A Chinese and Chromatographic “Love”——Interview with Dr. Ji Zhenghua, President and CEO of GS-Tek

Ji Zhenghua, President and CEO of GS-Tek (General Separation Technologies). He graduated from Harbin Institute of Technology and Beijing Institute of Aeronautics in the early years. After studying abroad in the United States, he studied at the University of Pittsburgh and received a Ph.D. degree in fluid mechanics from the Mechanical Engineering Department. He joined Agilent (formerly Hewlett-Packard) in 1991 and has been engaged in research and development in the column and consumables department, chemical analysis department, and biological solution department, as well as the production management of the instrument manufacturing department. He has patents for a number of capillary gas columns; 2005 Abel Industries was founded to manufacture and sell Abel Bonded (AB) brand capillary gas columns; in 2009, GS-Tek was created to produce GsBP gas columns and to perform chromatographic-related product development and collaboration.

Dr. Ji Zhenghua specializes in mechanical engineering. He has been engaged in the work related to chemical analysis instruments for 20 years. What kind of opportunities has caused him not to “learn what he is applying”? After working in Agilent for 14 years, why did you start your career in the 50 year old? Why did you create 2 companies one after another? As a Chinese who ventures overseas in the instrument industry, what is his opinion on the status quo of China's instrument industry?

Recently, the instrument information network editor interviewed Dr. Jihenghua, President and CEO of GS-Tek, and GS-Tek company's partner Liu Zhongyu, the manager of China General Health Medical Co., Ltd., accompanied him.

Interview with Dr. Ji Zhenghua naturally cannot but mention his 14-year working experience at Agilent, so the author's dialogue with Dr. Ji Zhenghua began with Agilent.

The “outsider” is known in the column field.

“I was entering the Agilent company by accident. When Agilent had a column that had been developed for nearly a decade, it did not form a commodity. The manager in charge of the project believed that it was due to theoretical problems, so he hoped to recruit a mechanic to solve it. In this way, I joined the Agilent company which was also called HP at that time. At that time, few Chinese people were doing column chromatography in HP in the United States, said Dr. Ji Zhenghua.

"After half a year, the project manager left. At this time I joined the Agilent GC column and started my bond with the capillary column. Because it was not a chemistry, it was very hard to get started. With the help of my colleagues and the Chinese visiting scholars at HP, I finally launched a new pillar a year and a half later (ie 1993). The Americans think that a “outsider” can make pillars too, so he has more to me. Accreditation also gave me more projects.I worked in Agilent for 14 years, 9 of which have been engaged in the development of capillary gas columns, and developed 4 columns, such as HP-PLOT, HP-50+, HP-5ms, etc. , and has a number of patents in the field of capillary gas column, and I have a reputation in the capillary column."

“In 1999, Agilent acquired J&W, a manufacturer of GC columns and consumables, and the company’s headquarters decided to move the production and R&D of the column to California and close the base in Delaware. So I was faced with the choice after joining Agilent for 9 years. Whether I left Agilent or switched to the department, I finally decided to go to Agilent's Chemical Analysis Department where I improved the injector and detector of the HP-6890 GC; after that, I also took the Agilent HP-5973N GC-MS. The factory moved from California to work in Delaware; after the relocation of the factory, I went to the Agilent Life Sciences Department to do research and development on biochips and gene chips, and made some small products. During this time, I applied for a few products. Equipment and biological separation patents."

"In 2005, as Agilent lost money in life sciences, and the biochemical market began to shrink at the time, the company decided to dissolve the life sciences department in Delaware. After three months at home, I made a decision to myself - - Start a business."

"The Year of the Fate of God" began to venture through hardships

“In the year that I decided to start my business, I was 50 years old. For entrepreneurship, this age is a bit big, but at the time my confidence mainly came from two aspects: First, the 'wealth' and contacts acquired during Agilent’s work. Resources; Second, the column is a small investment, effective in the industry, and I have experience with the capillary column.”

“Different from other companies, Agilent uses frame-based management regardless of product size. That is, R&D personnel are responsible for developing a product. He needs to organize a team responsible for everything from project demonstration to project management, product development, and product production. Product marketing, and finally assessing whether this investment is worthwhile, etc. based on the financial situation.In Agilent, R&D personnel is a leader, managing everything from technology to production to the market.This was the value of HP at the time, although you Not a manager, but you are doing the same job, and this is a confident source for my 50-year-old dared to start a business. In addition, I have accumulated a lot of contacts at Hewlett-Packard and Agilent, which has helped my development of the international market in the future."

