2019 Interview with You Jianghai, Chairman of Shanghai Aowen Painting Material Co.
In recent years, under the background of the new era of "going global" advocated by the state, more and more national enterprises have seized the new opportunity of development, played their own advantages, enthusiastically participated in international economic cooperation, to promote the "One Belt, One Road" advocated by General Secretary Xi The company will contribute its wisdom, solutions and strength to promote the "One Belt, One Road" community of human destiny advocated by General Secretary Xi. Many national entrepreneurs also hope to take this opportunity to share their high quality products and high-end services to the international market, so that Chinese brands can stand proudly in the world market.
Ltd. is one such national entrepreneur who is full of vigor and foresight. He firmly believes that only high quality products and good reputation can establish an excellent national brand and win the praise of domestic and foreign markets.
Good enough pigment is the only way to maximize the beauty of art. In order to have high quality pigments, artists go to great lengths to find them and even make and mix them by themselves at any cost. After years of research on oil paints, the chairman of Shanghai Aowen Painting Materials Co., Ltd., You Jianghai, knows the standard and importance of good pigments: "(Good pigments) must meet the requirements of art creation, have good use, strong coloring power and weather resistance, and be able to withstand the test of time and artists."
Born in a family that has been engaged in the production and sale of painting consumables for generations, Jianghai You's early work was the sale of Xuan paper, so he often dealt with artists and was well aware of their pursuit of excellence in the selection of pigments. During his career, he gradually discovered that oil paints from Europe are often very popular among painters, but there is no quality pigment brand in China. In order to fill this gap in the industry and to enable Chinese painters to use domestic quality pigments, Jianghai decided to develop his own high-end painting pigments.
In 2005, Jianghai You formally established a pigment research and development center, and in 2012, he successfully developed "Rubens", the artist's premium oil pigment. In 2019, the trademark of Shanghai Aowen Painting Materials Co., Ltd. became an international trademark, which was recognized by international industry standards.
Looking back on 20 years of business history, you have never given up lightly, and constantly meeting the needs of customers has become his constant pursuit for many years.
The wicker road is difficult to start a business, sincere to win the praise of your people
Like many entrepreneurs, you Jianghai's entrepreneurial path is also full of hardships and difficulties. Due to family reasons, you Jianghai began to engage in the Xuan paper business as soon as he graduated, and started his own business career in 1998. Due to the lack of sufficient start-up capital, he often can only pay the rent after the products are sold, and from time to time, he has to borrow money from people under pressure and different eyes.
At the beginning, in order to open the market and win the trust of customers, you Jianghai need to go to the trouble of visiting customers, with sincere impress customers, so that customers accept his products. According to You Jianghai's recollection, at that time he personally took the product to the Shanghai Education Bureau and the publishing house to visit, but the results were repeatedly rejected. But he did not give up, once if not, twice, twice if not, three times, until the relevant personnel of the Education Bureau was impressed by his perseverance, recognized their professionalism and credibility of a hundred years of heritage, and accepted his products. Gradually, with excellent product quality and character, you Jianghai won the trust of the partners, business became friendship, and broadened the road for the subsequent development of the enterprise.
On the basis of the Xuan paper business, you slowly began to contact the painting-related painting materials business. After investigating the market, he chose to represent high-end foreign oil painting brands first. During this period, he was enlightened by Yang Feiyun, the director of the China Oil Painting Academy of the China Academy of Art. Under Yang's guidance, the fire of developing domestic high-end painting pigments was ignited in his heart, and he was determined to be China's national brand, so that Chinese people could use their own research pigments. For this reason, he traveled all over Europe to exchange experiences with famous manufacturers, and also took his team to visit artists to understand their needs and expectations, and listened to the suggestions of chemists and restoration experts to continuously improve the products, often staying in the R&D room for a whole day. After several years of research and development and improvement, in 2012, Jianghai finally successfully launched his own "Rubens" painting brand, which received unanimous praise from artists as soon as it was launched.
