Poly chief eyes steady pace to blue-chip status

In Aesop's fable about the race between the tortoise and the hare, the slow and steady one won the race.

Xue Ming, the newly appointed chairman of Hong Kong-listed developer Poly (Hong Kong) Investments, may not be as slow as Aesop's tortoise. But like the tortoise, he believes that plodding on patiently and steadfastly will provide victory in the end. He estimates it will take eight years to turn his company into a blue chip.

The consistency, or persistency of character, is reflected in the 48-year-old chairman's demanding work routine. 'I wake up at 6 o'clock, go to the office at 7.30am and go to bed at 11pm. This has been my routine over the previous 20 years, no matter where I am,' said Xue, who replaced He Ping, the son-in-law of the late Deng Xiaoping, as the firm's chairman at the end of April. That came a year after Xue was appointed managing director of the company.

Prior to moving to Hong Kong, Xue was based in China Poly's Shanghai unit. In his days in Shanghai, Xue believed the property company's future depended on an international outlook. He invited university graduates from the US, Singapore and Canada to work in the company to exchange views and cultures. At the time, Xue was criticised for the policy but stubbornly refused to give it up.

'A few years later, we realised that it had expanded the horizons of our staff,' he recalled.

Faced with property market tightening measures - which analysts describe as the toughest yet in the mainland's history - Xue said the company would take advantage of the slowdown to expand its market share.