A trip of enlightenment

The difficulty of being an entrepreneur, he says, is to decide where you invest your limited financial and human resources.

"There are no manuals to teach you that. Every time you choose this path, it means you are not choosing that one."

A lot of data can be available, but someone has to finally make a decision.

"Very often you are alone with your own instincts. The life of an entrepreneur is like sailing without a map, sniffing the air Nobody can tell you what the right thing is."

A surfeit of information applies to China, he says.

In the West, there are many China experts with divergent views, and he does not turn to them, he says, feeling that many have prejudices that they are only too willing to confirm. Instead, he reads Chinese media, taking in a multiplicity of views. He also travels, talks to people and makes judgments of his own.

The recent economic slowdown in China has affected him, and for the first time since the business came to China, the construction industry, on which it heavily relies, reported a downturn this year, he says.

"You can feel the state of anxiety among Chinese businesses," he says. That is because many things are happening at once: political and economic transition and the recession in Europe.

The next six months will be very difficult for China, he says, and planning and its good execution are essential.

"If you only look at the short term, you risk making wrong decisions."

In the long term, he says, China has a lot of room for growth, and "it is very well prepared to solve the difficulties".

He blames demographics for one problem his company faces in China. In the past three years it has been very difficult to recruit factory workers, and even more difficult to retain them. In addition, basic labor is in short supply, and that creates even higher volatility.

Younger people would rather don formal clothes and work in an air-conditioned office than work in a factory, he says. Some young people have worked in his factory for three days, found the work too hard and left.

In Europe, he says, there are people who would have no qualms about working in a factory all their lives, but in China that culture does not exist.

The other part of his business, mining, is still doing well, and he sees good prospects in it and in energy.

The company's research and development center in Suzhou is developing products for oil and gas exploration and exploitation, particular shale gas, which he thinks will be important for the Chinese economy.

diaoying@chinadaily.com.cn