“In August 2005, I founded Abel Industries, a company that manufactures capillary gas columns and is the main brand for the 'AB' brand, with its main business in India. At the time of the rapid development of the Indian pharmaceutical industry, two years later, 'AB' became a brand in India. However, the long-term outlook was not long. In 2008, the global financial crisis was approaching. The impact on the instrument market began to appear in 2009, and my company's situation was also more difficult. At that time, the main task was to consolidate the Indian market and not shrink the market. In addition, due to other reasons I changed the name of the company to GS-Tek, and the global economy began to recover in 2010. As the company expanded its promotion in the Indian market, we chose to cooperate with Meikang in China and began to vigorously explore the Chinese market, especially the pharmaceutical industry market. -Tek also expands its market in other countries."

"Verified" small company operations spread all over the world

Talking about whether GS-Tek is a successful company, Dr. Ji Zhenghua said, “The two-year GS-Tek currently employs about 10 people, and has an annual revenue of 1 million US dollars. Its products are sold in 26 countries and regions in the world and there are 24 in the world. Agents, 95% of the company's business comes from exports.In terms of Chinese standards, GS-Tek is a small company that is 'real' and may not be successful, but according to US standards, GS-Tek has grown up. Develop and grow to a new stage."

"As a small company, we have the competitiveness that big companies do not have: (1) fast response; (2) flexible price; (3) complete range of products, which can provide more than 40,000 kinds of chromatographic related products. Of course, all the prerequisites are The quality of the product is good, then how can the user feel that your product quality is good? For the capillary gas column, the universal column, the manufacturers are doing well, you can not get good feedback from the user; but the production is difficult, the market demand With a small number of pillars and columns that cannot be supplied by a large manufacturer for a short period of time, you can get good feedback from users, and we have the advantage of this, for example, we have a column for solvent residue analysis in the Indian market. It is very popular; pillars of organic pollution analysis in water are popular in Taiwan; PLOT pillars have a good reputation in China's petrochemical industry."

“However, the development of GC column technology has stopped in recent years. There are two main reasons: (1) Traditional large companies, such as Agilent (Varian), Restek, Supelco, etc., have fewer people engaged in new product development; (2) ) Existing gas chromatography columns can solve 99% of practical problems. So is it right that GC column technology is perfect? ​​No, because there are so many new applications, gas chromatography columns may have formats in the future. Large changes, but this requires the gas chromatograph and column manufacturers to jointly promote."

“In the future, GS-Tek plans to expand its business in terms of instruments and methods. The instrument is mainly intended to be involved in low input, short R&D cycles, but useful products; the method is mainly centered around the separation of the core solutions. For the Chinese business, GS-Tek eventually It is hoped that it will account for 10-20% of the Chinese market share of GC columns. GS-Tek must be branded and may not have a large market share, but it must be a brand.”

"Look at" the Development Difficulties of Chinese Instrument Industry Small Companies

As a Chinese who ventures overseas in the instrument industry, Dr. Ji Zhenghua is also very concerned about Chinese instrument companies. Dr. Ji Zhenghua believes that "the current Chinese instrument companies have two major deficiencies:

First, eager to achieve success, utilitarian too heavy, which determines the development of the company will be slightly impetuous, although made a lot of products, but the product has the vitality? Although I have made several generations of products in Agilent, these products have been poured out by HP and Agilent's third and fourth generations. However, China’s current generation has not yet arrived, and there is still a long way to go before reaching the same level. Go, don't rush.

Second, Chinese small companies rarely have focused technology or competitive products. In particular, there are many opportunities in various markets in China. In this case, there are even fewer companies that can concentrate. ”

As for what kind of development model Chinese companies should choose, Dr. Ji Zhenghua said, “I think Chinese companies can learn from Agilent's development model. Agilent is not a real technology inventing company. It is more like a market company. Agilent can put a product. The application and market of the company is 'better than ever.' Agilent products are not the most complete and perfect, but users believe Agilent's instruments are reliable and reliable, with good technical specifications and good prices. That means Agilent technology is not the best, but it is integrated. The market for Agilent products is the best. Of course, this is not the only road, but it is a feasible road. Chinese companies can learn from it."

postscript:

In the nearly two-hour interview, Dr. Ji Zhenghua has communicated his experience to the author. For more than two decades, Dr. Ji Zhenghua has been "working hard" in the fields related to chromatographic columns and instruments. From scientists to R&D personnel of famous enterprises, to entrepreneurs, every step has been hard, but in the end Dr. Jizheng Zheng made his own efforts. Ushered in success. In the interview, Dr. Ji Zhenghua repeatedly mentioned honesty and cooperation. In his view, small companies need to develop, and sincerity and cooperation are indispensable. I think this is also worthy of learning by the majority of domestic instrument manufacturers.