...

Mr. Zheng, 49 years old, now chairman of Shanshan Investment Holdings and a director of Ningbo Shanshan, was listed by Forbes magazine in 2007 as one of China’s 400 wealthiest people, with an estimated net worth of $ 370 million. He oversees a staff of 11,000 employees spread across about 50 subsidiaries that each year turn out millions of men’s suits, jackets, pants, uniforms and shirts.

Mr. Zheng, a vice president of the China Garment Association, has made hiring top talent a priority, and launched an intensive internal training program in clothing design for his senior managers after moving them to Shanghai in 1998 from the company’s home base in Ningbo.

Jonathan Cheng interviewed Mr. Zheng in Chinese during the executive’s recent visit to Hong Kong.

WSJ: What was your first job, and what did you learn from it?
Mr. Zheng: I was a driver at an export company. It allowed me to see up close how the company worked and how it could improve, and I started to hatch ideas about how I would want to run a company like that.

WSJ: Was there any one person who taught you important business lessons?
Mr. Zheng: I never had anyone serve as a mentor. At the time, our country was still very backward (in business management), and there wasn’t any training. We all learned by doing things ourselves.

WSJ: Do you have a particular management philosophy?
Mr. Zheng: I’ve found that you have to have very clear objectives. Our company is divided into sectors, and in each one there is an expert who leads the group and encourages creative thinking. It isn’t all controlled by the boss at the top. I call it pagoda – style management. We make sure that the operations are the ones who make decisions about those operations. This is more effective.

...