Reporting, procurement economics, planning and treasury
Not every use of a reagent produces a billable patient report, and not every necessary laboratory activity should do so. I want finance to understand that difference before comparing prices or equipment proposals. Clinical and laboratory leaders decide what a dependable service requires; my responsibility is to make its financial support explicit.
I make the full cost of a dependable laboratory service visible without asking clinical colleagues to justify quality through billable volume.
I am CFO of Luyanshu Diagnostic Services, a privately owned Chinese group operating three clinical laboratories for hospital and clinic customers. We employ 410 people and reported RMB228 million revenue and RMB17 million operating profit in calendar 2025. I lead 27 finance colleagues through three managers. Our founders retain a majority alongside a minority financial investor. My remit covers financial reporting, procurement economics, planning and funding. The laboratory directors and qualified clinical colleagues retain authority over methods, quality controls and the release of results.
My career began in medical-supply accounts in August 1991. I moved into laboratory finance in 1998 and learnt that a purchased test unit and a billable report were not the same measure. Controls, repeats and other necessary uses consume materials and staff time. Some costs support the reliability of every result rather than appearing as a separate customer charge. That experience changed how I evaluate a low reagent price, an equipment placement agreement or a proposal to open another laboratory.
The decisions on this site concern the economics around the service, with clinical boundaries preserved. We renegotiated a reagent commitment whose minimum volume exceeded supportable consumption. We changed a discount proposal after tracing the cost of the customers' collection and reporting requirements. We also retained paid support for an older instrument during the introduction of its replacement. Each decision required a commercial or funding trade-off. None depended on reducing a quality procedure, changing a clinical conclusion or making a claim that finance could determine whether a patient's result was ready.
A higher unit price reduced an excessive minimum commitment
An agreement moved from 250,000 annual units at RMB19 to 200,000 at RMB21, with an RMB300,000 initial fee. The first-year minimum outlay fell from RMB4.75m to RMB4.5m, while the higher unit price remained a cost if activity rose.
Collection obligations changed the discount discussion
A proposed twelve-percent price reduction assumed that a group of clinic customers could use existing collection arrangements. Their additional daily pickup requirements carried RMB1.6m of annual cost that was missing from the initial comparison.
Parallel support was funded during an equipment transition
We approved RMB680,000 to retain service and support for the existing instrument while its replacement was introduced. The overlap increased the year's cost and did not become evidence of a failed investment.
Current focus
I am improving how commercial proposals distinguish the customer's requested service pattern from the laboratory's analytical workload, so neither is represented by a single unexplained cost-per-report average.
Conversations I welcome
I would consider one external board role in a healthcare-support or specialist service business, initially allowing twenty-two days a year after reviewing employer consent, commercial relationships and the actual committee calendar.
The leadership record
Trusted with consequential decisions.
Formation
Bachelor of accountingShunqiao Commerce College · 1991
Junlin asked what the service needed before comparing the price. He did not call necessary control work waste simply because it did not produce another invoice.
Lianru ZhaoLaboratory director, Luyanshu Diagnostic ServicesThe full record ↗
Contact
I would consider one external board role in a healthcare-support or specialist service business, initially allowing twenty-two days a year after reviewing employer consent, commercial relationships and the actual committee calendar.