China’s Belt and Road Initiative has been proposed and promoted for more than three years now and this initiative has opened a new window of opportunity for the development of complementary strengths and openness for the countries along the Belt and Road Initiative. The idea has brought about a new vitality in development and potential for cooperation in the Pan-Asian and Asian-European regional economies. How can we accelerate the pace of development by leveraging the Belt and Road Initiative? This is a problem that many enterprises have been thinking about.

On 23 January, Zhao Lei, professor of the International Strategic Institute of the Central Party School and director of the International Relations and National Unity Laboratory, was invited to visit Sanpower Group for research. Yuan Yafei, Chairman of Sanpower Group, met with Zhao Lei, and conducted in-depth exchanges with him on issues such as how to better integrate international development with the Belt and Road Initiative.

Yuan Yafei, chairman of Sanpower Group (left) talking with Professor Zhao Lei (right)

Discussing “Broad Health” and Sanpower Group

Zhao Lei first made enquired about the “broad health” industry that is the focus of Sanpower Group’s development. Wang Tongyan, vice president of Sanpower Group, introduced the ideas and specific actions Sanpower Group has taken to position itself in the health industry in recent years, saying: “With biomedical treatment, hospital and senior care services, Sanpower Group will build a health industry ecosystem that brings hope to people, offers medical services to the people and provides senior care to the elderly.” Nanjing Cenbest, a listed company under Sanpower Group, has made a number of acquisitions in umbilical cord blood storage services; after completing these acquisitions, Nanjing Cenbest will have one million samples of umbilical cord blood storage and become the world’s largest firm working in umbilical cord blood storage. At the beginning of 2017, Sanpower Group acquired 100% equity in Provenge, the world’s first prostate cancer cell immunisation drug and the only one to be approved by the United States Federal Drug Administration. In the future, services will be extended to precision medical, genetic testing and other genetic testing industries. Sanpower Group also owns Xuzhou Third People’s Hospital and many other health care institutions; mergers and acquisitions of many other hospitals are also being promoted. In addition, Sanpower Group owns one of China’s earliest senior care enterprises An Kang Tong, and acquired the world’s leading homecare firm Natali (an Israeli company). Utilizing the strengths in technology, branding and systems of these foreign companies, Sanpower Group has rapidly expanded in the homecare market in China. As of the end of 2016, An Kang Tong already has 4.08 million elderly users.

Zhao Lei stated that, as a positive example of a company “going global” and participating in the Belt and Road Initiative, Sanpower Group has two characteristics: first, starting by entering the high-end market; second, the development of people’s livelihoods and its “asset-light” model. At the same time, after analysing Sanpower Group’s work in the healthcare industry, Zhao gave his own recommendations: first, that combining the healthcare industry and the Belt and Road Initiative can help the country to create a “healthy silk road”; and second, that a new concept of senior care needs to be provided for the development of senior care industry, to help break open the retirement culture in China.

Exploring the Opportunity of the Belt and Road Initiative from Market Pain Points

As organised by the Sanpower Management Academy, Zhao Lei also shared his thoughts in a talk entitled “The Belt and Road Initiative: Thinking and Countermeasures” to managers from relevant functional departments in Sanpower Group. Yue Lei, the senior vice president of Sanpower Group, attended the lecture and delivered a speech. Cui Chunlan, the senior assistant president of HR Affairs of the Group and executive vice president of the Sanpower Management Academy, acted as host.

Yue Lei noted in his speech that the three years since China has put forward the Belt and Road Initiative are the same three years that Sanpower Group has implemented its “going global” strategy to deepen the company’s internationalisation, which for Sanpower Group, has taken on a unique pattern and form. Yue Lei noted that Professor Zhao Lei is an expert in the study of the Belt and Road Initiative, and has carried out many studies and has a great number of personal thoughts on the Belt and Road Initiative; Yue Lei hoped that everyone could develop ideas from his talk and be inspired to promote the international development of Sanpower Group.

Zhao Lei first explained the strategic significance of the Belt and Road Initiative for China, with particular emphasis on the important role of “soft power” in the Belt and Road Initiative. Introducing a number of case studies, Zhao Lei answered questions in simple but insightful language with vivid examples. Questions including where is the opportunity of the Belt and Road Initiative, how to find opportunities from market “pain points”, how to seek new sources of growth from the “third profit source”, and how to play the role of cultural ambassador. On issues concerning how to better integrate the business structure of Sanpower Group with the Belt and Road Initiative, Zhao Lei also gave strategic, guiding, operational recommendations.

After listening to Zhao Lei’s talk, many managers of Sanpower Group said that this lecture was very memorable thanks to the large number of case studies shared. They noted that it opened up the ideas and broadened the horizons, not only with theory but also with ideas for practice, and therefore the talk will be beneficial for managers when carrying out work in the new year.

Exploring the huge market of the Belt and Road Initiative using the “Future Defines the Future”

Since 2014, Sanpower Group has responded to the Belt and Road Initiative put forward by the Chinese government and launched an international development strategy. In the countries along the Belt and Road Initiative and related countries, Sanpower Group, its subsidiaries and partners have carried out a series of overseas acquisitions, including acquiring the British department store House of Fraser, the British toy store Hamleys, the Israeli homecare and nursing companies Natali and A.S. Nursing Company. The company’s business scope has been extended to North America, Europe, the Middle East and other places.

In recent years, Sanpower Group has also continued to increase business exchanges with countries along the Belt and Road Initiative, actively explored opportunities to participate in the Belt and Road Initiative for national development. Currently, Sanpower Group has established friendly exchanges with more than 30 countries along the Belt and Road Initiative, such as Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia, and actively looked for opportunities to develop mutually beneficial partnerships.

In the exchange with Zhao Lei, Yuan Yafei, the chairman of Sanpower Group, noted that “those who plan shall not fight”, and the model that the state has proposed in the Belt and Road Initiative can result in mutually-beneficial cooperation between China and the countries along the initiative. Many companies are participating in the Belt and Road Initiative by “going global” in terms of investment, but Sanpower Group has formed its own unique way: a two-way interactive model of “going global” while also “bringing in”. This means that Sanpower Group will bring to China advanced brands, standards, business logics, supply chain systems and the like from developed markets in the Belt and Road Initiative, to participate in the structural reform of the supply side in China. This is the idea of “defining future with future”. In addition, Sanpower Group also combines corporate “going out” with cultural “going out”. In 2015, Yuan Yafei and Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, jointly set up the Wildlife Protection Foundation. In 2016, Sanpower Group launched the “Meeting of Two Towers” between China and Britain and sponsored the repair of a pagoda in the London Royal Botanic Gardens; this pagoda is a reproduction of the glazed pagoda in Nanjing’s Porcelain Tower. Finally, through public charity activities, closer communication and cooperation in culture and business between China and Britain has been promoted, and a good image for Chinese companies overseas has been established. Zhao Lei said that Sanpower Group has created a new model for Chinese firms to participate in ‘the Belt and Road Initiative’.

Yuan Yafei said that Sanpower Group will continue to accelerate the process of “going global” in the future, in particular by expanding business in the countries of the Belt and Road Initiative, integrating global resources, enhancing capacity cooperation, and benefiting people of all countries along the Belt and Road Initiative with advanced technologies and high quality products.

Source:

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