Head attributes company's success to strategy of limited diversification

In the 28 years he served in the People's Liberation Army, one of the most important things Chen Hongsheng learned was how to shoot straight; in the past 15 years as a businessman he has learned how to choose the right target.

Chen Hongsheng,chairman of China Poly Group Corp. [Photo / China Daily]

Chen, 63, is chairman of China Poly Group Corp, whose military roots are as deep as his own, but which like him has grown to grapple with the challenges of the commercial world.

"Every challenge is a new growth opportunity and a new starting point," Chen said. "It is this perseverance that has helped us overcome many challenges and made us into what we are today."

So what exactly is Poly Group today? The company is so big that if you name any pie you can think of, the chances are that Poly has its fingers in it. It is the parent company of hundreds of subsidiaries whose business interests span sectors as diverse as international trade, real estate, culture and arts, and investment and exploitation of mineral resources.

That is where knowing how to choose the correct target comes in. Chen, sitting in the swish glass-clad building that is the company's headquarters in Beijing, recalled a time when Poly Group led an even more complicated life.

In the early 1990s it was involved in 10 industries, including pig farming. But the company then saw the light. While striving to spread itself, it was spending too much time, energy and resources for very little return, Chen said.

He and other leaders of the group took a new look at modern enterprise management and realized that the company needed to operate in compliance with the strategy of "following limited diversification and allocating enough resources to boost the major businesses", Chen said.