Taipei Times: How did you adjust your role from a lawmaker to a chairman of a state-run company?
Cheng Pao-ching (鄭寶清): Actually, the two roles are pretty similar to me. As a lawmaker, I needed to find out what people needed, and as a businessman, I need to probe what customers want. I think my experience in being a lawmaker helps me to easily discover the customers' needs. So although the two positions seem different, they share the same objective -- to satisfy the people we serve. Therefore, I have adjusted myself pretty quickly to the current post.
TT: What strategies have you employed to speed up the transformation of Taisalt?
Cheng: Well, first, I changed the company's corporate culture and the way it used to operate. Taisalt does have quality workers, with many of them having a college education or above. Unfortunately, their creativity and vitality have been dried out after staying in a bureaucratic institution like Taisalt for too long.
In the past, Taisalt employees simply thought of work as a duty they're required to fulfill, in the way it should be done. They lacked motivation to better their work as their competitive counterparts did in the private sector.
But after I took over the chairmanship, I encouraged changes and I offered real action. Instead of passively waiting for patronage as they used to do, I required them to exploit new business opportunities. I also provide incentives to cheer them on. For example, we set up a fund for employees who use their creativity to "turn salt into gold," namely to make money for the company. The prize is up to NT$2 million per person per contribution. It works well, as we have given away about NT$5 million. As a result, the quality and speed of our service have improved a lot.
Second, we successfully applied and extended our biotechnology, which was originally only used on medical treatments, to a series of skin-care products. The product line is now selling like hot cakes and well regarded by consumers. We even provide a refund guarantee to customers who are discontent with our product. So far, we have not received a single refund request. Under these efforts, Taisalt turned from a company that lost an average of NT$300 million per year to a blue chip that sees annual profits of NT$500 million.
TT: You are seeking to expand Taisalt's business to the Chinese market. What is your expectation of this massive market?
Cheng: So far, we are still waiting for official permission to allow our products to hit the Chinese market. I believe we'll perform well since our products have already won high praise from domestic customers. What I want to emphasize is, we are not only targeting China, but the whole world. We plan to promote our products starting from the Asian region, then to the US and the European market. Currently, consumers from the world are able to place orders via the Internet. We will further build up sales channels and networks to pave the way to other countries soon.
TT: The government is privatizing the nation's state-run companies. Since privatization will put a considerable number of people out of work, is now a good time to privatize state-run firms?
Cheng: I think any time is good to privatize these state-owned firms. Frankly, I think state-owned companies should not even exist at all. The government imposes too many restrictions on this type of company that stymie our competitiveness. We are at only the government's beck and call, not the customers who can actually bring us money.
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