Driven by Dreams and Crafted with Dedication: Cao Xiaolin and HF Group's 30-Year Entrepreneurial Journey

Gears Pursue Dreams, Forging a Sword with Craftsmanship

—The 30-Year Entrepreneurial Journey of Cao Xiaolin and HF Group

From an ordinary technician to a leading entrepreneur in the industry, from a grassroots entrepreneur who used to ride a bicycle to deliver goods, to the helmsman of a national-level specialized and innovative "little giant" enterprise. For more than 30 years, Cao Xiaolin has been deeply involved in the field of precision transmission. With his daring and enterprising spirit, meticulous craftsmanship, and dedication to serving the country through industry, he has led HF Group from a small workshop to a benchmark national transmission brand. In the wave of the rise of Chinese manufacturing, he has written a legendary entrepreneurial story of starting from scratch and overcoming adversity.

Cao Xiaolin was born in March 1974 in Caojiacang Village, Polong Village Committee, Sushan Township, Duchang County. From a young age, he was sensible and diligent, deeply understanding the hardships of life. Although his family was poor, his parents placed great emphasis on their children's education, scrimping and saving to support their studies. After completing high school in his hometown, Cao Xiaolin, understanding the hardships his parents endured from years of labor, voluntarily gave up his dream of further education, thus missing out on university. His early life experiences forged his hardworking, steady, and pragmatic character, and also made him shoulder the burdens of life early on, determined to make a name for himself through hard work.

In 1993, China's manufacturing industry ushered in a new era of development. After graduating from high school, Cao Xiaolin went to Wuxi and entered a local machine processing plant, where he first encountered gear manufacturing. At that time, gear processing was a core technology, and skilled professionals were highly valued. With keen insight, he recognized the promising future of this industry. Despite only having a high school diploma, he self-studied the necessary knowledge, humbly sought guidance from experienced technicians, and dedicated himself to mastering gear processing techniques, thus forging an unbreakable bond with the precision transmission industry.

In 1997, Cao Xiaolin ventured south to Shenzhen, where his solid technical skills secured him a job at a local machine shop. Over several years of hard work, he accumulated technical expertise, gained market insight, and conceived the idea of starting his own business. In 1998, he opened a gear processing workshop, officially embarking on his entrepreneurial journey. The early stages were extremely difficult. Without a fixed factory, equipment had to be stored on others' premises, and funds were scarce; at his lowest point, he had only a few dollars left. But Cao Xiaolin never gave up. He rode his bicycle around every day to seek business, diligently accepting orders regardless of size or profit margin. He spent his days expanding his customer base and his nights working overtime to meet deadlines. Through his hard work, perseverance, and honest business practices, his small workshop gradually gained a foothold and began to build a reputation within the industry.

As business steadily developed, the workshop model gradually became unsustainable. In 2009, Cao Xiaolin officially established Shenzhen HF Group Machinery Co., Ltd., assembling a professional team of over fifty people and establishing a standardized production process and quality control system, marking the beginning of the company's standardized development phase. To broaden his horizons and optimize his business strategy, he enrolled in the Tsinghua University Executive EMBA program, re-evaluating his development direction. In 2012, the company moved to a new factory, and Cao Xiaolin made a crucial transformation decision: shifting from "addition" to "subtraction," abandoning miscellaneous processing and focusing on the core track of precision gear customization. Simultaneously, he established marketing and customer service teams, building an integrated production, sales, and service model. This precise positioning allowed HF Group to break free from homogeneous competition, and the following year, the company began developing planetary gear reducers, continuously expanding its technological boundaries.

Cao Xiaolin greatly admires the spirit of overcoming difficulties depicted in the TV series "Bright Sword," and this "daring to draw the sword" character has become the core of HF Group. Faced with foreign technological monopolies and high-precision orders that competitors hesitated to pursue, he always insisted on tackling the technical challenges first, regardless of short-term gains or losses. In 2011, Honda Motors approached HF Group with stringent requirements for the gears used in their equipment, standards that many domestic companies had failed to meet. Cao Xiaolin decisively took on the task, leading his team through over three months of intensive work. Ultimately, the product quality rivaled Japanese import standards, winning high praise from the overseas client and giving him a real sense of confidence in the strength of Chinese manufacturing. Subsequently, HF Group broke through another technical bottleneck, overcoming a gear problem that Foxconn had failed to solve. This product involved nearly thirty interconnected processes, with no room for error in dimensions or tolerances. The team repeatedly experimented and refined each step, ultimately delivering a successful product. HF's core strength thus gained widespread recognition among leading companies.

At that time, there were over a thousand gear processing companies in China, most of which rejected small, customized orders due to low profits and complex processes. Cao Xiaolin, however, had a long-term vision. He understood that many manufacturing companies' R&D projects often stalled due to difficulties in customizing gears. Therefore, HF insisted on balancing mass production with personalized non-standard customization, serving each client with dedication. This altruistic and pragmatic business philosophy has earned the company a large number of loyal partners and made its market foundation increasingly solid.

