Hua Jian’s Mission

“Huajian’s mission is to safeguard health and promote quality medicines, and my responsibility is to protect the more than 100 employees of Huajian,” said Gu Suojuan, Chairwoman of Changzhou Huajian Pharm Pack Material Co.,Ltd, in a recent interview.

From a gifted international student to a frontline workshop worker, from workshop director and project manager to deputy general manager, general manager, and finally chairman of the board—embracing responsibility as a mission, Gu Suojuan has guided Huajian forward step by step with her steadfast yet gentle feminine wisdom…

Experience: Earning Trust Through Knowledge and Skills

Huajian originated as the Wuling Color Printing Factory. Under the leadership of Gu Suojuan’s mother, the small enterprise—initially with fewer than ten employees—gradually expanded to a workforce of around sixty. In 2004, Gu Suojuan returned to China from the University of Auckland in New Zealand, at a time when Huajian was undergoing a critical transition from food packaging to pharmaceutical packaging materials.

“At first, I was reluctant to join the family business—I had my own aspirations and wanted to live life on my own terms,” Gu Suojuan recalled upon returning from her studies abroad. However, witnessing her mother’s hard work and driven by gratitude toward her and a sense of responsibility to the family enterprise, Gu Suojuan ultimately decided to take a job at a company.

“Do whatever you want at work”—this is a catchphrase Gu Suojuan often repeats. She explains that to build a successful career, one must first adopt a positive mindset, remembering that solutions always outnumber obstacles; secondly, one needs courage and perseverance, never giving up until the goal is achieved.

Gu Suojuan is a down-to-earth, pragmatic person. After joining the company, she proactively worked alongside workshop staff and frontline employees—sharing meals and conducting research together. To quickly familiarize herself with the company’s operations, she threw herself into her work, led by example in everything she did, and took the lead in nearly every step of the process.

She, like her male colleagues, lifted an ink fountain at the printing plant, developing blisters on her hands. She worked in sales, interacting with diverse clients and honing her sales skills and eloquence. She spent years in procurement, vying with various suppliers for price advantages. She delved into technical roles, pursuing cutting-edge technologies. At one point, she even drove a truck, rising in the middle of the night to deliver goods to customers…

“What I do is build relationships with my employees, leverage my knowledge and skills to earn their trust, and win their genuine respect,” said Gu Suojuan.

Through her hands-on experience on the shop floor, most of the company’s employees no longer see her as a “young upstart” but as a dependable colleague, filling Gu Suojuan with a deep sense of accomplishment.

However, just as Gu was basking in the belief that she had won her colleagues’ trust and was poised for a breakthrough, an ordinary personnel reshuffle dealt her a harsh blow.

Decisiveness: The Leader “Abandoned” by Employees

“The company has only about 40 employees, and more than 30 of them have asked to leave.” As Gu Suojuan recalled the incident, she still found it hard to believe: “I feel that what I did before was a failure. They didn’t support me; instead, they opposed me through this silent form of resistance.”

At the time, the company was undergoing a transformation to produce pharmaceutical packaging, but its technical capabilities were weak. Gu Suojuan planned to recruit a seasoned technical expert from outside to serve as workshop director. Once this news was announced, it sparked a strong reaction among the employees; by the next day, more than 30 staff members had collectively submitted their resignations to the company.

Should she retain her long-time employees or press ahead with the path of transformation and development? This is the dilemma facing Gu Suojuan.

She held heart-to-heart conversations with several long-time employees and convened a special staff meeting to reaffirm the company’s strategic goals and its commitment to attracting top talent, expressing her hope that both the company and its employees would continue to thrive. However, some employees ultimately departed.

Although this storm had a short-term impact on Huajian and exposed shortcomings in the company’s management, Gu Suojuan nevertheless used it as an opportunity to assert her authority, while also coming to appreciate both the wisdom and the heavy burden of corporate governance.

As she recounted the incident to reporters, she chuckled, saying she had been “abandoned” by her staff, but added that she did not regret her decision. “You only change your mind after you’ve gone through it,” she said.

Later, as Huajian was building its new factory, many relatives and friends recommended candidates for employment. Gu Suojuan rigorously adhered to the company’s hiring and management policies. Drawing on her professional expertise and integrating it with practical experience in corporate management, she introduced modern management principles and systems, helping the company restructure its core operations.

