Cultivating Corporate Culture through Sport

"Corporate Culture", once a foreign term to most Chinese, is now understood to be the way to give companies a competitive edge.

For Shanghai-based Baosteel Group Corporation (SBGC), the most modern iron and steel company in China, even sport is a good way to cultivate business culture.

From management to employees, the company is crazy about three sports, namely billiards, table tennis and swimming.

Sources with the company's Business Culture Department say thatthese sports have helped the company stand out and keep its vitality despite fierce market competition.

Guan Zhuangmin, a billiard master from the SBGC, said, "Playingbilliards shows people how to handle awkward situations with politeness."

"No matter how hard you scream or jump, nothing will help without patience, wisdom and a proper command of technique", Guan explained.

In SBGC, swimming is favored by managers at all levels. Winter or summer, these people will always go swimming after they come off duty.

One employee from middle management who refused to give his name said, "Once people jump into the swimming pool, they are leftto sink or swim. And when people begin running a business, the situation is exactly the same. If you want to survive, rely on your own strength."

As for table tennis, a national sport in China which is gainingworld fame, the SBGC people have a special attachment to it.

Mo Zhen who heads the company's Public Relationship Department said, "It's a game testing stamina and has many challenges."

When people play table tennis, they have to face many rounds ofcompetitive play. One overpowering smash may count for nothing as the opponent may counterattack at any time, he said.

"Moreover", Mo said, "table tennis was also foreign to Chinese in the very beginning as it originated from the United Kingdom. But we made ourselves the best at it in the world."

As the SBGC introduces both advanced management skills and up-to-date production technology from foreign countries, the company is hoping to one day become the best in the world in its field.

With China gradually phasing out the import quota system on steel products and the arrival of many heavyweight iron and steel multinationals, the SBGC management believes that a thriving corporate culture may be the deciding factor in how it develops.

Established on November 17, 1998 after a strategic merge, the SBGC has now blossomed into one of the country's pillar iron and steel enterprises. Its auto sheet products account for over 60 percent of the domestic market.

About 85.5 percent of the steel used in the car of "Little Red Flag", produced by the country's First Automobile Works, comes from the SBGC.

In 2000, the company's annual export volume of steel reached 2.8 million tons approximately, and total imports and exports exceeded 1.5 billion U.S. dollars.






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