In March 2011, Shi Jinbo and the other five initial partners established Liqun Automation Technology Co., Ltd.
However, in the first few years, Liqun Automation struggled.
The company has no self-developed products and cannot open the market with foreign machines; and the orders it receives either cannot keep up with the ever-changing technological innovations and are rejected by customers; What kind of waves can be made, there is neither profit nor fame.
Under the predicament, two co-founders left the team, and the company was at risk of bankruptcy.
But in times of crisis, Shi Jinbo took the initiative to serve as the general manager of the company, and through a series of initiatives, the company became a dark horse in the industry, and she was also known as the world-class light-hearted person. The leader in quantitative robotics.
Along the way, how did Shi Jinbo do it?
Reluctance is the seed of entrepreneurship
Like most people, Shi Jinbo grew up with his parents’ advice.
Growing up, her parents told her the most that she must study hard and get into a good university; after graduation, find a good job. .
Many people have no objections to this, and the same goes for Shi Jinbo: "In the past, I did not think too much or question this kind of life path."
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However, what is different from most people is that Shi Jinbo is smart and has always been among the best in school, making him a top student.
Although her failure in the college entrance examination prevented her from entering her ideal Tsinghua campus, she was still admitted to Harbin Institute of Technology to study for a bachelor's and master's degree. project.
If there are no accidents, after graduation, she will definitely enter a very good employer, find a good husband, get married and have children.
However, during a summer camp during her senior year of college in 2005, her deepest desires began to awaken.
It was a summer science and technology summer camp organized by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Shi Jinbo recalled the scene as if it were vivid in his mind:
This kind of thinking made Shi Jinbo, who was originally planning to live a step-by-step life, ready to make a move.
When she was a graduate student at the Shenzhen Research Institute of Harbin Institute of Technology, she met Li Zexiang, a visiting professor at Harbin Institute of Technology, who gave her a glimpse of the future.
Famous teachers are opportunities to start a business
How powerful is Li Zexiang?
He went to the United States to study in his early years and is an expert in robotics, motion control, mechanism science and manufacturing science.
He is also employed as a professor of electronic and computer engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, director and professor of the Automation Technology Center of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; he is also an advisor to the president of Hunan University, a part-time professor, and many other Chairman of the company's high-tech related industries.
In addition, together with Wang Tao, he became the first Chinese scholar to win the IEEE Robotics and Automation Award.
This award is one of the most important awards in the global engineering technology field.
While teaching students knowledge, he often taught them to use the knowledge they learned to do things useful to the country.
Shi Jinbo was deeply moved by this idea of ??"making practical use of the world".
If the summer camp during his senior year made Shi Jinbo question his life prospects; then, Li Zexiang’s concept of serving the country through industry made Shi Jinbo confident about his future. A little bit of clarity.
She decided to follow Li Zexiang and continue to climb the peak of science and technology.
After graduating from graduate school, she obtained a PhD from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, studying under Li Zexiang.
In order to let students understand the most cutting-edge technological developments in the world, Li Zexiang often takes students around the world to participate in various science and technology exhibitions and competitions, and even encourages them to participate in Go into actual entrepreneurial projects.
Without exception, Shi Jinbo was brought out by Li Zexiang in this way.
In 2009, Shi Jinbo followed his mentor Li Zexiang to Japan and the United States to inspect the development of industrial robots in the world.
At that time, the global industrial robot market had long been occupied by the "four major families": ABB of Switzerland, KUKA of Germany, FANUC of Japan and Yaskawa Denki. He has not made much achievements in the field, so he is naturally looked down upon by foreign countries.
Shi Jinbo, who has always refused to admit defeat since he was a child, couldn't help but feel a little annoyed: "Who said China can't make decent robots?"
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Perhaps, at this time, making the best Chinese robot in the world has become Shi Jinbo's goal.
Research is the cornerstone of entrepreneurship
Once, when Shi Jinbo checked the development status of robot companies around the world, he got a Conclusion:
The bright prospects made Shi Jinbo excited. She rejected the school’s offer to stay at the school to teach after graduation and embarked on the path of entrepreneurship. road.
In March 2011, Shi Jinbo, his tutor Li Zexiang and four other classmates established a group named after the mathematical concept "Lie Group" , Liqun Automation Technology Co., Ltd.
