He was once China's youngest chairman of a listed company, once owned three listed companies, managed up to 15 billion in assets, and has twice been on the Shaanxi Province rich.
But in the most difficult time, he was also indebted to 4.8 billion, and once wanted to cut himself off, fortunately, the staff sold their homes to help him pay off the debt, only to pull him back from the edge of the cliff.
He is Guo Jiaxue, at the age of 33, he became the chairman of the Dongsheng Group, in the splendor of the time, including Yunnan Baiyao and other well-known pharmaceutical companies into the group's banner.
After meeting his Waterloo, he did everything he could to pay off his debts and made tens of billions of dollars more, once again asking for the rich of Shaanxi province.
For Guo Jiaxue, his life is like a roller coaster, with big ups and downs.
Guo Jiaxue was born in 1966 in Xunyang, Shaanxi Province, his father is the director of the local health center, Guo Jiaxue later embarked on the path of pharmaceuticals, more or less by his father's influence.
When he was 16 years old, he enrolled in the Ankang Normal School, where he worked very hard to be at the top of his class and was recognized for his work on a number of occasions.
Because of this, when he graduated, he was retained by the school as an outstanding graduate, and was sent to Shaanxi Normal University for further study.
For the Kuo family, who have lived in the countryside for a long time, coming out of a college student is like having a golden phoenix in a poor mountain valley.
As the first university student in the village, not only Guo's father and mother, even the whole village is proud of him.
In the years of Guo Jiaxue's study, every New Year's Eve, there will always be the townspeople come to Guo's home, send some rice and noodles, especially after Guo Jiaxue stayed in school to teach, this phenomenon is more and more common, all hope that Guo Jiaxue can be more help in the future.
But the pride of the parents and the townspeople only lasted for a while, and after less than half a year of teaching at the university, Guo Jiaxue resigned from his job as a university teacher and returned to his hometown in Shaanxi Province, ready to start his own business.
This is the first time I've ever seen a movie in which I've had a chance to be a part of the show, and I've never seen a movie in which I've had a chance to be a part of the show," he said.
This is the first time I've ever seen a man with a pig in his hand, and I've never seen one before.
From a university teacher to a pig farmer, the identity of the change can be described as a long time, but Guo Jiaxue does not care, because he has been prepared for everything.
Guo Jiaxue took only 170 yuan of savings as start-up capital, began a difficult business. In the initial stage, Guo Jiaxue bought a pile of books on pig farming technology, day and night to chew, and often to other folks to ask for advice, learning from experience, and even in the lack of funds once, will be the only remaining value of the family's four houses, to sell at a price of 2,700 yuan.
The hardest time, Guo Jiaxue only sleeps four hours a day and has to feed the pigs every few hours. A few months down the road, Guo Jiaxue lost dozens of pounds.
After a few months of scientific farming, Guo Jiaxue's pigs, each of which can grow to more than 200 pounds, are better than those raised by other farmers in the village.
But immediately after, a difficult problem in front of Guo Jiaxue, due to the village's transportation conditions are very poor, the sale of pigs has become a problem, for which body weight of only 120 pounds of Guo Jiaxue, carrying more than 200 pounds of pigs, walk through the mountains of more than a dozen miles to the town to go to the sale.
Although it was hard work, but by raising pigs, Guo Jiaxue earned the first money. But it wasn't long before the pigs came down with swine fever, and Guo was forced to give up pig farming in favor of planting Chinese herbs.
Guo Jiaxue contracted a plantation in the county, hired dozens of workers, day and night in the ground busy, so that after a month and a half, Guo Jiaxue hands swollen ten joints.
What's more, that winter was characterized by a cold snap, and the herbs that Guo Jiaxue planted were almost non-existent, which made Guo Jiaxue suffer a lot of pain.
After these two failed attempts to start a new business, Guo Jiaxue had to sit down and think about whether this was the right or wrong choice.
In Xi'an, Guo Jiaxue has done almost everything, including stalls, selling computers, running a business, and selling goods. Although he has done a lot of different kinds of work, fortunately, Guo Jiaxue has finally found a permanent job.
In 1991, Guo entered the Xi'an People's Institute of Medical Electricity and Science, and worked his way up to director, and for the next three years, Guo worked at the institute.
