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On August 31, Ma Xuezhen, founding partner of Boyu Capital, an independent non-executive director of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, former senior vice president and chief financial officer of Lenovo Group, died of illness at the age of 66.

Ma Xuezheng’s achievements in his life are legendary. Before entering the business world, she was the youngest director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, served as a translator for Deng Xiaoping’s national leaders. After joining Lenovo Group in 1990,Ma Xuezheng and Liu Chuanzhi and Yang Yuanqing are also called I want to “three carriages.” She led Lenovo’s acquisition and integration of IBM’s personal computer business, making Lenovo the third-largest PC vendor in the world. After retiring from Lenovo management in 2007, Ma Xuezheng became the managing director and partner of TPG (one of the world’s largest private equity investment institutions) in China.
  Around 2011, she was involved in the creation of Boyu Capital, one of China’s largest private equity investment companies. Ma Xuezheng has successively invested in a number of star companies and projects such as Alibaba, Tongcheng Tourism, Netease Cloud Music, Cornerstone Pharmaceuticals, COFCO Meat, Water Drop Mutual Help, etc.Become a “woman” in the investment world .

For many years, Ma Xuezheng has been named “one of the most powerful women in the world” by “Forbes” and other media, “one of the most influential business women in the world” and “Asian business women” One person, etc. “Fortune” magazine once described: Liu Chuanzhi and Yang Yuanqing trust Ma Xuezheng and rely on her in many things, The reason why Lenovo can become one of the best companies in China, Ma Xuezheng is indispensable . So much as Liu Chuanzhi joked:I was working for Ma Xuezheng.

Lenovo Group successfully listed in Hong Kong in 1994

In 1988, Lenovo opened in Hong Kong. Ma Xuezheng accompanied Zhou Guangzhao, the president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, to visit Hong Kong for the first time. This trip made her very shocked. At that time, Lenovo was in a small building in a very dilapidated industrial area. More than a dozen employees were shirtless and packed in big pants and huddled in it. The ambitious Liu Chuanzhi talked about it and gave everyone a vision to describe Lenovo’s vision of going to the world, so that Ma Xue’s enthusiasm was on the sidelines. According to Ma Xuezheng recall:I was completely attracted by Liu’s personal charm. Although Lenovo’s environment was very difficult at that time, Liu always had great ambitions, like strategizing and winning the generals thousands of miles away. Tell us about Lenovo’s future internationalization. dream.

After going back, Ma Xuezheng decided to give up the bright career and took the initiative to propose the idea of ​​joining Lenovo to the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Liu Chuanzhi, which brought great pressure to the leaders of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Liu Chuanzhi. Ma Xuezheng was already the director of the two departments of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and he was about to be promoted to the deputy director. She is responsible for the cooperation project of the International Cooperation Bureau of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. She once translated to Deng Xiaoping’s national leaders. The big names such as Nobel Prize winners, ambassadors and science and technology ministers are all dealing with Ma Xuezheng. Object. Ma Xuezheng said succinctly:I feel that I am not burdened with this person, I believe that I have to do it, and I firmly believe that I can do better than others. I graduated from junior high school and I was arranged to go to the Northeast. Because the family is under review, the queue is actually a relief. You don’t have to be angry with others in the city, you take it actively and cheerfully.It is.

In order to get the approval of the leadership of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ma Xuezheng had a hard time in the softening of the dean for half a year. At the same time, Lenovo also held a special meeting for the president. Liu Chuanzhi always couldn’t understand why Ma Xuezheng, who had a bright and beautiful resume, insisted on joining this small company. Fortunately, after the high-level discussion in Lenovo, the final vote was passed. Yang Yuanqing recalled: I and Ma Xuezheng entered the association with their front and rear feet. She was very brave. When she was in the system, she chose to give up her accumulated accumulation, walked out of the comfort zone and joined us. This small company was not known at the time. I understand her. At that time, Lenovo was small, but it was a high-spirited, huge space. It was a battlefield that could be used to sweat. Liu always knows how to use people and has a high goal, which attracts her. Sure enough, Ma Xuezheng’s talents were fully displayed, and she quickly assisted Liu to establish an international bridgehead in Hong Kong, which made a great contribution to Lenovo’s listing.

