Thirty years of Liard: writing the legend of the leader of China's technology companies through tech

从 2008 年北京奥运会开幕式上震撼世界的近 6000 平米 LED "画卷"，到 2022 年北京冬奥会 "绝美冰瀑" 的惊艳亮相;从领航全球 LED 显示市场，到向 AI、文旅、光通信等多领域拓展版图 —— 利亚德集团用三十年时间，完成了从中国科技企业 "追赶者" 到全球显示领域 "引领者" 的华丽蜕变，书写了一部充满战略魄力与创新精神的奋斗史。As Li Jun, chairman of Liard Group, said in an exclusive interview with Xinhuanet: The foundation of a long-term enterprise is to always do difficult and correct things. rdquo; Over the past 30 years of continuous development, the code can be condensed into three points: replacing price competition with technological breakthroughs, opposing involution consumption with ecological win-win results, and laying a solid cultural foundation with shared prosperity among employees.​

The courage to break the game: Three big bets have stepped on the pulse of the times, and technological innovation has created core barriers

In Liard's development process, three key strategic bets were made, each time seemed risky, but they accurately matched the direction of industrial upgrading. In the end, technological innovation created irreplaceable core competitiveness and promoted enterprises to achieve leapfrog development.​

2008 Beijing Olympics: Famous in World War I, China's LED stands on the world stage

The 2008 Beijing Olympics was the first important turning point in Liard's development. At that time, foreign companies offered as much as 200 million yuan for the LED scroll rental project for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, but Liard decisively chose independent innovation to overcome technical problems at a cost of more than 60 million yuan. ldquo; If it fails, the company may be wiped out." rdquo; When Li Jun recalled later, he still lamented the pressure at that time. But it was this desperate battle that Liard not only successfully delivered a world-shaking LED picture, allowing the world to witness the strength of China's LED display technology, but also took this opportunity to open up high-end markets at home and abroad, laying a leading position in the industry. This breakthrough is not only a battle for Liard to fame, but also marks the official farewell of China's LED display technology and the beginning of a parallel run or even leading the way.​

Acquisition of Natural Point in 2017: Advance deployment of AI and seize the motion capture track

In 2017, when AI technology had not yet exploded on a large scale and motion capture was still a niche field, Liard decisively acquired Natural Point, a US motion capture technology company. This decision aroused many doubts at the time, but it demonstrated Li Jun's strategic vision.& ldquo; At that time, AI had not yet exploded, but we saw the future of motion capture. It would become the core technical support for AI interaction, film and television production, and game development." rdquo; Today, Natural Point has become an invisible champion in Hollywood film and television special effects production, the world's top game development and robot training. Its OptiTrack motion capture system is recognized by the industry for its sub-millimeter accuracy. Against the background of widespread burning money in the AI industry, the company has achieved a net profit of approximately 100 million yuan for many consecutive years, becoming an important growth pole for Liard on the AI track. This acquisition allowed Liard to lock in key technologies in the field of AI interaction in advance, laying the groundwork for the subsequent layout of smart glasses, robot training and other scenarios.​

Bet on Micro LED in 2020: Leading the iteration of display technology and opening up new space in the consumer market

In 2020, when Micro LED technology was still in the industry exploration period, Liard once again demonstrated its technical courage and launched the world's first Micro LED commercial product, becoming one of the earliest companies in the industry to achieve mass production of Micro LEDs. In April this year, Liard further released high-end MIP(Hi-Micro) high-end displays, using industry-leading substrate-less Micro LED chips of less than 30 microns, with black areas accounting for up to 99%, achieving breakthrough improvements in the quality and contrast. This product not only covers the high-end commercial display market (such as command centers and high-end conference rooms), but also promotes Liard's entry into consumer markets such as home theaters. Previously, Micro LEDs have long been limited to professional fields due to high cost and difficulty in mass production. Liard is accelerating its civilian process through technological optimization and production capacity expansion. According to the financial report, as of now, the production capacity of the first phase of Liard's high-end MIP products has reached 1200kk /month, and the production capacity of the second phase of 1200kk /month is expected to reach production before the end of the year. By then, the company's self-built Micro LED production capacity will exceed 4000kk /month, providing capacity guarantee for large-scale market penetration.​