After accumulating some savings, he started his own company called Dongsheng, specializing in the sale of medical equipment and instruments.
Two years, Guo Jiaxue painstakingly, the company has gradually grown and become one of the largest medical equipment distributors in the northwest, not only that, during this period, Guo Jiaxue also Siemens, Kodak and other well-known foreign companies to do the domestic agent, the company also made a small fortune.
In 1996, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity appeared in front of Guo Jiaxue.
This year, a state-owned pharmaceutical factory in Fengxiang County, Shaanxi Province, invested more than 15 million yuan to establish the factory, due to poor management, in the first three years of completion, annual sales of only more than 300,000 yuan, seriously insolvent.
In order to solve the enterprise crisis, the leadership of the pharmaceutical factory to find Guo Jiaxue, asked him if he is willing to enter the pharmaceutical industry, in the opinion of the leadership, Guo Jiaxue as one of the largest medical equipment distributors in the northwest, the hands of many hospital channels, is the solution to the enterprise crisis.
This opportunity, in Guo Jiaxue's view, is also sought after. Because at that time, all pharmaceutical companies are state-owned enterprises, private companies want to enter the pharmaceutical industry, it is almost impossible to get the state approval, only through the acquisition and other ways to enter the industry.
More importantly for Guo Jiaxue, the pharmaceutical company has a prescription drug in the field of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, and this drug occupies a place in the market, only due to the poor management of the enterprise, it will be insolvent.
Guo Jiaxue noticed that if he bought the drug company and improved its operations, he could bring it back to life and make a fortune.
The excited Guo Jiaxue rushed to Fengxiang County on the same day, signed a purchase agreement with the manufacturer, and memorized millions of debt.
This acquisition set a precedent for the acquisition of a state-owned enterprise by a private company in Shaanxi, and announced the rise of the Dongsheng Group.
After taking over the operation of the pharmaceutical company, Guo Jiaxue made a radical reform of the business system. Guo Jiaxue realized that before that, due to the lack of a sales force, it was difficult to sell the products produced by the enterprise.
Guo Jiaxue took over the enterprise, the first time to set up a professional sales team, the external vigorously recruit sales staff, together with the establishment of a sales network throughout the country, to promote "Vioxxin" products.
One year after the takeover, the company's sales reached 30 million yuan, not only to pay off all the debts, but also net income of tens of millions of dollars, a reversal of the decline of the enterprise before.
The next year, the company's turnover exceeded 100 million yuan, and Guo Jiaxue also earned a lot of money.
This acquisition, so that Guo Jiaxue saw the business opportunities, in the next few years, Guo Jiaxue began a crazy acquisition of the road.
First, in July 1998, the merger and acquisition of Xi'an Chemical and Pharmaceutical Corporation; and then in 1999, the price of 60 million yuan to buy the listed company in Qinghai Tongren Aluminum, and renamed "Dongsheng Technology"; in the same year, and shares in the U.S.-China joint venture Shaanxi Jisheng Pharmaceuticals.
In the continuous acquisition of mergers and acquisitions, Dongsheng Group's scale is increasingly large, and in 1999, by virtue of the acquisition of Qinghai Tongren Aluminum, Dongsheng Group successfully realized the shell listing, became a listed company.
Dongsheng Group also gradually transitioned from industrial operation to capital operation, which made Guo Jiaxue, only 33 years old at the time, the youngest chairman of a listed company in China.
After the group's successful IPO, Guo Jiaxue's acquisitions didn't stop there.
Since then, he has acquired Donggai Tianli, Qinghai Pharmaceutical, Lizhu Group, and Hubei Qianjiang Pharmaceutical. During this period, the "fetishism" has always occupied Guo Jiaxue's brain, and this kind of almost crazy acquisition can bring brilliance to the enterprise, but it can also pull the enterprise into the abyss.
2003, is the most crazy year of Guo Jiaxue, later he recalled that in this year, almost every month, there is an acquisition project completed, this speed even if put into the international community, but also enough to make all the enterprises dumbfounded.
This year, Dongsheng Group, after continuous acquisition, has been from the initial little-known small company, gorgeous transformation into a nearly 10,000 employees, corporate assets of more than 6 billion yuan of pharmaceutical companies, and into the national pharmaceutical industry, the top 20.
