Richard Liu is the founder and CEO of JD.com. Born and bred in a remote village in Jiangsu, China, he learned the art of making the best out of what he had from his maternal grandmother.
He had high ambitions despite growing in a poor background. Richard had a dream to travel around the world to experience state-of-the-art technology in Beijing, New York, and Paris. Due to his determination and excellent performance, he secured a position at Renmin University where he pursued sociology and developed an interest in computer programming. This was a highly lucrative job since there were only a few computer programmers available.
Before becoming the founder of one of the world’s largest e-commerce companies in the world, Liu Qiangdong has had his experience with failure. For example, he used his proceeds from the computer programming job to start a restaurant business that failed in less than a year for his lack of managerial experience and naivete. He later enrolled for an EMBA, which was pivotal in his next entrepreneurship undertaking; Jingdong, a magneto-optical product’s distribution storefront. His commitment to providing reliable and quality products led the company to grow into a full-size store in just five years.
After launching an online version of the store, he decided to make JD a sole e-commerce company. He also spotted a marketing niche in Chinese logistics where he built a national logistics system that helped minimize damages during the delivery of appliances and other goods.
Richard Liu has received several accolades, including the 2011 China Economic person of the year, 2011 Chinese Business leader, and 2012 Chinese businessman. He also recently ranked number 48 in Fortune’s list of the greatest leaders globally. Despite running a successful global corporation, he spends one day every year as a delivery man for his company.
Learn more about Richard Liu: https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/profiles/qiangdong-liu/