Shao WeixianIN Wuhan City, July 4, battle lines were drawn in a sales war in the plasma TV market.On short notice, Skyworth mobilized all district managers to attend a meeting in the city. Later, a record-breaking decision was revealed: The price of one of Skyworth’s latest models, the PDP40 plasma TV, would be slashed from 40,000 yuan to 29,800 yuan. This was a reduction of more than 10,000 yuan, or almost 30 percent and the lowest price yet seen for plasma TV sets.This strategic step was taken at the direction of Huang Hongsheng, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Shenzhen-based TV set manufacturer Skyworth Group.“We now announce that we are at war with Japanese and Korean manufacturers in the high-end TV set market. The final objective is to rid China of TV sets made in Japan,” said Huang.‘I will be Sony in China’On graduating from college, Huang was reported to have said: “I will be Sony in China.” At the age of 28, he was the deputy General Manager of a big import and export company.When he started his own business, he lurched from one failure after another. His motto is, never wait for opportunities. Huang came from Hainan Island. When he graduated from High School, he was sent to the countryside for “re-education”, along with many of his contemporaries. His ideal at that time was “to be a tractor driver”. In 1977, when the National College Entrance Examination was resumed in China, he was accepted by the South China Polytechnic. He treasured this opportunity and devoted himself to five years’ study. Saying goodbye to college life, he entered the South China Import and Export Company, which belonged to the National Electronics conglomerate.His new working life was not as bright as imagined. His first tasks were office chores, not related to his major at all. For more than one year, he sat on a cold bench.Lots of people might have continued like this, but not Huang Hongsheng.Personal computers were a new in China in the mid-1980s in China and Huang saw their potential.He persuaded senior management to set up a sector for computer business. This was the first important opportunity he created for his own career.Under his efforts, the department became the company’s most profitable bringing in 80 percent of the company’s total profit. From associate engineer, Huang was promoted to department head of Computer Business, then vice general manager.

　　At the age of 28, he became the youngest Deputy General Manager in the company’s history.But it had always been Huang’s desire to start his own business. He wanted to experience life and realize his values from a different angle.From failure to successWith many years’ experience in the electronics trade, he could see the potential for electronic products in China. Guangdong was the place he chose to start his own business. His decision came from his knowledge of the province, which had excellent human resources and too few enterprises.At that time, however, failure seemed to be his faithful companion.He began by processing materials supplied by customers, and worked as an agent to export electronics products. But, it turned out there were too many intermediate links involved in the business. Not acquiring a clear knowledge of the market, he failed to sell the goods and this led to poor cashflow. Moreover, the friends he made through previous work experience, suddenly became competitors. He found himself isolated and cut off from help. The business was finally terminated with big debts, and he was sick in bed for three months.Later, with limited money, he opened a factory to produce remote controllers for color TV sets in Dongguan but closed after a short time because he was using the wrong technology.He immediately started his third experiment. At that time, Near-Instantaneously Compounded Audio Multiplex (NICAM) technology was under testing in Hong Kong. NICAM supported dual sound tracks, which made transmission in two languages possible.Huang took it as a great chance and he immediately signed a contract with Philips to develop NICAM decoders. The first production target was 20,000 decoders.However, he forgot that the application of NICAM technology required professionals to encode first, which led to higher costs. Then TV stations in Hong Kong stopped the NICAM application after tests. This time the loss was over five million HK dollars.But Huang would not give up. He planned to have a development team for color TV sets. This time, he got loans from a bank guaranteed by his personal assets. It was again a failure costing US$3 million, although he had registered a company called Skyworth.IT was not until 1991 that his real chance came. In that year, color TV was the hot seller. With 1.5 billion of them sold out each year, the demand was still increasing. In that year, a famous color TV set manufacturer in Hong Kong, the Xunke Corp. was in financial difficulty and put on the market. It attracted many potential buyers before the Ruilin Corp., the Videotape Kingdom in Hong Kong, mobilized over 10 billion HK dollars to buy out Xunke. But Ruilin pushed out the technical elite in Xunke which proved to be a near fatal mistake.Huang Hongsheng appeared at this moment. He offered a plan giving 15 percent shares to the technical staff. The plan was accepted and Skyworth had all the backbone engineers. Nine months after that, Skyworth presented new model color TV sets. At an exhibition in Germany, they signed a contract for the sale of 20,000 TV sets. Huang had finally arrived.Another motto Huang learned from experience was perseverance means victory. “It is like kicking balls. You have players of the enemy team blocking you in the front, and chasing behind. You are on the brink of falling. If you fall, you will get nothing. But if you stretch out and kick the ball, you might score a goal,” said Huang Hongsheng.

　　From here on, the story is probably more familiar to most of us. In 1992, Skyworth stepped into the mainland market and remained number one in exports for many years.In 1997, it Skyworth gave us the first multi-media color TV in China.In 2000, Skyworth went public in Hong Kong, and produced the first LCD Projection TV with large screens.A faithful son There are many anecdotes about him, but the one of his mother and electronic chicken pets is perhaps the most popular, perhaps because his filial responsibility towards his mother is widely known.It is said that each time he returns to Hong Kong, he takes his mother for walks in her wheelchair.Once his mother said electronic chicken pets would make money, and suggested Huang start production. Obedient to his mother, Huang did look at the possibility but lost a lot of money.Not satisfied with being one of the best in China, he looked toward expanding to other countries.Skyworth has set up two research centers for multi-media and digital video frequency technology. Its lab in the Silicon Valley in the U.S. has started operation.A new research center in SZ is under construction, with an estimated cost of 50 million yuan.Huang Hongsheng is leading Skyworth in the direction of globalization. This is a road with perhaps many hardships, but more rewards.