Under the impact of this victory, Guo Jiaxue seems to be overwhelmed, he threw out the "Guo Jiaxue": based on the growth of their own business, the rapid implementation of mega-mergers and acquisitions, and focus on international joint ventures.
Such a development concept, driving the entire group in the mergers and acquisitions on the road deeper and deeper, Guo Jiaxue even put out a bold statement: within a few years, the Dongsheng Group into the world's top 500 enterprises; Dongsheng construction as "China's pharmaceutical industry dream team"; in the venture 30th anniversary, the development of Dongsheng into a multinational enterprise with an annual turnover of tens of billions of dollars.
With such fantasies, Guo Jiaxue continued to walk in the acquisition of the road, but he did not take into account is that any enterprise, like the Dongsheng Group, like a black hole, constantly absorbing and expanding, and in the end will only be faced with the group out of control, the situation of the capital broke, and ultimately declared bankruptcy.
Because such a large-scale acquisition, a serious violation of the scientific law of enterprise development, with the expansion of the scale, the cost of business operations will also soar, it is easy to appear uncontrollable problems.
As expected, although Guo Jiaxue in the acquisition of the road unimpeded, but the acquisition of Yunnan Baiyao in 2003, the Dongsheng Group and Guo Jiaxue pulled into the abyss, the flourishing Dongsheng Group in the event after the brilliant no longer.
In 2003, the government of Yunnan in order to vigorously develop Yunnan Baiyao, ready to attract investment in the country, Guo Jiaxue in the news, the first time to participate in the bidding, along with the participation of the bidding industry giants such as Huayuan, Fosun, China Resources.
In order to successfully take Yunnan Baiyao, Guo Jiaxue can be said to have spared no expense. In the end, after several rounds of fighting elimination, Guo Jiaxue laughed in the end, successfully entered the ownership of Yunnan Pharmaceutical Group.
This successful acquisition, so that the Dongsheng Group's momentum reached an unprecedented peak, but also let Guo Jiaxue become a hot capital maniac.
At the same time, the market value of Dongsheng Group also soared to 10 billion, and the industry has been optimistic about the future of Dongsheng, and Guo Jaxue even saw the dawn of their own achievements in the world's top 500 companies.
In April 2004, the state introduced a new policy of contracting credit and raising interest rates on loans, which made the already high debt of Dongsheng even worse.
More seriously, two state-owned enterprises, which had provided guarantees for Dongsheng Group, were also affected by this and declared bankruptcy, with Dongsheng Group assuming joint and several liabilities, involving an amount of more than one billion dollars.
Under the influence of this, Dongsheng Group's share price plummeted, banks have drawn loans, the group's capital chain broke, Guo Jiaxue was forced to turn to private loan sharks.
But on the verge of bankruptcy Dongsheng, simply unable to repay the loan, the lender in order to collect, with a large truck pulling dozens of cars of dirt, blocking the Dongsheng Group's door, and wanton destruction, so that Guo Jiaxue silenced.
According to statistics, Dongsheng Group in this period, the various aspects of the debt as high as 4.8 billion yuan, Guo Jiaxue due to the debt can not afford, once produced a light idea.
November 5, 2006, Guo Jiaxue disheveled sitting in the office, he intends to dusk, jumped from the headquarters building to escape the sea of misery, fortunately, several company executives found him in time to the abnormal, a few words of advice, only to let the Guo Jiaxue to dispel the thought of light.
After the folding and sinking, Guo Jiaxue revitalized, began the eight-year debt repayment road. Guo Jiaxue began to sell at a low price when the acquisition of the enterprise, first to 170 million yuan of low-priced sale of Pearl shares, and will be the group's ace product "white plus black" sold at a price of 1.26 billion.
What makes Guo Jiaxue's heart ache is that Yunnan Baiyao, acquired at a huge cost and with a market capitalization of more than $10 billion, was forced to sell at a very low price of $750 million.
In the process of repaying the debt, many of the executives who came together with Guo Jiaxue have paid out of their own pockets, even at the expense of mortgaging their own real estate, to help Guo Jiaxue pay off the debt.
