Wheely good ideas

Concerns over the potential loss of their money saw some of those teachers lodge complaints with the local education bureau.

With nowhere else to turn, the bureau officials approached Song and asked him to take over the plant's business.

"My hands were tied at that time," Song recalls.

"I was teaching math, and knew next to nothing about economy."

Things were worse than he could have anticipated. The plant had about 40 employees, all of whom had not received a salary for eight months.

Song began to make frequent visits to Shanghai, over two hours away by bus, looking for business opportunities, but to no avail.

Then, completely out of the blue, an official from a Shanghai-based military plant brought a baby stroller to Song.

"He told me that if our plant can produce it, his plant could take care of the sales," Song recounts.

He grasped the opportunity with both hands.

In 1989, Song loaned 50,000 yuan from the bank and began to focus on baby stroller production. Unfortunately, the relationship with the military plant soon hit bumpy ground and ended, as the military plant had trouble of its own.

"We had already purchased a lot of the materials for (stroller) production, and there was no way back," Song says.

"We didn't have the money and the only way out was innovation."

Song found that baby strollers were quite simple, made of bamboo or wood, and they didn't look particularly appealing.

"It was just a chair with wheels and could only be used for transportation," he says.

In the 1990s, people were looking for items with multiple functions. The more, the merrier.

Song acutely picked up the trend, turning his hand to devising a multipurpose stroller.