An Interview with Swiss Papermaking Expert Grossendacher Pierre

By CHEN YIJUN

Editor: Swiss papermaker Pierre got to know about China after he read China Reconstructs, predecessor of China Today. He moved to China and worked for 14 years.

In 2002, at the age of 62, when Pierre retired, he returned to China with his wife, to helplaunch Shandong Quanlin Packaging.

I made an appointment with Pierre at 8:30 in the hotel lobby. He arrived right at that hour, as punctual as a Swiss clock.

Chen: Do you remember the time of your first trip to China?

Pierre: On August 29, 1986 I flew from Hong Kong by Cathay Pacific Airways and arrived in Beijing at 17:30.

Chen: Do you have such a clear memory for everything?

Pierre: Generally yes. As an engineer and a physics major, it is a habit of many years.

Chen: I see on your desk many English magazines from around the world. I hear that your interest in magazines started in your childhood.

Pierre: That's right. Currently I'm subscribing to 35 magazines. When I was young, I decided to read a book a day. Magazines provide the best window for me to look at the outside world. My connection to China started with the English edition of China Reconstructs. You know, I like to seek excitement.

After I graduated from university in 1966, I worked as a cab driver and then in the glass industry for three and a half years. Later I was engaged in the paper industry making soft drink packaging. In Switzerland, a physics major has a wide choice of employment. I wanted to go to South Africa and Australia at that time. Mobility seems to be in the blood of the Swiss people. As I was hesitating, I happened to come upon a copy of China Reconstructs, and my inclination to seek excitement led me to go where others couldn't. Later China Reconstructs guided me to China. If I did not come to China, I might have gone to Chile or Mexico. Since then I have never left China Reconstructs. It is my friend.

Chen: Suddenly landing in China of the 1980s from a country like Switzerland, did you get lost? Was it hard to adapt yourself?

Pierre: Before I came to China, I was fully prepared psychologically. I stayed at Beijing's Overseas Chinese Hotel. Life was not as easy as now, and there was a lack of living facilities. I brought a water heater from Hong Kong, but I could not use it because electricity blackouts were frequent where I lived. In addition, there were many things that I could not put up with, such as the smell of the toilets and the attitude of the staff.

Chen: Being in China for 14 years, what's your deepest insight?

Pierre: Joint ventures in China must be managed by foreigners who really understand China, not the other way round. Unfortunately many Chinese haven't realized this. From the perspective of a foreigner, I can see this point clearly. Many "laowais" look down upon Chinese people. Nominally they manage a business, either a joint venture or solely foreign funded, in cooperation with the Chinese side, but in fact they either manage from a distance, or leave their duty with their secretary, or simply point their fingers blindly and indiscreetly. It is a tragedy for China.

Chen: Would you label yourself a "laowai" who really understands China? Shandong Quanlin Packaging has invited you to be their superintendent of production. Do you think you are qualified?

Pierre: This is a good question. I was the first China-stationed superintendent of production of a famous Swedish company, and this time I have been hired by a private Chinese company (Shandong Quanlin). I think I'm qualified and competent because I understand China very well. All these years, I have learned to read a Chinese face without the need of communicating in language.

Chen: Helping a private Chinese enterprise at your age is not a common phenomenon in China. Do you see any difference between working for a foreign company and a private Chinese business?

Pierre: What really matters is your partner. My partners are not bad. They include both returned overseas Chinese students and locally trained people. More important, they are all like me, eager to see the enterprise doing well. In the past I worked for a transnational company for its China expansion, and now I am in China and work for China. I'm doing the same job, but the result differs in that I am really working for China now.

Chen: I am told that a Swiss in his 60s would have everything he needs back home. Or in another word, you no longer need to work for money. Why have you come back to China to do something that's not necessary for you?

Pierre: It was not an indiscreet decision on our part. Both my wife and I had thought carefully before we came and the final decision was "Go." The reason is that I have faith in this Chinese enterprise and in its prospects.

Chen: As far as I know, sterile soft drink packaging is a European technology originated in Sweden, and is something new to China. Now Shandong Quanlin is the first Chinese company that dares to compete with a noted Swedish company in an area that is "foreign" to them. Is it true?

Pierre: Yes. We have the technology and should make our contribution. In a long run, the market is large and has good prospects.

Chen: Shandong's Gaotang County where Quanlin is located is an isolated area, so again you will find another drop in your standard of life, just as when you first came from Switzerland to China. You would have had a very good life if you had stayed in Switzerland, but China Reconstructs has changed your life. How can a magazine decide the course of one's life?

Pierre: Not exactly. One's course of life is related to one's childhood dream.

Chen: Is your dream "to seek excitement and go to where others can't?"

Pierre: I had many dreams, and this might be said to be one of my personalities.

Chen: Now you have come back to China for something other than money at this age. No matter how long you will stay here this time, you have set a good example for us Chinese. As a "laowai" who really understands China, what do you want to say most to Chinese people?

Pierre: For an enterprise and nation, the corporate and national spirit is the most important. Ardor is not emitted by order. It is self-initiated. This is what I want to say. Why? I have stayed in China for 14 years and Republic of Korea for two years. The two years in ROK is a "spotlight" in my life. It was during the Asian Financial Crisis. Without order from their boss, South Korean workers turned off lights and all the machines that could be turned off in order to save energy and costs. All the workers shared one thing in common: We will do what is good for the country and the nation. They showed a strong national spirit during the time of difficulties, which resulted remarkably in a 50 percent rise in production value in those difficult years.

Chen: Thank you for your advice.