The company's initial positioning was to do system integration projects, that is, to introduce foreign robots, improve them, and sell them to domestic businesses in need. Connect with domestic and foreign markets.
Because foreign products are "acclimated" to varying degrees in China, many fundamental problems cannot be solved even after the company's fine-tuning.
Without independent research and development of new products, there will be no leadership. The limitations of the model caused the company's development to fall into a dilemma.
Fortunately, the company received a project from Apple, and Shi Jinbo and another team member became the main persons in charge, with one writing the code and the other responsible for the mechanical design.
They work at least 18 hours a day, and when they are tired, they lie down on the camp bed in the office for a while. After two months of writing more than 20,000 lines of code, it took one and a half months to deliver the prototype to Apple as scheduled.
Apple was amazed at their high energy and efficiency, and still taught them the second phase of the project.
These two projects finally earned the company 2 million in working capital.
Later, although it took on some jobs sporadically, the company never opened up the market. On one occasion, it was even directly sold by a customer because the goods it delivered could not keep up with the ever-changing market innovation. Rejection will result in heavy losses.
During the downturn, two partners left the team, and Shi Jinbo was also very confused:
Talent is an assist for entrepreneurship
Shi Jinbo once said in a lecture:
During that time, Shi Jinbo took the initiative to step up and serve as general manager, struggling to support the company's operations.
Under Li Zexiang’s persuasion, many of his outstanding students joined Liqun Automation. In addition, Sha Qi, a heavyweight with more than 30 years of experience in robot manufacturing, also joined. Li Qun Automation serves as the company’s CTO.
As soon as Sha Qi entered the company, he pointed out the company’s fatal shortcomings:
As the saying goes, a good man has three gangs.
On the road to entrepreneurship, an experienced and unique talent is very rare.
Shi Jinbo was enlightened by Sha Qi's words.
Although she also thought about it during this period, no matter how many orders a company has today, because it does not have its own brand, it is still just an agent from beginning to end.
But Sha Qi never thought so thoughtfully and deeply. After receiving Sha Qi’s advice, Shi Jinbo prepared to reposition the company.
At first, she also considered making a drone.
However, after all, her senior brother Wang Tao’s DJI drone is ahead of her, and she thinks she cannot surpass it in a short time.
What’s more, DJI has already established an international reputation. It’s better to find another way and create something new than to get a piece of the pie.
Innovation is the foundation for entrepreneurship
Through market research, Shi Jinbo found that Guangdong is dominated by light industry, with small and light industries There is a huge gap in industrial robots of this size.
At present, it is difficult to find lightweight robots suitable for various industries and solving specific problems on the market.
This discovery prompted Shi Jinbo to invest Liqun Automation in the independent research and development of light industrial robots.
In the early stage of research and development, a lot of human and financial resources were required. Shi Jinbo found his senior brother Wang Tao and won many DJI projects, thus surviving the transition period.
In 2013, Liqun Automation, with its independent research and development, the world's first integrated drive and control parallel robot, appeared on the stage of the Shanghai International Industrial Expo , became a highlight of the meeting.
Liqun Automation also became famous in this battle.
Liqun Automation, which is favored by capital, has ushered in its spring. Within a few years, it has completed three rounds of ABC financing and has hundreds of millions of funds in hand.
Shi Jinbo also struck while the iron was hot and established Ningbo Liqun Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. in Ningbo, and established R&D centers in Dongguan, Shenzhen, and Shanghai to realize the interconnection of the three places. Interoperable service network and spread it overseas.
At the same time, Liqun Automation has won more than 30 awards in the domestic robot industry. In 2018, it entered the "China AI 10" and became a leader in China's robot and automation industry. A "dark horse".
Shi Jinbo is also known in the industry as a leader in world-class lightweight robots. He has also won the Dongguan Outstanding Entrepreneurial Women Award and the Southern Guangdong Women Award. He has won many honors, including the Innovation Top Ten and the Business Mulan.
However, opportunities and crises coexist, and Shi Jinbo also knows this:
She even claimed: "I want to be the Big Dipper of the robotics industry and the person who makes the rules of the industry."
Whether Shi Jinbo can do this can only be answered with time This is the problem.
What do you think of Shi Jinbo?
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Author: Copper Pea