At Shanghai Jiao Tong University Summit Forum, SEPPES Doors' Yang Yuanjia Discusses Business Breakthroughs and Symbiotic Growth

On December 13, 2025, the Annual Summit of the New Confucian Business Research Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University was held in Suzhou. With the theme "Carrying Forward Confucian Business Values and Creating Excellence for a New Era," the summit brought together more than 160 participants, including university professors, economists, leaders of international organizations, members of Shanghai Jiao Tong University executive programs, executives of listed companies, and entrepreneurs. Together, they explored how businesses can break through constraints and build collaborative growth amid major change. Mr. Yang Yuanjia, Chairman of SEPPES Doors and Suzhou SEPPES Holding Group, was invited to attend. As a panelist in the roundtable discussion "Breakthrough and Symbiosis: Empowering High-Quality Enterprise Development with New Confucian Business Wisdom," he shared how SEPPES Doors integrates its operating practices with the spirit of New Confucian business leadership, drawing strong interest and resonance from the audience.

SEPPES Doors Chairman Yang Yuanjia speaking at the forum

As the leader of a prominent industrial door company, Chairman Yang has spent 14 years in the industry and has guided SEPPES Doors from deep domestic market cultivation to a global footprint. Today, SEPPES products are sold in 74 countries and regions, serving more than 6,600 corporate customers worldwide. One in every seven Fortune Global 500 companies has chosen SEPPES. With this strength, SEPPES has ranked among the top 10 industrial door brands and has successfully evolved from a leading domestic brand into a leading global brand. During the summit, Chairman Yang offered two practical insights on manufacturing pain points and the core values of New Confucian business leadership.

Guests at the forum

In the discussion "How Traditional Manufacturers Can Differentiate Themselves Amid Homogeneous Competition," the moderator raised a question shared across the industry: in a highly competitive traditional industrial door market where products are increasingly similar, how can companies break through growth bottlenecks? Drawing on SEPPES Doors' own development, Chairman Yang proposed a "three capabilities" framework. He first emphasized brand strength as the core competence that enables a company to endure business cycles. "Brand building is an unavoidable development issue for all companies in the future; only companies with strong brands have a future." Strong brand power not only builds customer trust quickly, but also creates a brand premium, helping companies move from low-level price competition to higher-level brand competition. "The higher you go toward the top of the pyramid, the less homogeneous competition there is, and the stronger a brand's initiative becomes."

The summit venue

Second is operational capability. As an important extension of brand strength, Chairman Yang noted that operational capability directly determines how efficiently brand value is delivered. "Companies with strong operations plan brand communication, brand positioning, brand culture, brand marketing, brand traffic, and brand reputation systematically, allowing the brand to be seen and recognized by more people. This is an essential foundation for brand development." In practice, product strength is where differentiation ultimately lands. SEPPES Doors has consistently prioritized R&D and product innovation, increasing investment, building reserves of new technologies and products each year, and converting an average of five to seven technologies into patents annually. These technical barriers form an innovation moat. At the same time, the company has shifted from "product thinking" to "user thinking," offering customized designs for different application scenarios and adding intelligent features such as facial recognition and remote control so products fit customer needs more closely. Through stronger brand storytelling, SEPPES connects its core values of safety, environmental responsibility, and durability with the Confucian business principle of honoring commitments, making the brand more distinctive. It has also expanded integrated online and offline channels and improved the customer service experience, moving decisively beyond simple price wars.

Song Shudong, Dean of the New Confucian Business Research Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and PhD in Management, delivering a keynote presentation

In the session "Building a Collaborative Ecosystem Among Companies, Customers, Employees, and Society Through the New Confucian Business Mindset of Mutual Success," Chairman Yang responded to the question of how companies can balance growth with the needs of stakeholders through a "symbiotic win-win" approach. He introduced a "four-in-one" collaborative development model, vividly illustrating the people-centered, mutually beneficial essence of New Confucian business thinking. He said sustainable business development depends on the support of employees, customers, and society, and only multi-party success can give companies lasting momentum in a changing market.

Li Hongyan, Vice President of the Association for the Promotion of Europe-China Relations, Director of the China-Nepal Economic Coordination Center Office, and Secretary-General of the World Earth Health Day Organizing Committee, delivering remarks

For employees, SEPPES Doors has established a comprehensive talent development system and incentive-based compensation plan, putting a people-centered management philosophy into practice and helping employees achieve both material and personal growth as the company develops. "In recent years, many outstanding employees have worked in step with the company and achieved goals such as buying cars and homes and building stable, fulfilling lives," Chairman Yang said plainly and powerfully, reflecting the company's sense of responsibility toward its people. For customers, SEPPES Doors upholds the principle of "products and services that exceed expectations." Its innovative lifetime service commitment, "one door, one code; lifetime service; every industrial door has its own ID," gives customers high-quality support throughout the product life cycle. SEPPES also pioneered a service model summarized as "vehicle owners buy insurance for their cars; SEPPES buys insurance for its doors," providing RMB 15 million in product insurance coverage for each industrial door. This added layer of protection has been widely recognized and praised by customers in China and abroad.

The summit venue

As a manufacturing company, SEPPES Doors remains committed to green production and actively fulfills its social responsibilities. By purchasing green electricity and optimizing automated, intelligent production lines, the company has improved both energy efficiency and production performance, earning the title of Suzhou Municipal Green Factory. It also participates in charitable donations and public welfare initiatives, supports community development, and contributes positive corporate energy. Recently, SEPPES received a donation certificate from the Charity Federation of Wuzhong District, Suzhou, recognizing its commitment to social responsibility and embodying the spirit of New Confucian business leadership. "When employees are happy, the company becomes happy; when the company is happy, society becomes happy; and when society is happy, the nation's happiness index rises," Chairman Yang said. His words captured the symbiotic relationship between a company and its stakeholders, while highlighting the public-minded responsibility of Confucian business leaders in the new era.

The Annual Summit of the New Confucian Business Research Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University created a high-level platform for thought exchange and experience sharing among leaders from many fields. Chairman Yang's remarks not only showcased SEPPES Doors' practical wisdom in differentiation and collaborative growth, but also communicated the core values of New Confucian business leadership in the new era: honoring commitments, putting people first, and pursuing mutual success. Looking ahead, SEPPES Doors will continue to carry forward the New Confucian business spirit, strengthen its brand, operational, and product capabilities, deepen its "four-in-one" collaborative ecosystem, and move steadily along the path of high-quality development while contributing more to industry progress and society.