Baidu CEO reveals strategies to thrive during financial crisis

CHICAGO, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- "Passing cars on the curve" has been the proven strategy used by Baidu.com's Li Yanhong to not only survive but thrive since the global financial crisis started last September.

Li is the co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Baidu Inc., the largest Chinese search engine company, which is listed on NASDAQ with a closing price at 397.53 U.S. dollars per share and market value at 13.76 billion dollars Tuesday.

He delivered a speech to more than 300 American and Chinese business people during the U.S.-China Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum, held in Chicago on Monday.

Li told Xinhua in an exclusive interview that Baidu's business was affected by the global financial crisis as well, particularly its revenues the last quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009.

"We have over 200,000 small and medium businesses as our clients. Quite a large number of these companies died during last year's financial crisis. As a result, our business was affected," he said.

However, Li said: "In our Chinese language, 'crisis' means both 'danger' and 'opportunity.' It is the crisis that propelled us to think what we should do to deal with it. During this process of handling the crisis, we developed a 'passing cars on the curve' approach."

"The crisis is just like a curve. How to make a smooth turn and pass other cars when they are driving at full speed? To achieve this goal, you not only need to stay extremely focused, see the road conditions clearly, but also need to hold the wheels correctly. And then when you are ready, step heavily on the gas to speed up on the curve to pass other cars."

So how did Baidu complete this maneuver? Li says: "First of all you have to give up unrealistic dreams. Before the crisis, everybody felt that the world was so beautiful that you could make a lot of money easily. But the reality is not so. Every success needs huge effort and hard work.

"Secondly, if you want to do better than your competitors, you have to stay focused on just one thing. Only in this case can you have better opportunities to win against your competitors. In addition, you must learn to innovate and adjust to changes. When crisis comes, we must create a 'new norm' because old ways won't work anymore," he added.

Baidu, which was established in 2000, has developed into the largest search engine company in China, with nearly 80 percent market share.