Lu Shanrong is currently deputy manager of the Marketing Department at the Installation Company of China Construction Second Engineering Bureau. Since joining the workforce in January 1990, she has worked quietly and diligently, treating the company as her home and contributing to its development with her sweat and wisdom.

Advancing Despite Difficulties, Shouldering Heavy Burdens

On December 28, 2007, the Installation Company of China Construction Second Engineering Bureau undertook the pricing work for the installation project of the VISTA Tower in Vietnam. This bid was key to the company's effort to open up the Vietnamese market, and the first bid had to be submitted by January 30, 2008. The pricing work, worth about 160 million yuan, had to be completed within one month — the schedule was tight and the task heavy.

Lu Shanrong was the person in charge of this pricing effort, and she quickly led the entire bidding team into intensive work. Yet what awaited her were numerous difficulties. The first was the language barrier: all materials — including the tender documents, bill of quantities, technical specifications and construction drawings — were in English, and because the content was so highly specialized, the company's translators were unable to help. Second, every item in the bill of quantities had to be matched one by one against the technical specifications and clarified, yet parts of the bill were far from detailed, and the technical personnel responsible for quantity calculation did not understand the tender documents and technical specifications. As a result, each sub-item could not be accurately located, directly affecting the accuracy of the pricing.

Facing these difficulties and pressures, Lu Shanrong gritted her teeth and shouldered the burden. With the help of dictionaries and her accumulated knowledge, she worked to understand the engineering materials while cross-checking the tender documents and drawings, and she also took time to consult professional technical staff. With her characteristic tenacity, she came to understand all the engineering materials and clarified the measurement scope of each item in the bill. During this period she frequently worked overtime and through the night. Especially in the final days of bidding, she worked around the clock. When hungry, she filled up on instant noodles; when sleepy, she refreshed herself with whatever dry rations were at hand. After a month of intensive work, Lu Shanrong finally submitted the first VISTA bid for Vietnam on time. She subsequently traveled to Vietnam four more times to adjust the bid, laying the foundation for the project's successful award.

Diligent and Meticulous

On work, Lu Shanrong has a saying: "Work must be meticulous — you have to be exacting!" With this stubborn streak, once she sets her mind to something, there is nothing she cannot do well. Budget work is dry and tedious but carries great responsibility, requiring enormous patience and sufficient care. So every day she reminds herself: be careful, be thorough, check more. In her daily work, she constantly accumulates experience on the one hand, and on the other discusses business with colleagues to strengthen her professional knowledge. When bidding on the Vietnam VISTA project, because time was tight and the workload heavy, the pricing was assembled by four people. To ensure the bid price was accurate, Lu Shanrong again and again carried out detailed analyses and successively found eight major errors, thereby improving the accuracy of the pricing. When the owner repeatedly pressed for price reductions, her pricing analysis provided reliable data support for the decisions of the partner and company leaders.

To avoid omissions in pricing as much as possible, Lu Shanrong often carried a camera and an MP3 player with her to collect all kinds of project-related materials, and she also recorded important conversations and briefings to avoid missing key information. The various materials she collected and organized provided a reliable guarantee for accurate project pricing.

It is precisely because of Lu Shanrong's meticulous work attitude and painstaking working methods that over the years, however tedious and complex her work, no errors have ever occurred. Her thoroughness, seriousness and rigor have not only created benefits for the company but also set an example for all her colleagues.