Hu Zhiqiang thought the bad news about his former employer, Fu Ji Food and Catering Services Holdings, came earlier than expected.
The former vice-president of the caterer that helped provide food for the Beijing Olympic Games said he could not help rue the collapse of Fu Ji, which at its height was the largest domestic catering services provider in Shanghai.
He resigned from the company in January.
'It was too sudden,' Hu said. 'It wasn't a bad company.'
Perhaps not. Perhaps management intentions were not bad, but they certainly appeared reckless and with hindsight, it was clear that breakneck expansion, lax management and improper personnel arrangement caused the collapse of the company, he said.
Unable to pay convertible bond holders the HK$2.2 billion it owed them, the company went into provisional liquidation last month after desperately seeking to stave off collapse by firing more than 10,000 staff since September last year and seeing the exodus of most of its middle managers.