Looking back on all the experiences since the start of his business, Jianghai You is very grateful to those partners and friends who have given him direction. But all these achievements are also inseparable from his persistence and perseverance, and from his ultimate control and pursuit of product quality.
Striding forward, striving for excellence
After the successful development of high-quality pigments, "Rubens" painting pigments quickly caught fire in the market through word-of-mouth from painters, and Jianghai You initially realized his ideal: to let Chinese painters use Chinese own pigments. Subsequently, the company expanded its production scale and quickly occupied the high-end market of domestic pigments in a short time.
At the same time, the size of the team also grew at a rate of more than 70% per year. In terms of recruiting and employing people, Jianghai You has his own unique insights. He believes that to attract talents, we must rely on the good culture and mechanism of the company, and let the talents reap both spiritual and material benefits, so as to retain people. In addition, the management of personnel should also be more refined, in order to adapt to the expanding team size.
In the brand publicity, you Jianghai has been upholding the concept of "the word of mouth of the artists is better than all advertising", but he did not let it be self-imposed. With the rapid development of the Internet in recent years, you also began to use the combination of online and offline ways to expand the influence of the brand, but he still insists that all the promotion should be based on the protection of product quality and user experience, which is the foundation of enterprise development. Therefore, you Jianghai adhere to the quality first, do not play the price war, take the route of high-end market, to better serve the artists. He believes that, with the quality of their own products, the current basic can not fear the domestic industry competition, as long as the marketing to expand channels, will be able to ensure the good development of enterprises.
Twenty years of entrepreneurship along the way, you Jianghai from scratch, self-reliance, steady, step by step, he believes that only down-to-earth business, the foundation of the enterprise can be solid, in order to thrive. It is with this down-to-earth and simple quality that Jianghai You can lead the enterprise to overcome all difficulties and achieve higher achievements.
Looking forward to the future with great ambition, and aiming to advance internationally
After achieving remarkable results in the domestic market, Jianghai did not dare to relax, but felt a heavier burden on him. In order to further improve the quality control, he ensures the quality of raw materials through global procurement, realizes the diversification of upstream procurement channels, compares the quality and selects the best, so as to guarantee the stability of pigment quality.
For the future development, you Jianghai is full of expectation and confidence. At present, the pigment products produced by the company have already gained a firm foothold in the domestic high-end market, and in the next step, he hopes to bring Chinese pigments to the international market, so that foreign artists can share the "color on the tip of the brush" from China.
Regarding innovation, Jianghai You pointed out that the company will continue to tackle the research and development of Chinese painting pigments in the future, so that new sparks can collide between Chinese painting and Western oil painting, and also provide material support to artists in the integration of East and West. To fill the gap in the domestic industry, to promote the ultimate development of the industry, and to contribute to art from the research and development of materials - this is the craftsmanship and pursuit of You Jianghai that has never changed. Today, when the country advocates "aesthetic education", you also hope that through his efforts, more students can use our own high-quality pigments from childhood.
In terms of entrepreneurship, Jianghai You always upholds the spirit of "perseverance" and maintains a modest and cautious attitude. He warned the younger generation of entrepreneurs that the only secret to success in business is to "persist and persist". He is very grateful for the support from the state in terms of policy. He believes that as long as the enterprise can correctly grasp the national development planning and ideas, and constantly bring good products and services to the market, it will definitely be able to obtain its own development. He also believes that, under the guidance and support of the state, national enterprises will certainly flourish with the strength of the country, and there will definitely be more enterprises like "Huawei" in China that will influence the world in the future.
As a pioneer in the domestic painting industry, you hope to follow the "Belt and Road" development strategy advocated by General Secretary Xi Jinping, lead the industry to the world, contribute to the rise of Chinese national enterprises, and bring more high-quality products to the international market, which is also the next phase of development goals and expectations of Shanghai Aowen Painting Materials Co.
We believe that under the leadership of this kind of entrepreneur with national pride and social responsibility, the Chinese painting material industry and even Chinese national brands will be able to achieve remarkable and bright results!
Editor：Zhu Fengxiang
