In a recent issue Fortune China announced its Most Admired Chinese Companies of 2007, and this was the second time Haier, Lenovo and TCL had been awarded this accolade. In addition to this the internationally famous magazine Business Weekly recently included these three names in its Rising International Chinese Brands list. Business analysts consider Haier, Lenovo and TCL are really representative of the many leading enterprises that have cast themselves as image builders for China as they blaze a trail for the Chinese manufacturing industry.

It is generally known that the winners are selected in line with the results of questionnaires submitted by 25,000 senior managers representing 294 Chinese companies, each achieving more than RMB 5 billion annual turnover. The standards for evaluation cover nine areas such as status of products and services, creativity and performance of international management. The Rising International Chinese Brands list is produced jointly by Business Weekly and international consultants Interbrand from marks awarded by 569 sales experts, who take into account the companies' financial status and branding strategy. In the end 12 brand names, including TCL, found themselves listed as Rising International Chinese Brands, but to be realistic, it might take three to five years for these challengers to become fully competitive international brands.

Haier, Lenovo and TCL have received the as accolade of Most Admired Chinese Companies two years running and appeared on the Rising International Chinese Brands list, which would indicate that local and overseas public opinion holds a positive view of Chinese business. Director of Fortune China, Wang Yiding, considered the reason was that these enterprises had seized the challenges of Chinese industry and had started making breakthroughs by enhancing their creativity and branding, while enhancing product value. He said this would stimulate Chinese manufacturers to make the shift from the low quality and low price image.

For example Lenovo did this by increasing its overseas brand recognition by means of its sponsorship of the 2008 Olympic Games. TCL has taken the lead in internationalization by employing technical commercialization and core technologies, which enabled us to use our worldwide design centres to design Promethean products for our customers. These innovative designs have received several international awards such as the American Emmy, the German Red Dot Industry Design and the IF Design China awards, which have all elevated the company's image as a trail-blazer in the market. Recently TCL has been focusing on LCM for the development of top-end products. In addition we unveiled a striking strategy called 'Originality Inspires Life', which reflects our commitment to becoming the most creative Chinese brand over the next ten years. This practical and innovative spirit has attracted the attention of several managers of international enterprises, such as Liang Yaorong of Phillips.

Fortune China remarks that winning enterprises like Haier, Lenovo and TCL have something in common, which makes them the leading enterprises, and distinguishes them from other Chinese manufactures. This is actually that they all occupy a leading position on the Mainland and overseas with their high quality products and services. It is a matter of course that Chinese enterprises all encountered setbacks during the process of internationalization. But now, having overcome the most difficult hurdles, they can move forward and consolidate their successes.

Those in the know consider that a leading company acts as the calling card of a country during times of globalisation. So in this way it can be said that IBM has come to represent America and Samsung has come to represent Korea, showing how the image of a country is strongly influenced by its exported products and enterprise performance. It is without doubt true to say that the enterprises listed in the Most Admired Chinese Companies of 2007 not only demonstrate to domestic manufacturers how to increase their international profile, but also have a significant influence when it comes to boosting China's international image.

Appendix: A brief introduction to the Fortune Magazine Most Admired Companies List

The Most Admired Companies List was created by Fortune Magazine in 1983 with the purpose of recognising leading industrial pioneers. Due to its success it has become regarded internationally as a standard for evaluating a company's reputation and position. The list was released in China for the first time in 2006, so as to pioneer the Most Admired Companies and to acknowledge the achievement of domestic Chinese operations.

TCL: A growing Chinese force for globalization

TCL is an abbreviation of The Creative Life, which shows how life itself is inspired by originality.

TCL Group Co. was only founded in 1981, but now it is one of the largest Chinese consumer electronics groups managing a global business. Its growth has spawned three corporations with the names TCL Group (SZ.000100), TCL Multimedia Technology (HK.1070) and TCL Communication Technology (HK. 2618). Over the past twenty years, in line with the Chinese reforms and the opening-up of the economy, and by maintaining our key enterprise spirit, TCL has rapidly developed from small beginnings to become the outstanding company we see today. Starting in 1999, the company initiated its exploration of the international scene. It pushed its own brand in the emerging marketplace, purchased established brands in Europe and America and became an outstanding pioneer of Chinese enterprise worldwide.
In the course of our development, TCL has established four selling points, namely creativity, quality, sales and understanding the customer’s viewpoint.

TCL has launched a number of state-of-the-art products, for instance the first hands-free key-dial phone, the first 28” colour TV, the first diamond mobile phone and the first core-duo laptop. Our global annual turnover in 2006 reached an impressive RMB 46.85 billion with over 50,000 employees throughout Asia, America, Europe and Oceania. Sales operations had been set up in over 40 countries to sell TCL, Thomson, RCA colour TVs and TCL and Alcatel mobiles. In 2006 our worldwide sales amounted to 21 million colour TVs and 11 million mobiles. With overseas revenue outstripping domestic revenue, TCL has truly graduated to become a genuine multinational.

The TCL Group maintains research and development centres and dozens of R&D branches throughout China and in America, France and Singapore and almost 20 production facilities in China, Poland, Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam.

Up to the current time TCL has partnered with multimedia electronics, mobile communications and digital electronics businesses, while also catering for household electronics, core devices (models, chips, display apparatus, batteries), and the lighting and stereo industries.

The TCL brand valuation in 2006 amounted to a whopping RMB 36.2 billion (US$ 4.7 billion), making us the third highest in China.

Our plans over the next ten years envisage TCL continuing along this path with creativity, quality, sales techniques and a customer assessment system, so that TCL can justifiably be known as the most innovative Chinese brand.

Future aims include upgrading our international management and creating a niche with intellectual property rights, so that we can become a respected and innovative world player.