic feeling of “hard work can rejuvenate the nation”

What I eat is nothing but homely food most of which are working meals， where I sleep is nothing but a bed， and I even dont have time to play. For me， account figure is not my pursuit. I always say that all wealth created by Hengli belongs to the people， society and the nation. What I can do is to follow the pace of times closely to make Hengli not only an outstanding enterprise within the national industry but also undertake the heavy responsibility of a private enterprise to‘serve the country with the industry”. Therefore， Chen Jianhua stressed that， “Hengli needs to be of one heart and one mind with the times and the nation and hands in hands， to be an enterprise of spirit and to make new deserved contributions during the new journey in the new era”.

In 2010， Hengli invested in petrochemical and refining and chemical projects in Dalian in succession， extended the industrial chain and improve competitiveness and speaking right of Chinas refining-chemical integrated and high-end chemical engineering industries within the same industry in the world in order to “revitalize the old industrial base of the northeast China” and accelerate promoting the construction of seven major national petrochemical industrial bases especially to break through industrial development“bottlenecks” so that the industry will not suffer from the insult of “being clutched at the throat”， thus Hengli has taken deserved responsibilities and duties as an enterprise in the new era. Within the short 17 months， Hengli has been built into a PTA factory with the largest monomer capacity， the more advanced technological level， the most complete comprehensive supporting facilities and the best product quality in the world， and this has not only created a model with the fastest construction and strongest production capacity within the industry but even refreshed multiple records within the same international industry and created a “constant speed” which is considered unbelievable by our peers.

After Hengli 20 million tonnes/year refiningchemical integration project was put into production in October this year， Hengli will greatly compensate for productivity weakness and inject new industrial vitality for comprehensive revitalization of the old industrial base in Liaoning Province. “Petroleum refinery distillation capacity， ethylene yield and xylene yield are several important indexes measuring chemical engineering level of a country. The process of Hengli getting through the whole industrial chain is a process of breaking through foreign monopoly of ethylene， PTA， p-xylene and other important bulk organic raw materials as well as a process of Chinas chemical engineering capacity being continuously elevated and standing erectly at the summit of the global chemical industry”. These are responsibilities of Hengli and even the missions of Hengli.

“Safety and environmental protection is the lifeblood of an enterprise， so Hengli needs to construct a safest and environmentally friendly world first-class petrochemical enterprise with internal advantages and external beauty”， said and such did by president Chen Jianhua. Therefore， over RMB 4.6 billion has been input into the sewage treatment plant supporting Hengli refining-chemical integration project； the concept of“embedded sewage treatment plant” is applied in the petrochemical industry for the first time， and Hengli wins “Sino-French teamwork innovation award·special climate award”. It has built： the first set of residue reclaiming system R2R device is built within the world PTA industry； “green” coal bunker covering 50，000 square meters； high environmental evaluation criteria for desulfuration， denitration and dustremoval； intelligent emergency monitoring system； garden-style factory with over 20% greening rate... one of the first batch of national-level “green factories” and the only petrochemical enterprise winning this laurel in the northeast China， Hengli Petrochemic （Dalian Changxing Island） Industrial Park. These are “green” promises made by Chen Jianhua.

Textile has been called “sunset industry” and pollution industry as a traditional industry. Rectifying the industrial reputation and making it vibrant are also responsibilities of innovative development of Hengli. So Hengli has always oriented at the globe and looked to the future. It has not only stepped on the innovative path of “high starting point， high input， high benefit， low consumption， zero pollution and harmonious and joint progress” but also created a “green Hengli， ecological Hengli and harmonious Hengli” which standards erectly in China and extends to the world.

Besides， Hengli has always taken helping and supporting the poor， contributing money to help poor students and participating in programs for public good as its own deserved duties and responsibilities； it contributes money to gerocomium in the town， households enjoying the give guarantees and the aged （over 60 years old） so that the aged can spend their remaining years in comfort； it contributes money to build bridges and roads， building two bridges in the town； spends over millions of yuan to help poor students to complete their studies， founds Hengli Education Foundation， builds two Hengli Bright Hope Primary Schools in Jilin Province， sets scholarships in Tsinghua University， Nanjing Normal University， Suzhou University， Jiangsu Zhenze Middle School and Shengze Middle School... Up to now， Hengli has participated in activity plan of UN RC Trust Foundation and national “Hope Project”， “Bright Cause”and construction of socialism new countryside to support development of the charitable cause and help the disadvantaged groups， and it has cumulatively donated over 600 million yuan.

Over the 24 years， Henglin Group has always been the pioneer which takes the lead， shoulders heavy loads and plays a leading role under the guidance of Chen Jianhua. It is interpreting the entrepreneurial spirit in the new era and describing the Chinese dream and Hengli dream with the pursuit and promise of “Hengli ambition is far-reaching and wins the world with quality”， courage and breadth of mind of “do whatever should be done in the era” and responsibility and duty of “patriotic feeling” of “hard work can rejuvenate the nation” .