Hisense Group former chairman Zhou Houjian continues to offer inspiration to his company and its sector. [Photo/Lanjing TV]
Zhou Houjian is former chairman of the Hisense Group – based in Qingdao, in East China's Shandong province – which manufactures televisions, air-conditioners, refrigerators and telecommunications equipment.
Born in 1957 in Qingdao, Zhou was one of the first batch of students who attended the college entrance examination in China. He achieved the highest scores in science of all high school graduates in the city and entered the electronics department of Shandong University in 1978.
During college, Zhou received grants and didn't pay any tuition fees, accommodation fees or pay for his books. Students from the electronics department even got a subsidy of 400 yuan each term. That's when he made his mind to study hard and serve the nation.
After graduation, he was assigned to the Qingdao Television Factory where he worked as a technician, gradually being promoted to supervisor, assistant factory director and at the age of 35, to factory director.
Based on the Qingdao Television factory, Zhou established Hisense Group in 1994, which is now one of the largest home appliance makers in China, with a distribution network in over 100 countries.
Hisense was one of the earliest domestic color TV manufacturers to be engaged in chip research and development. As early as 2000, the enterprise spent over 30 million yuan ($42.15 million) to develop China's first digital video processing chip, securing independent intellectual property rights.
The group subsequently continued to invest in R&D on chips and launched new products, ranging from high definition to full HD and onto ultra-HD displays.
In 2005, when Japan and South Korea enterprises completely controlled the LCD panels market, Zhou and his team spent two years in development and broke the bottleneck.
With three years of independent development of ULED technology, Hisense established a new benchmark for picture quality in the global color TV industry in 2011.
The Hisense laser TV accounted for 53 percent of total global laser TV shipments in 2020. After more than 60 years of hard work, Chinese TV manufacturers had for the first time taken the lead.
Zhou emphasized R&D and innovation, which he regarded as central to any corporate success. He also attaches great importance to cooperation with foreign enterprises. That's what made Hisense occupy a leading position in the country – and even the world.
On March 12, Zhou resigned as chairman of the board. The 65-year-old entrepreneur has dedicated the past 30 years to Hisense, in service that embodies the essence of entrepreneurship.