After several years of hard work, by the end of 2012, Dongsheng Group's $4.8 billion debt was fully repaid, and Guo Jiaxue was highly praised by the community.
Looking back on this difficult journey, Guo Jiaxue confessed: I used to be a young man, and was overwhelmed by the success of the moment, and often did things without thinking about the consequences, which made me pay a heavy price.
After paying off all the debts, Guo Jiaxue once again set sail, with a new attitude back to the pharmaceutical industry, the difference is that this time back to Guo Jiaxue, the body did not have the past of the wind, more is the experience of the wind and waves of composure and calm.
Guo Jiaxue set his sights on Chinese medicine, the reason why the Chinese medicine industry, because in 2003, that is, Guo Jiaxue crazy acquisition of mergers and acquisitions of the year, he acquired a well-known Chinese medicine enterprises - Guang Yuyuan.
This acquisition seems to be a kind of arrangement, for many years later, Guo Jiaxue, buried the ambush of the comeback.
The company was founded in the 20th year of the Jiajing reign, with a history of 480 years. During the Qing Dynasty, it was known as one of the "Four Great Pharmacies", along with Beijing Tongrentang, Hangzhou Hu Qingyu Tang, and Guangzhou Chen Liji.
"How admirable it is to be able to pass on what our ancestors have been doing for thousands of years, and how admirable it is to choose to cooperate with a Chinese medicine factory with a mission to revitalize Chinese medicine. SARS infection risk, only one person traveled to Guangyueyuan several times to negotiate.
"During that time, I went back and forth not how many times, I remember very clearly, there were times when I was the only one on the whole plane", this is what Guo Jiaxue said later when he recalled the acquisition of Guangyueyuan.
In the end, with professional knowledge and management experience, the two sides reached an agreement, and Guangyuyuan was formally included in the Dongsheng Group.
Even when he was paying off his debts later, Guo Jiaxue had once thought of selling GYF, but he eventually put it out of his mind.
After deciding to make a comeback with KWY as the goal, Guo said: "From now on, I want to devote the rest of my life to revitalizing the traditional Chinese medicine culture!
In the ten years since then, Guo Jiaxue has developed Guangyuyuan into an enterprise integrating R&D, production, and sales of traditional Chinese medicine by combining management concepts with systematic reforms, broadening channels, and strengthening cultural propaganda, etc.And its products, Guilingji and Dingkundan, have been widely recognized as the most popular traditional Chinese medicine products in the world.
Asked whether he still harbors the dream of achieving the world's top 500 enterprises, Guo Jiaxue surprised a smile: to be listed in the world's top 500 enterprises, indeed very proud, but that was my dream, but now my goal is not to do a 500 enterprises, but to do a 500-year enterprise. A 500-year enterprise.
Perhaps after the big storm, Guo Jiaxue put away the heart of the impetus, no longer over-ambitious, but down-to-earth want to do a "fine and beautiful" business.
Today, after more than a decade of development, the annual turnover of Guangyueyuan has exceeded 10 billion yuan, and Guo Jiaxue has completely got rid of the past decline, and has successfully returned to the ranks of the giants of the pharmaceutical industry.
Guo Jiaxue once said that, in his view, to realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, the first thing lies in the promotion of culture, and for this reason, he established the Guangyuyuan Museum of Chinese Medicine Culture.
Guo Jiaxue hopes that with the promotion of Chinese medicine culture, the general public can restore confidence in Chinese medicine, because it is not only the confidence of Chinese medicine, but also the confidence of the national culture.
From a pig poor boy, to the youngest chairman of the listed company, and then to the defeat, billions of dollars in debt, the last nirvana rebirth. Guo Jiaxue's life is like a roller coaster general ups and downs, but for Guo Jiaxue, it seems that every "fall", is for the next better "rise".
Nowadays, Guo Jiaxue is nearly old, but still active in the Chinese medicine industry, Guangyuyuan under his management, has long become a leading enterprise in the domestic Chinese medicine industry.
He once said that he wanted to be a 500-year enterprise, and since the founding of KWY has had a history of 480 years, I believe that Guo Jiaxue will strive for excellence, and hand over KWY to the next 500 years with a better attitude.