Turning danger into opportunity: From lighting projects to cultural tourism and night economy, strategic adjustments activate new growth poles

Liard's thirty years have not been smooth sailing. Faced with changes in the industry environment and business fluctuations, the company has shown strong strategic flexibility to turn crises into opportunities by divesting non-core businesses and tapping new value from existing businesses, especially in lighting When the engineering business encountered bottlenecks, it successfully transformed the cultural, tourism and night economy and activated a new growth pole.​

From 2014 to 2017, Liard's expansion in the field of lighting engineering promoted the company's rapid growth, and its net profit doubled for many consecutive years, reaching a maximum of 1.2 billion yuan, of which the government lighting engineering business accounted for a large proportion. However, with the implementation of the national deleveraging policy and intensified competition in the industry, the lighting engineering business suffered a cliff-like decline, and revenue dropped sharply from a maximum of 2 billion yuan to several hundred million yuan, which had a huge impact on the company's performance.​

In the face of the crisis, Liard did not stick to the old model, but decisively launched strategic adjustments: on the one hand, it gradually divested or reduced non-core businesses and concentrated resources in advantageous areas such as LED display, AI, and cultural tourism; on the other hand, it deeply explored the integration potential of lighting business and cultural tourism industry, and regarded the night economy as a new growth point. Li Jun is keenly aware that night economic consumption now accounts for 60%-70% of total consumption, and the integration of night environment and cultural tourism projects is crucial to us. rdquo; Based on this judgment, Liard began to build immersive cultural tourism projects that combine LED display technology, light and shadow art with local culture to inject new vitality into the city's night economy.​

Today, Liard's cultural tourism sector has become an important growth engine, with annual revenue exceeding 700 million yuan. Its projects such as Xi'an Datang Sleepless City and Chengdu Jinjiang Night Tour have become national cultural tourism night economic benchmarks, and are also in the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The immersive cultural tourism demonstration cases released by the Ministry account for an important share. This transformation not only freed Liard from its dependence on a single business, but also expanded the new track of display + cultural tourism, finding a broader scenario for technology implementation.​

The way to win-win situation: unite people's hearts for common prosperity within the country, and protect the industry ecology by countering internal corruption externally

At a time when the price war in the industry is getting worse and the entanglement is becoming a common trend, Liard has embarked on a win-win path internally through employee stock ownership and advocating a healthy work culture to achieve common prosperity, and gather the centripetal force of the team; externally through reasonable pricing, Protect the rights and interests of suppliers, oppose entanglement and protect the ecological health of the industry, and this concept has become an important cornerstone of the long-term development of the company.​

Internally: Employees share wealth and humanistic care, laying a solid cultural foundation

Before listing, Li Jun diluted his personal shareholding from 100% to more than 20%, and covered more than 2000 people through the five-phase employee shareholding plan. At the beginning of listing, we had more than 300 people, and almost all of them held shares. This benefit-sharing mechanism allows employees to transform from migrant workers to business owners, which greatly stimulates the enthusiasm and creativity of the team. At the same time, Liard firmly opposes the 996 working system and advocates a culture of not working overtime on weekends and leaving work at 5:30. Li Jun believes that only when employees 'quality of life is improved and they have time to spend time with their families and improve themselves can the company have long-term vitality. rdquo; This humanistic care has enabled Liard to maintain a low core employee turnover rate and form a stable and efficient team in the technology industry where talent competition is fierce.​

External: Anti-corruption and win-win results in the supply chain to maintain industry health

Faced with the intensifying price war in the industry, Liard clearly proposed anti-corruption"