2014.05.17 CoStone Capital Views:
On May 15, 2014, the first CoStone Master Forum was held in Shenzhen. With the theme of "Insights on Huawei", the forum invited Prof.Peng Jianfeng, Prof. Bao Zheng and Prof. Shi Wei at Renmin University of China and Mr. Zhang Jianguo to give a two-day lecture on Huawei's enterprise management. Over 100 guests from China's business and academic cycles were present.
On May 15, 2014, the first CoStone Master Forum was held in Shenzhen. With the theme of "Insights on Huawei", the forum invited Prof.Peng Jianfeng, Prof. Bao Zheng and Prof. Shi Wei at Renmin University of China and Mr. Zhang Jianguo to give a two-day lecture on Huawei's enterprise management. Over 100 guests from China's business and academic cycles were present.
Prof. Peng Jianfeng on the Development of Huawei
The forum was highly praised. Ms. Liu Yinglei from Sunriver said, "I've learned much about Huawei's management system in terms of the theory and the practice. Huawei's advanced management mechanism has inspired me a lot, despite that Sunriver and Huawei differ in the industry and the development stage." Ms. Wang Dali from Lucion appreciated that "Prof. Peng offered a systematic, comprehensive and in-depth analysis of Huawei, and the two former executives conveyed a more authentic Huawei with their personal experience". The guests expressed that they "look forward to the next forum".
Speaker
Prof. Peng Jianfeng
He is the Professor and PhD Supervisor at Renmin University of China, Chairman of China Stone Management Consulting Group, Deputy Director of China Enterprise Confederation Management Consulting Committee, Vice President of Beijing Enterprise Directors Association, and a famous management consulting expert in China. He used to be the Vice President of the School of Labor and Human Resources of RUC. He has been engaged in the consulting and research work on HR management and corporate culture for a long time. He also provides consulting services for enterprises. He has been hired as senior management consultant and team leader by Huawei and TCL successively. The team led by him has provided consulting services for dozens of famous enterprises, with the results of Huawei Basic Law, OCT Charter, TCL: Defeat Scale with Speed, Samsung (China) Culture and Dongfeng Nissan Programme of Action.
Prof. Bao Zheng
He received a PhD degree in Economics from Renmin University of China, and now is the Professor and PhD Supervisor at Renmin Business School. He is a famous expert of enterprise management consulting in China, having made many famous cases, such as Huawei Basic Law and TCL: Defeat Scale with Speed. He has served as senior management consultant of Huawei (1995), TCL (1998), XJ Group (1999), Baisha Group (2002) and Hongta Group (2004).
Prof. Shi Wei
He is a researcher and the Chief Consultant of the Finance and Securities Institute of RUC. He has been engaged in enterprise management consulting since 1995, specializing in marketing and enterprise strategy. He has served TCL, Midea Group, Giti Tire, Motorola, Liuhe Group, Robust Group, CIMC, Telling Telecom and SPD Bank. He also provides management training for many enterprises in China, which have been well received.
Mr. Zhang Jianguo
Former President of ChinaHR.com; HR expert. He joined Huawei in 1990. Since 1992, he had served as the Director of Fujian Office, Beijing Office and Shanghai Office of Huawei successively. In 1995, he served as the Vice President of Marketing Department. In 1996, he was promoted to the Vice President of Huawei and the HR Director. In 2000, he left Huawei to study human resource management at the University of Massachusetts. After 2001, he started to be engaged in professional HR management consulting. He served as the Chairman of EastTimes Consulting and then the General Manager of China Stone Human Resources Consulting. In July 2004, he joined ChinaHR.com as the President.
Intro to CoStone Master Forum
Only a clash of thoughts can spark inspiration. CoStone Capital respects those who think independently and offer insights into society, economy, culture, history, humanities and philosophy that can be illuminating for our lives and careers, rather than those who only seek profits. Therefore, we try to build the CoStone Master Forum, a platform for entrepreneurs and senior executives to talk with masters. This Forum covers various topics from macro economy, social politics, history, humanities, to business strategy, business management, capital operation and human resources.
Rewritten by Jiang Xiaomei, Edited by Li Yunzhen, Du Zhixin
Over the past year, the bull market returned, with technology leading the way.
As I said back in October 2024, the rally that began on September 24 was not merely a rebound, but a reversal. Since then, China's capital markets have undergone a broad revaluation, moving from undervaluation toward fair value.
The Shanghai Composite Index reached its highest level in a decade. The "Yi-Zhong-Tian" trio—Eoptolink, Zhongji Innolight and TFC Communication, three prominent Chinese optical communications stocks—saw their share prices multiply severalfold in a single year. Cambricon's market capitalization briefly exceeded RMB 600 billion. Elsewhere in the technology sector, triple-digit price-to-earnings ratios and valuations exceeding RMB 10 billion became commonplace.
Some investors were greedy; others, fearful. Still others asked me: Are technology stocks in a valuation bubble?
My answer is that what we are witnessing is the hunger and anxiety of an era, reflected in the capital markets. Once you understand this, the current fervor for technology investing is no longer difficult to explain.
Investment has nothing to do with macroeconomics, but everything to do with geopolitics.
China-US relations will shape the investment landscape for decades to come. Geopolitics has played a major role in shaping the hunger and anxiety of our times, fundamentally reshaping the way we invest.
What, then, lies at the heart of China's hunger and anxiety?
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is already underway, yet China has not fully overcome the technological shortcomings left by the Third. There is no time to lose.
This is why some people wonder: Why do Chinese computing chip companies command such high valuations when their technologies still lag so far behind NVIDIA's? Why does NVIDIA trade at just 50 times earnings, while a company hailed as "China's answer to NVIDIA" commands a multiple of 300?
To me, this gets the logic exactly backward.
It is precisely because these companies cannot catch up with NVIDIA in the near term that they command a higher strategic premium. The wider the technological gap, the greater the strategic value.
The further something lies beyond our reach, the stronger our hunger. The harder it is to catch up, the deeper our anxiety. If China were to achieve a complete breakthrough in computing chips one day, valuations might actually come down.
Where can one find China's most spectacular natural landscapes?
Much of the answer, I believe, lies in and around the Hengduan Mountains: the Meili Snow Mountains, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, Mount Gongga, Mount Siguniang, Jiuzhaigou, and many others. Vast differences in elevation and deep fault lines have given rise to landscapes of extraordinary grandeur.
Hard-tech investing follows a similar logic.
Technological gaps, discontinuities in capabilities, and missing links in industrial systems: a leap in difficulty brings a leap in valuation, and a successful breakthrough can, in turn, bring a leap in returns.
This logic extends well beyond computing chips. It is equally evident in memory semiconductors, commercial spaceflight, and other sectors where China still faces substantial technological gaps with other countries.
It was precisely this conviction that led CoStone Capital, starting in 2016, to decisively focus its investments on three areas: hard tech, emerging industries, and life sciences and healthcare. In this context, "hard tech" refers specifically to important industries in which China faces a technological gap with the United States.
Thanks to this forward-looking strategy, CoStone Capital established an early presence across the full value chains of key sectors, including semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and robotics.
Looking ahead, the frontiers of technological progress and industrial upgrading are boundless. Nor can the gaps in hard technology be closed overnight. The twin windows of opportunity presented by technological innovation and the development of homegrown alternatives to foreign technologies have only just begun to open.
The road ahead is long, but the future holds immense promise.
As an investment firm, CoStone Capital will continue to invest where the hunger and anxiety of each era run deepest, move forward with the tensions that shape our times, and extend our reach toward the most challenging—and most important—frontiers.
Spring 2026