Background
Ge Wenyao was born in 1947, China.
文耀 葛
Ge Wenyao was born in 1947, China.
Ge Wenyao was educated locally.
By the end of the twentieth century, a large number of multinational companies had entered the Chinese market. Shanghai, the economic capital of China, was inevitably in the forefront of the battle between state-owned enterprises and foreign challengers. While many state-owned enterprises failed in the competition, Ge shouldered the responsibility of reforming Jahwa. As early as 1985, Ge realized that a planned economy would not meet the need for greater development in state-owned enterprises.
Under his leadership, Shanghai Jahwa began to focus on market-oriented business strategies, and became the first company among its peers to establish a distribution network throughout the country, the first to open a customer hotline, and the first to start beauty salons and a beauty school. Because of Ge’s quick actions, Shanghai Jahwa was able to reorganize its business structure and benefit from the emerging consumer market. Under Ge, new value-added products were developed and manufactured, and the popularity of two traditional brands (Tremella and Maxam) was enhanced.
In the 1990s, when foreign capital entered the Chinese market, as Ge predicted, competition grew even fiercer among domestic and international companies. Nevertheless, Shanghai Jahwa has been enjoying a booming market with a growth rate of 35 percent a year. This spectacular development has attracted the attention of several multinationals seeking acquisitions of brands under Jahwa, among them Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Shiseido and Kao. By 2005, China’s cosmetic sales revenue ranked second in Asia and eighth in the world. There are 4000 cosmetic companies in China, with 25 000 product varieties.
However, the industry as a whole does not have a sound development structure. Most of them are small to mid-sized companies with, on average, less than RMB10 million of revenue per year. Only Shanghai Jahwa, Beijing-based Dabao, and Chongqing-based Olive, can reach an annual production value of over 500 million yuan. In spite of competition, Shanghai Jahwa has retained its title as the nation’s largest and most profitable domestic enterprise in the cosmetics sector. In the face of the largescale assault of foreign brands from some of the most powerful global players in the industry, Ge has carved out a viable position in the Chinese marketplace for his company. In 2004, Ge was named a top Innovative Entrepreneur in China.
Well known for his four core strategies in managing Jahwa: exploring the market, new product development, internal product control, and talent import and management.