Billionaire profile: Wei Jianjun, Great Wall Motors
Chairman Wei Jianjun has pushed his mainland carmaker to new heights, partly through the military precision with which he runs his factories
Outside the headquarters of one of the mainland's largest carmakers stand two engraved pillars, one listing the company's failures, the other employees who gave in to corruption.
This dedication to learning from past mistakes and strict discipline is emblematic of Great Wall Motor, China's biggest manufacturer of SUVs and pickup trucks, and its chairman, Wei Jianjun.
Now the sixth-richest person in China according to Forbes, Wei was born in Beijing in 1964, but moved to Baoding, a city of 11 million people in Hebei province.
After Wei's father left the People's Liberation Army to start his own business making industrial equipment, Wei dropped out of university to join him.
In the late 1980s, Great Wall, then a collective or township enterprise specialising in vehicle modification and repair, was struggling. Business was bad, and in 1990, the company posted losses of more than 1 million yuan and was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.
Enter 26-year-old Wei Jianjun. That year he signed a deal to take over the company, agreeing to hand over a percentage of profits to the collective owners but keeping the majority for himself. Wei switched the firm's focus from car modification to production, and the company launched a cut-price saloon in 1993.