52-YEAR-OLD Wu Ruilin, CEO of Qiaoxing Universal Telephone Inc., (Nasdaq: XING), has been dubbed "China's Telephone King."

　　However, if you read the company's newspaper scrapbook, you will find that three years ago Wu's name rarely appeared in the media. At that time most people knew nothing more of Qiaoxing than that its name was on their phones.

　　During the past three years two things changed Wu's life and put him in the limelight.

　　On Feb. 17, 1999, Qiaoxing, the second largest telephone manufacturer in China, was listed in the Nasdaq and became China's first private enterprise listed abroad.

　　On May 20, 2002, Qiaoxing announced it had completed its acquisition of CEC Telecom Ltd. A total investment of 320 million yuan (about US$ 40 million) enabled the company to march into the manufacturing industry of mobile phones.

　　Statistics show that over 50 million Qiaoxing brand telephones have been sold and nearly one-fourth of Chinese families are using Qiaoxing phone sets.

　　When asked about his success, Wu said: "Opportunities can show up anytime to anybody. But while some grasp their chances and succeed, others don't."

　　But grasping opportunities isn't the only secret to his success; determination played a large part.

　　First reason to start a business

　　Born in the countryside of Quanzhou in East China's Fujian Province in 1950, Wu had to drop out of school in Grade 5 to help his family with the farm work. At the age of 17, the decision not to work in the sun drove him to leave the fields and study sewing.

　　When he was 19, he opened a sewing shop in his village. By a second investment in building a quarry, he became the richest man in the village.

　　His wealth continued to grow until a fire destroyed everything and left him empty-handed. But his desire for success flamed higher than ever.

　　In 1982, he took a position as the manager of a clothing factory that had been long closed down. Remembering this period in time, Wu believes it was his first experience in enterprise management.

　　"At the beginning I knew nothing about management, nor did I have a grand plan. I just tried my best to make enough money to pay my employees wages and support my family," Wu said.

　　In 1985, Wu was fooled again.

　　A Taiwanese business he considered his best partner placed an order for some winter clothes, and even made the down payment. Wu took out a loan so he could purchase the needed materials. His employees worked around the clock. When the clothes were finished, the Taiwanese partner was gone and he never came back for his order. 

　　All the finished clothes, which amounted to a loan of several hundred thousand yuan, had to be placed in storage.

　　Looking back, Wu admitted that he learned an important lesson: Keep sufficient cash flow, especially at the beginning stages of operation, for the continuous flow of cash can bring about profits for any business. 

　　The factory was forced to close down again, and Wu was left with a heavy debt.

　　Second reason to start a business

　　The debt didn't crush Wu. Rather, the dramatic changes in Wu's life helped him to understand the world around him. He said: "If you want others to respect you, you must be stronger than they are."

　　Thus, to seek and pursue his personal values and become a strong man became his primary goal.

　　In order to pay off the debt as quickly as possible, Wu decided to move his family to Shenzhen, where he hoped to find new opportunities. In Shenzhen, Wu became a workshop director in a telephone factory which was run by one of his fellow-villagers.

　　Wu began to show his shrewdness very quickly. When he discovered the factory never reached its full capacity of production, he made a proposal to his boss. Wu would contract to run the workshop for 25,000 yuan with the understanding that after the orders the factory had received were completed, Wu could receive and work on more orders, the profits of which would be shared between the factory and himself.

　　Beyond anyone's expectations, Wu's personal income based on the contract reached 380,000 yuan at the end of the first year.

　　After clearing all his debts in his hometown, there was little cash left for Wu. Wu need to find more money to start his own business.

　　Contracted as an agent of Zhenjiang loudspeaker factor, Wu rented a cheap flat as his office, storeroom and living room. He took charge of sales, his oldest son shipping, and his wife storage and logistic services.

　　Through the sale of loudspeakers, Wu soon built up a solid relationship with telephone manufacturers.

　　More importantly, he discovered that telephone manufactures and distributors were deeply troubled by the lack of good-quality and new-style parts, which could have an average profit rate of above 50 to 60 percent. But at that time, there were few enterprises that could provide such parts.

　　Wu decided it is the best time for him to plunge into this potentially rich market. 

　　The success of Qiaoxing

　　Wu was well prepared to set up an enterprise of his own. His experience as a workshop director enabled him to learn the production of a telephone set. His role as an agent familiarized him with the purchasing of raw materials and the sale of telephone products.

　　But there was still something he didn't expect. It was required at that time that to register private companies in Shenzhen. And only Shenzhen residents could register a business.

　　"Encountering such a difficulty, many people may believe it is an fate they have to accept. But I don't like to give up on something that I've determined to do," Wu said.

　　Wu came up with an alternative way. He made a contract with the Hongmei telephone factory in Buji, Shenzhen, which had two production lines. According to the contract, he got the power to control the company after paying some money.

　　One year later, Wu's investment of 400,000 yuan produced a reward of 1,000,000 yuan.

　　At that time, Wu was advised to invest in real estate, which was booming in the area. But Wu had a better idea when he saw workers putting up telephone lines and poles alongside new roads and buildings.

　　He judged that a rapid development period for China's telecommunications was approaching, and that would lead to increasing demands for telephones.

　　In the spring of 1992, Wu moved to Huizhou to build a telephone enterprise of his own brand.

　　Wu chose Huizhou for many reasons. At that time, Huizhou was in a preliminary stage of development, and it offered a relaxed environment with many favorable policies. On top of which, costs such as utilities and labor, were very cheap.

　　But the most important reason for Wu was that the city was the site of several well known telephone companies, including TCL, and was becoming one of China's key telephone production bases.

　　Wu liked the challenge of living beside the giants in the telephone industry, even though there was a danger of being pushed around or crushed by the competition.

　　But the competition stimulated new growth and Qiaoxing was destined to establish its own brand and image.

　　In 1995, Qiaoxing became the first Chinese telephone manufacturer to receive an ISO9001 certificate. In 1998, Qiaoxing ranked 57th in China's Top 100 Private Enterprises.

　　Now, Qiaoxing employs a staff of 3000 and owns 20 telephone production lines, 5 lines of mobile phones.

　　With a network of 1350 retail stores, Qiaoxing telephones are being sold all over China, which is quite a coup for Wu Ruilin.