Rise: Building a Modern Corporate Management System

Gu Suojuan has consistently upheld the philosophy of “dedication, progress, co‑creation, and win‑win,” promoting and empowering talent as the company grows. Employees who fail to keep pace with the organization’s evolving needs are phased out at the lower levels. “As the company’s leader, I will introduce new management principles to enhance operational efficiency,” she said.

It has proven that Gu Suojuan’s business philosophy was sound; amid a painful period of transformation, Huajian entered its golden era of growth.

“Since officially taking over Huajian in 2009, the company has grown rapidly at an average annual rate of 25% and was successfully listed on the New Third Board in 2019. From 2012 to the present, Huajian’s output value has increased nearly tenfold,” Gu Suojuan told reporters.

As the company’s management team steadily gets on track, Huajian’s technological innovation has also achieved encouraging milestones: the company has been awarded titles such as “National High-Tech Enterprise,” “Jiangsu Provincial Private Science and Technology Enterprise,” and “Jiangsu Provincial Small and Medium-Sized Science and Technology Enterprise,” and holds 38 valid patents, including 4 invention patents. It has obtained certifications under management systems including ISO 9001, ISO 15378, ISO 14001, and ISO 45001, and has been recognized with honors such as “Top Ten Influential Chinese Brands of 2019,” “Outstanding Chinese Brand of 2019,” and “Star Product.”

In 2009, Huajian received funding from the Ministry of Science and Technology’s SME Technology Innovation Fund; in 2011, it was designated as the “Changzhou Medical Soft Packaging Engineering Technology Research Center”; in 2013, it was recognized as the “Jiangsu Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center for Functional Novel Medical Soft Packaging Materials”; and in 2021, it was accredited as a Changzhou Enterprise Technology Center…

“The Times is quickening its pace—stand still, and you’ll fall behind,” said Gu Suojuan. “Innovation is a vital tool for companies to sustain vitality and core competitiveness, and Huajian remains committed to keeping innovation on the road.”

Warmth: The “Top Ten Best Mothers” of Cosmic Love

In her professional field, Gu Suojuan is a dedicated workaholic who has earned such honors as “One of the Top Ten New Economy Figures in Changzhou” and “One of the Ten Outstanding Entrepreneurs in Changzhou” through her own hard work.

Behind the scenes, she is a loving mother.

Gu Suojuan gets up at five or six in the morning to head to work and clocks out around midnight to go home. “Even though I come home every day, sometimes my son doesn’t see me for an entire week,” she said in an interview, expressing her love for her child.

“My mother’s company employs more than a hundred families. If there were no benefits, what would become of their children?” Gu Suojuan replied when her son asked, “Why is Mom so busy?”

Faced with stringent corporate management, some employees argued that Gu Suojuan lacked inclusiveness. In reality, she has always kept her staff at heart; the senior employees who joined her back then have already retired twice. In 2012, Huajian undertook a comprehensive upgrade, introducing state-of-the-art management systems. However, certain long-serving workers in key positions, unable to operate computers, found it difficult to adapt to modern management and faced the prospect of being laid off. Upon learning of this situation, Gu Suojuan engaged in discussions and negotiations, arranging for these employees to retire two years ahead of schedule so they could enjoy family life, while continuing to receive their regular salaries during that period.

Among Gu Suojuan’s many personal honors, there is one particularly special certificate: the “Top Ten Mothers” award from Wujin District. She candidly admits that this honor was not bestowed for her contributions to her family, but rather because she works alongside children in need.

Gu Suojuan said, “Happiness is about sharing. It’s not just one person being happy; it’s when everyone is happy.” After achieving success with Huajian, she consciously embraced her social responsibility, actively engaging in donations and charitable endeavors. Beginning in 2013, the most financially disadvantaged students at Changzhou University have received the “Huajian Academic Scholarship” from the School of Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences, helping these students overcome hardships and thrive.

In the winter of 2018, during a research trip, Gu Suojuan was deeply moved upon seeing orphans in Guiyang, Guizhou. She immediately decided to support them until they graduated from university, and on every holiday and festival, she would send them new clothes, quilts, and daily necessities.

She said with a smile that when she receives thank-you notes from her students, holiday greetings, or updates about their achievements, she feels a warm sense of fulfillment.

Looking ahead, Gu Suojuan steers Huajian toward the goal of becoming a world-class, innovation-driven pharmaceutical packaging enterprise, guided by the principles of dedication, progress, co‑creation, and mutual success.