In 2014, Newgear Intelligent Transmission (Guangdong) Co., Ltd. was established, marking its entry into the intelligent transmission field and completing its first strategic upgrade from parts processing to the production of high-value-added structural components. In 2017, Hefeng Gear's annual revenue exceeded 100 million RMB, placing it among the top tier in its niche market and establishing its goal of becoming a century-old brand. In 2018, iHF Industrial Transmission was established, and the iHF Gear Academy was founded to support industry talent development. In 2022, the iHF FA Automation Procurement Platform was launched, completing its second strategic upgrade and transforming it into a comprehensive enterprise integrating R&D, production, and platform services, forming a diversified structure.

To solidify its core product competitiveness, the company continues to increase investment, introducing advanced international production and precision testing equipment from Japan and the United States, and strictly controlling product quality throughout the entire process. Today, Hefeng holds over 90 technology patents, masters more than 20 internationally common gear profiles and tens of thousands of product specifications, becoming a core partner of well-known companies such as CRRC, Gree, BYD, Foxconn, and Siemens. Faced with the prevalent price wars in the industry, Cao Xiaolin clarified the direction: avoid price wars and focus on competing on technology, quality, and delivery efficiency. The company comprehensively promoted digital transformation, implementing ERP, MES, and WMS systems, establishing three major production and warehousing bases in Shenzhen, Dongguan, and Suzhou, and collaborating with hundreds of suppliers to build an efficient supply chain. This significantly shortened the original supply cycle, achieving a leapfrog improvement in delivery efficiency, setting an industry "speed benchmark," and placing the company among the industry leaders.

Focusing on the high-end manufacturing sector, HF Group boldly tackles "bottleneck" technologies. Addressing the long-standing foreign monopoly on high-end robot reducers in China, the team dedicated themselves to research and development, successfully developing a humanoid robot joint reducer and achieving small-batch mass production, contributing to the breakthrough of technological barriers in domestically produced high-end equipment. Looking to the future, the company seizes the development opportunities in the humanoid robot industry, leveraging its profound transmission technology and industrial resources to fully promote the research and development of mechatronics joint projects, accelerating its leap towards emerging tracks with higher technological content and higher added value, and continuously exploring new drivers of industrial growth.

In 2023, HF Group was recognized as a national-level specialized and innovative "Little Giant" enterprise. Its iHF platform completed its first round of financing, raising tens of millions of yuan, and achieved a transaction volume of 70 million yuan in its first year. In 2025, the company received another honor, successfully being named a "Guangdong Famous Brand," further enhancing its brand influence and overall strength.

Despite his thriving career, Cao Xiaolin never forgets the nurturing grace of his hometown and cherishes his roots. According to Xu Xialin, an official from the Sushan Township Finance Office, Cao Xiaolin is deeply concerned about the vulnerable groups in his hometown. He frequently returns to visit the Sushan Township Nursing Home, visiting and comforting elderly people living alone, and generously donating funds to improve their lives. He maintains a low profile and repeatedly instructs relevant personnel not to publicize his charitable acts. He actively devoted himself to the cultural undertakings of his hometown. When he heard that the county had launched the reconstruction project of Xingfeng Tower and was working to revive the calligraphy culture of Cao Yanyue of the Southern Song Dynasty, he took the initiative to donate tens of thousands of yuan to help the cultural project be implemented. When he learned that his hometown was compiling the classic book "Local Sushan", he knew that this was a great cultural event that would inherit the local cultural heritage and benefit future generations. He immediately took the initiative to donate money to support the cultural construction of his hometown.

For over three decades, through thick and thin, Cao Xiaolin has risen from an ordinary skilled worker from a rural background to a leader in the precision transmission industry, remaining steadfast in his commitment. He started from scratch, persevering through hardship to uphold his initial aspirations; he delved deeply into technology, daring to tackle high-end challenges; he possessed a broad vision, balancing corporate development with industry-wide benefits; and he was devoted to his country, determined to build a national brand that would go global.

A small gear, turning the wheels of his entrepreneurial dream, also carries the hope of China's manufacturing rise. Cao Xiaolin's journey is a true microcosm of the growth of Chinese private manufacturing enterprises from small to large, from weak to strong. His hardworking spirit, meticulous craftsmanship, visionary and pragmatic business acumen, and patriotic sentiment of serving the country through industry vividly embody the spirit of outstanding entrepreneurs in the new era.

Today, HF Group has established three core development focuses: precision gear customization, intelligent transmission overall solutions, and automated centralized procurement platforms, with a diversified, collaborative, and innovation-driven development pattern becoming increasingly mature. The company continues its relentless progress, steadily advancing towards its goals of becoming a century-old national brand and establishing a global presence. Cao Xiaolin, a pioneer in the gear industry, will continue to uphold his original aspirations, work diligently and pragmatically, crafting quality with ingenuity and fulfilling his mission with hard work, leading the company to strive for excellence in the new track of high-end manufacturing and continuously contributing to the development of China's high-end manufacturing industry.