Liu Tianwen, CEO and chairman of iSoftStone and a renowned figure in China's IT industry, says Zhongguancun Haidian Science Park has been a "strategic partner" crucial to his company's success.

Eight years ago, Liu took his dream to Zhongguancun Haidian Science Park and founded iSoftStone, a pioneer in China's IT and business process outsourcing.

"The park nurtured the greatest emerging IT enterprises in China and fostered some of the best-known, like sina.com and Lenovo," he said. "The synergistic effect of the park is attracting more and more enterprises to join with us. And this, in turn, will bring us more opportunities."

Liu's startup received 500,000 yuan in support from the administrative committee of the Zhongguancun Haidian Park.

With an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, he has the background to recognize the quality services Haidian park provided for freshly graduated students with entrepreneurial dreams.

"The 'soft' environment of the zone is pretty good," he said. "Officials at the park try to channel funds for us and provide the most favorable policies."

A group of top graduates from prestigious universities in Haidian such as Tsinghua and Peking University also encouraged Liu to start up in the science zone.

Liu said iSoftStone is now planning to build new buildings for its headquarters in the park. Even through a number of new hi-tech, economic development areas in Beijing are offering inducements and preferential policies, Liu said he will not leave Haidian.

From small operation with only 60 sq m to an industry giant with a 20,000 sq m office today, iSoftStone's professionals believe they are growing with the park.

"The area has strong vitality," said Liu. "It is has also become a recognized international brand which will no doubt help us in further development."

Meng Hui, senior director of strategic development at iSoftStone, told China Daily that "staff members of the administrative committee have strong awareness of service, providing their helping hands in time".

"They are not only help us seek new investment, but also give us many opportunities to expand our market through efficient publicity."

The park's administrative committee solicited opinions after the onset of the global financial crisis and adopted policies for software outsourcing firms, Meng said.

Innovation crucial

Liu is attending the ongoing 2009 Davos Forum in Dalian, and as CEO of a market leader, he has intense interest in its key topics - addressing societal needs through innovation and driving economic growth through science and technology.

Instead of complaining about economic circumstances, Liu believes fundamental changes for an industry and far-sighted companies are always created in crisis.

"Few people who will think about enormous changes when times are good." Liu said. "The finical crisis gives us a period for contemplation."

He asserts that the period after a crisis is the turning point for enterprises searching for new growth - and innovation is crucial.

"We don't have to follow the old business pattern of Western countries," he said. "Because China is doing well in its own industrial transformation. We can adjust the industrial structure while keeping the growth in income."

For innovation in Liu's own company, he noted the firm currently has a joint research project with Microsoft on product development.

Stronger innovation required in the hi-tech sector is also driving employment growth, even during the financial crisis.

iSoftStone staff increased from 4,500 of year-end of 2008 to the current 6,500.

Strategy

Top hi-tech venture capital firms Sequoia, AsiaVest and Fidelity have also bet on iSoftStone. AsiaVest provided $14 million in capital to iSoftStone to the company in 2007.

Liu noted that its business in China, Europe and the US all increased this year.

The company also has more work booked due to infrastructure construction and the emerging 3G market demand in China. The nation's deepening financial reform and increasing infrastructure construction also pave the way for IT outsourcing.

It has had new contracts and stable growth Europe and the US, partly due to multinationals' rebalancing of IT outsourcing budgets between India and China.

iSoftStone saw remarkable growth of more than 100 percent and sales of $100 million in 2008.

Sales in the first half of 2009 have surpassed projections. Liu predicted a 60 percent increase over 2008 for the entire year.

Liu admitted that a bottleneck for his company is human resources. "Now we have to train our staff members to be the ideal personnel that we need."

"India is another big country successfully doing IT outsourcing and business process outsourcing, and we still have a distance to catch up with them," Liu said.

"They have larger scale and richer international experience in the industry, something we need to improve."