The whistle had blown, the score was 105-107, and Liaoning Panpan had lost the game, its fourth in a row that 2005 China Basketball Association season. Fans were disappointed and players walked off with heads bowed. One stout man followed them to the locker room and shouted at the coach "Why did you lose the game?"

The unexpected outburst embarrassed the coach, who resigned immediately. The man, sitting on a couch, himself announced the news to the team and appointed the oldest player to be interim coach.

"I should have the right to raise my opinion as a common fan, " he said.

Unfortunately for the coach, he is not a common fan. He is Han Zhaoshan, chairman of the basketball club, better known as the president of PanPan Security Industries Co Ltd, sponsor of the team and the largest security door manufacturer in Asia.

Several days later, the two men explained that they both wanted what's best for the team. They were pictured shaking hands and smiling at each other again.

Basketball has always been Han's hobby not only because he met his wife for the first time at the basketball arena. Although he likes to make fun of his own short stature by comparing himself to Napoleon, when he played he was noted as a good guard who would closely watch the best players on the opposing team.

He became leader of a township factory basketball team when he was promoted to vice president of the plant. In 1999, already the boss of China's largest security door manufacturer, with nearly 2 billion yuan in annual revenues, he took over as chairman of the provincial basketball club. 

The sport costs him millions of yuan each year, but it is more than an expensive hobby or an opportunity to smile happily beside Yao Ming. It is to promote his brand, PanPan, which was also the panda mascot for the 1990 Asian games.

Han, now 58 years old, says he could not have foreseen this 20 years ago when he was called the "beggar president".

In 1982, shortly after the "responsibility system" came to the country's agricultural sector, Han left the Shuiyuan Agriculture Machinery Factory and set up his own workshop. He took with him 12 workers, 14 rundown houses and a shared debt of 80,000 yuan.

He survived by searching the streets of Shenyang, the capital city of Northeast China's Liaoning Province, looking for work that would keep his men busy, at first trying to find broken chairs to weld. He was so cash strapped that he had to borrow money to buy oxygen for his welding equipment.

After two years the company doubled yearly profits by making filing cabinets. In 1989, he saw an opportunity making security doors to meet rising demand from apartments and growing security concerns in cities. He talked to workers and won their support. With enough capital for eight months pay for 500 workers, some 2 million yuan, he started the company's first product line of security doors.

Han says he knew the importance of good marketing after the first door came out. He first organized ballroom dance lessons for sales staff to help them develop an air of sophistication. He also established a distributor of PanPan doors 100 meters away from the factory of his main competitor.

When a buyer came out of his competitor's factory, the distributor got on the bus and introduced PanPan's doors. At eight o'clock the next morning, the buyer was surprised to find Han knocking the door after a night of driving. The new customer ordered 2,000 doors.

Later Han advertised in more traditional ways. Each year the company spends about 3 percent of its profit on advertising. He also became well-known himself, with a local writer calling him the "king of doors".

With only a high school education, Han understands the role of advertising by using common sense it is similar to the way you find your daughter a husband, he says, "Mister Right will never be found if you always stay at home."

"I don't understand theories," he says, "but I know you have to let people understand your product if you want them to buy it. "

He took PanPan to mainstream media and became a big spender on China Central Television.

"When Panpan arrives, you feel safe and happy" became a household slogan, as the advertisement with a cheerful panda was seen on the biggest national television station every evening.

In early the 1990s, cold-rolled steel was the main material for security door manufacturing in China. Realizing that lacquer on a steel door peels away easily, Han imported galvanized zinc to make his doors. He told designers that "no one watches black and white TV when there is a color one" and "an iron barrel finds no users when there are containers made of stainless steel."

He went to each office in the company and put up posters comparing of the two materials and sent them to distributors throughout China.

The new product was a hit. His decision also proved to be a turning point although electro-galvanized zinc later became a trend in the industry and many manufacturers now use it, he had already established his reputation among consumers as the first innovator. PanPan security doors became the leader in the market.

The man himself also contributes his success by continuing to learn. To grasp major government policies, he watches TV news every day, reads newspapers regularly and is a frequent attendant at various meetings.

He also explains the importance of innovation. "Even if you make medicine for mice, you will have to change the formula once in a while," he says.

Now his company also makes insulated boards and garage doors, as environmental protection has become increasingly important to the country and the purchase of private cars has skyrocketed.

PanPan expanded rapidly and now has 10 factories in China. But its headquarters remain in Shuiyuan, the town where Han was born and grew up. Eighty percent of workers are local villagers. His company contributes 80 percent of all local tax revenues. But he says he leads a simple life, taking a taxi home after working late.

He spends much of his time working, but is still seen as a frequent guest at the weddings of basketball players and workers in the village. Once a staff member was surprised that the honorable guest was dancing after drinking at the wedding ceremony of his first foreign employee. "He looked like the Panpan" the panda, the employee recalls.

The most recent wedding he attended was his son's, who is 33 years old and works at the company as vice president.

"He is still under training," Han says, adding that he is looking for the same diligence and devotion to work from him.

(China Daily)