In 1990, Ma Xuezheng officially joined Lenovo Group and started from Liu Chuanzhi’s assistant. Later, because she was sent to work in Hong Kong, she almost did all the hard work. Ma Xuezheng worked as a frontline worker in the factory and sold printers on the street. She bluntly: At the time of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, I was mainly involved in the academic and government circles. At that time, I was a pure intellectual mindset. After entering Lenovo, the contact object became a business object, and the dry ones were all small things. This change was very painful. I have never understood business, don’t understand finances, don’t understand the market, learn step by step, and overcome the mentality of the former “self-righteous” intellectuals. However, there is Liu always there, I have a feeling of doing things under the red umbrella.

Ma Xuezheng really began to change his mindset in 1992, when she accompanied Liu Chuanzhi on a business trip. On the crowded train, Liu Chuanzhi said to her: Xue Zheng, you have to know that the company is doing things with the results to assess people, not the assessment process. Don’t complain about the results and the process at any time. In addition, the biggest difference between a company and an organization is that the company does the relationship for doing things, not for doing things. What we do is our business. If you think about it, you will not feel wronged. This passage to the horseThe influence of the snow sign is very large, directly reversing her views on many issues. After being inspired, Ma Xuezheng began to “power” Lenovo.

In the same year, Liu Chuanzhi appointed Ma Xuezheng as the deputy general manager of the group, responsible for the overall daily operation of Lenovo. Liu Chuanzhi told her seriously:Snow sign, I really hope that you can spend more time on how to bring a team to fight. In the future, the company will have more work to deal with, hope You can take on bigger tasks.

Although Ma Xuezheng is not a graduate of the class, after the transition period, Ma Xuezheng, who has a profound humanistic skills, began to show her unique value. Opened the capital channel for Lenovo quickly, and thus launched a scene in which Lenovo was in the capital market.

In 1994, Ma Xuezheng completed the listing of Lenovo in Hong Kong. According to Ma Xuezheng: At that time, there were probably two or three red-chip listings in Hong Kong. It is very difficult for Lenovo to list in Hong Kong. I remember that on a cold winter night, in order to report to a director in charge of related work, Liu Chuanzhi took me and another colleague in the cold wind for nearly three hours, day Cold, but Liu Chuanzhi has been happy, but once we are afraid that we are hungry, let us go to eat some dumplings.

In 1997, Ma Xuezheng hosted the merger of Hong Kong Lenovo and Beijing Lenovo, bringing a brand new association to the international capital market. Ma Xuezheng was also appointed as Executive Director and Senior Vice President of Lenovo Group, and was highly appreciated by Liu Chuanzhi. At that time, Lenovo had financial difficulties. Ma Xuezheng almost went to and from various banks to calculate interest rates and fight for loans, and finally helped Lenovo to survive the crisis. In just two years, Lenovo’s capital has been revitalized and its share price has increased tenfold. At the same time, Liu Chuanzhi hopes to promote the shareholding plan for all employees. Ma Xuezheng has had disputes with Liu Chuanzhi. She tends to hold shares at the manager level. He feels that everyone is the master and there will be problems in communication. Liu Chuanzhi insisted on advocating full shareholding, so Ma Xuezheng could only explore the full implementation.

In 2000, Ma Xuezheng officially became the CFO of Lenovo Group. In an interview with the media, Ma Xuezheng said:I am responsible for Lenovo’s capital operations, including Hong Kong listing, Digital China spin-off, and joint venture with AOL. I participated in the establishment of Lenovo’s international financial standards, focusing on the calculation of investment and return on assets, and introducing accounting auditing standards in the United States. I think I have a better grasp of my role as a professional manager and entrepreneur. I was involved in turning Lenovo into a very transparent company. I didn’t work as a professional manager, and I didn’t take the business as an entrepreneur. I think the advantage of being a woman is that it is easier to put the company’s determined strategy into practice. I am the kind of person who can fight anywhere.

Between 2000 and 2003, Ma Xuezheng helped Lenovo to invest in some projects while helping Lenovo launch an acquisition offensive. Take Lenovo Investment Sohu as an example. Before Sohu went public, Ma Xuezheng participated in its last round of financing. The price of the IPO before the IPO was $12. As a result, with the bursting of the Internet bubble, Sohu’s share price once fell below $1. At that time, Zhang Chaoyang tried to help the original investors to withdraw, but Ma Xuezheng directly refused. She said to Zhang Chaoyang:I am waiting for you to turn over! In the end, Ma Xuezheng’s insistence paid off, and Lenovo’s share price after Sohu’s share price rose to over $40 per share. Afterwards, Ma Xuezheng ridiculed himself: At that time, he supported Zhang Chaoyang and had to hide from Liu Chuanzhi.

