Liu Qiangdong Path to Success
Having been brought up from a poor background, Liu Qiangdong strived to change his life. For this reason, he worked hard and left his village to join Renmin Village in Beijing to pursue sociology. While pursuing his course, he also took the time to learn computer programming. The knowledge he acquired from programming formed the stem of his later business success.
Liu Qiangdong is the founder and CEO of JD.com. JD.com is the largest e-commerce business in China and among the biggest in the world. However, before building his successful empire, he had gone through some challenges in life. While in University, he started a restaurant business that failed within a year. He noticed that the failure was due to a lack of proper management skills. As a result, he enrolled at the China Europe International Business School to pursue a program in EMBA.
Liu Qiangdong commenced his career by working for Japan Life Company, a health supplement company. However, he did not take long before venturing on his own to start an electronics company, Jingdong. Although he started the company with only one retail shop, the company had grown to 12 chain stores within five years. However, businesses, including his, were interrupted in 2003 due to the breakout of the SARS pandemic.
Liu Qiangdong took on the challenge and decided to try out the online platform to conduct his business. Owing to the immense success the company experienced after the change, Liu agreed to operate online solely. The decision gave rise to JD.com in 2004. Due to his futuristic leadership strategies, JD.com has enjoyed success all through the years.
In 2014, JD.com got listed in NASDAQ after having a market share of 54.3 percent. By 2016, it had made it to the Fortune 500 Companies, being the first Chinese company to achieve such stature. Liu Qiangdong has also received several awards to celebrate his achievements in the e-commerce world.