In 1992, a valve factory in Qingpu Town, northern Jiangsu, was on the verge of bankruptcy, trapped in a web of debts. Factory director Lu Zhenhai rallied the workers to pool their money and, with the help of young technician Chen Keqin, saved the factory from unpaid bills, returned goods, and halted production. Over the next thirty years, they went from making ordinary valves to high-pressure equipment for oil and gas wellheads, moving from contract manufacturing for foreign companies to replacing imports with domestic products. Together, they weathered restructuring, financial crises, and the eve of the company’s IPO.
But once the company finally had a brand of its own, a new question arose: when a company is saved by many and led to success by a few, who should it belong to?
The bonds between mentor and student, the workers’ contributions, family succession, and modern corporate governance all collide. A major experimental accident ultimately forces everyone to reconsider what the company truly needs to protect: one person’s authority, or…
A few more chapters.