Ma Xuezheng led the acquisition and integration of Lenovo’s IBM PC business

In 2003, Lenovo’s market in China was saturated enough, and it was announced that it would use the new logo “Lenovo” to prepare for entering the overseas market. At that time, Ma Xuezheng set up a secret group within Lenovo.Specializing in overseas markets.

In the same year, Ma Xuezheng led the group to Switzerland, to promote Lenovo as the top sponsor of the International Olympic Committee, replacing IBM’s position. After that, IBM once again sent a cooperation invitation to Lenovo. In the summer of 2003, after Ma Xuezheng came back from IBM, he came up with the idea of ​​acquiring IBM’s global PC business. Therefore, Ma Xuezheng and Yang Yuanqing submitted their acquisition opinions to Lenovo’s board of directors after deliberation, but they were quickly rejected because the IBM PC business was losing money. Liu Chuanzhi also specifically found Ma Xuezheng to talk to this:Snow Zheng, I am not exactly in line with your interests in deciding whether to buy IBM PC business. If you do it, it’s just the responsibility of the management;But I’m going to be a human head. Landing.”

In order to be able to convince Liu Chuanzhi and Lenovo’s board of directors, Ma Xuezheng helped Yang Yuanqing find three investment consulting companies – McKinsey, Goldman Sachs and GA (American Transatlantic Investment Group) – to arrange for them to go to the directors of Legend Holdings one by one. We analyze the pros and cons of mergers and acquisitions. McKinsey gave two choices directly: First, buy IBM PC business, become the world’s third; Second, sell yourself to HP (HP). After Liu Chuanzhi finished listening, his face was dark. After careful analysis, he changed his attitude and supported the acquisition. Afterwards, Liu Chuanzhi said:This strategy is very logical. This thing is also a good thing. It really has a big problem and will not let the company collapse.

In March 2004, Lenovo made a decision to acquire the IBM PC business. At the same time, Lenovo quickly abandoned the diversified projects and decided to take the international road. At that time, companies such as TPG (one of the world’s largest private equity investment institutions) participated in the bidding, raising IBM’s offer, and the negotiation process was extremely difficult. But Ma Xuezheng led the team to solve all the problems encountered in the M&A process. It took only 13 months to complete the seemingly impossible “snake swallow” transaction. Lenovo has become the world’s number one since thenThree major PC manufacturers and among the top 500 in the world. This transaction is the beginning of Lenovo’s comprehensive internationalization and is one of the first explorations of huge overseas mergers and acquisitions by Chinese private enterprises.

In this regard, Yang Yuanqing recalled: Ma Xuezheng is tough and soft. I trust her, the more impossible the task is, the more complicated and changeable the situation, the more the Ma Xuezheng can break the deadlock with his unique wisdom, empathy and super communication skills. For the development of Lenovo to help. IBM executives are even more blunt: Ma Xuezheng’s intelligence, dedication, efficiency, generosity, elegance, vision and coordination have surprised many IBM colleagues.

After the acquisition of IBM PC business, Ma Xuezheng successfully completed the difficult task of its integration with Lenovo. Ma Xuezheng joked: Since IBM employees have listened to a boss who sells cookies (Luis Gerstner), why can’t you listen to me? In fact, in the process of acquisition and integration, Ma Xuezheng paid a price that is unimaginable to ordinary people. It is basically a global flight, an endless meeting, and eczema caused by nervousness. Accompanied by Ma Xuezheng for two years.

With his outstanding performance, Ma Xuezheng has made a name for himself in the business world. He has been named by Fortune Magazine for three consecutive years“One of the most powerful business women in the world”< /strong>. “Fortune” wrote:The reason why Lenovo can become one of the most well-known enterprises in China, Ma Xuezheng contributed. In this regard, Ma Xuezheng said indifferently, “I don’t have any power, but because I am standing behind Lenovo, standing increasingly open and Powerful China.Without Lenovo, there is no me, not that I am particularly strong, but that Lenovo is particularly strong. I am fortunate because I am sitting in this position.” Quick and quick, simple, As well as the unique wisdom and elegance, it is Ma Xuezheng’s impressive impression.