Behind Zhu Jianghong’s "Tearing" of Dong Mingzhu: Who made Gree today?
Zhongxin Jingwei Client July 12 (Li Xiaoxuan) An autobiography recently published by Zhu Jianghong, the former chairman of Gree Electric, has pushed Dong Mingzhu, an entrepreneur of online celebrity, to the forefront.
The fuse was Zhu Jianghong’s disapproval of Dong Mingzhu’s statement in the media that "without Dong Mingzhu, there would be no Gree". He said: "There is some truth in the saying that there is no Dong Mingzhu without Zhu Jianghong."
Who has achieved who, who is whose "little luck"?
Zhu Jianghong, known as the "Father of Gree", recently appeared in his hometown of Zhuhai with his autobiography of Zhu Jianghong: My 24 Years in Charge of Gree, which took him three years to write.
In addition to the development of various important nodes of Gree in the past 24 years, Dong Mingzhu is the most mentioned by Zhu Jianghong in this book.
Zhu Jianghong said that there was a voice from outside saying, "Without Zhu Jianghong, there would be no Dong Mingzhu", which may have some truth. "Because of me, she stepped onto the leadership positions at all levels of the enterprise, and stood on the big stage of Gree, so she had the opportunity to make a big impact. Of course, she personally worked hard, did her duty, constantly honed and grew, and eventually became a well-known entrepreneur in the country. "
In 1994, Zhu Jianghong drastically reduced the percentage of commission of sales staff to balance the treatment of scientific and technical personnel and sales staff, which caused a large number of sales staff to leave. On the occasion of employing people, Zhu Jianghong recommended Dong Mingzhu as the head of the operation department.
In September 1997, Dong Mingzhu became the vice president of sales in Gree Electric. According to regulations, the appointment of Gree Electric’s vice president or above shall be assessed by the group company. During the discussion, everyone had a big objection to Dong Mingzhu, but with Zhu Jianghong’s efforts to persuade and explain, it was finally passed.
In 2001, Zhu Jianghong became the chairman of Gree Electric. Due to the regulations of the CSRC, a listed company can’t be the chairman and general manager at the same time. Therefore, Zhu Jianghong recommended Dong Mingzhu to take over the post of general manager.
But Dong Mingzhu doesn’t think it was Zhu Jianghong who gave her the chance in the first place. "At that time, Gree wouldn’t be here today if I hadn’t come back to help." Dong Mingzhu recalled in CCTV’s "Let’s Talk" program in 2015.
Dong Mingzhu is talking about the reform that drastically reduced the commission of sales staff in Zhu Jianghong in 1994.
At that time, the whole society shouted the slogan "Sales is king", and so did Gree. In the era when the average employee’s annual salary was only 10,000 yuan or 20,000 yuan, sales had already exceeded 100,000 yuan or even hundreds of thousands. Zhu Jianghong believes that salespeople certainly play an important role in the sales of products, but the technicians who design products and do them well to satisfy consumers are even more indispensable.
In order to balance this relationship, at the beginning of 1996, Zhu Jianghong decided to greatly reduce the percentage of commission for sales staff. This decision caused strong dissatisfaction among sales staff. Zhu Jianghong recalled in his autobiography that soon, most of these salespeople collectively jumped to rival companies. With their familiar markets, channels and personal connections, they threatened to defeat Gree within three years.
Dong Mingzhu, with outstanding performance, was also wooed at that time, but after her field trip, she decided to stay.
Dong Mingzhu also mentioned this in his autobiography "Chess in the World". She wrote, "In fact, because of the salary reform at that time, most of the salespeople have gone. In this sense, Mr. Zhu is also lucky. If he doesn’t know me, it will be his great regret."
Dong Mingzhu, who stayed behind, was recommended to be the director of the company’s operation department to reorganize Gree’s business market. However, the income has dropped significantly compared with the previous business people.
"I was looking at my income. I thought it was better to be a business person. I don’t want to come back as a minister. But at first glance, you should come back, which means that you are capable again. If the enterprise really collapses, can you still exist? " Dong Mingzhu recalled.
Who is annoyed by Gree’s diversity in building cars, selling mobile phones and building schools?
Zhu Jianghong said frankly that if he continues to be in charge of Gree, he should not let Gree build mobile phones and cars. Because Chunlan, the boss of the air-conditioning industry, was defeated by diversification, it was the opportunity for Gree air-conditioning to rise today.
He wrote in the book that when Gree was still a small tree, Chunlan was the overlord of the air-conditioning industry in China. As a result, Chunlan has diversified and set foot in TV, refrigerator, motorcycle, automobile and other businesses, and its main business revenue has plummeted.
In 2012, when Zhu Jianghong retired, Gree Electric’s revenue exceeded 100 billion yuan by virtue of air conditioning. Although Zhu Jianghong did not publicly criticize Gree Electric’s diversification, he expressed his disapproval of Dong Mingzhu’s current efforts to promote Gree’s diversification.
"The enterprise is done step by step, not shouted out; Now, some enterprises always shout to be the first in China and the first in the world. Whether they can be the first depends on hard work, and it is impossible to shout it out by shouting. The manufacturing industry should not be blindly greedy. The most important thing is that you should constantly make good products and fine products, and how to make the enterprise a century-old shop. "Zhu Jianghong said these words, which can not help but remind people of Dong Mingzhu again.
In the years when Dong Mingzhu was in charge of Gree, in addition to making mobile phones and playing with cars, he will also build Gree School in Zhuhai recently and formally enter the field of education.
As early as the symposium between leaders of Zhuhai Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government and Gree Electric at the beginning of this year, Dong Mingzhu made it clear that there are "four small goals" to be achieved in 2017, one of which is to further promote the construction of Gree College. I didn’t expect that there was no further news from Gree College, but the genuine Gree School appeared.
According to public information, Gree School is adjacent to Gree Electric Park, with a total area of 19,000 square meters, and an underground diversion center of 4,000 square meters is planned, with an estimated total investment of 98.7 million yuan. It will be built according to the scale of 36 teaching classes, which can provide 1620 public degrees. At present, Gree School plans to complete the construction of the main project in June 2018, which means that students are expected to enter this school in the school season next fall.
Therefore, in the future, there will be another "Principal Dong" in the education sector.
"It’s for your own good to go against you!"
Dong Mingzhu can rise from a first-line sales to a senior enterprise, and Zhu Jianghong can be said to be grateful to her. However, according to Dong Mingzhu’s recollection, Gree also encountered many bumps in the development process due to the management problems of Zhu Jianghong and other old enterprises.
"At that time, Gree Electric was not directly nepotism, but there were many friends and acquaintances, first represented by the top leaders. The people he brought from Guangxi think that with such background, he can do whatever he wants. Slowly, this forms an atmosphere: this person and that person can’t offend, and everyone is watching. "
On June 12th, 2015, when attending a meeting, Dong Mingzhu, the chairman of Gree Electric, spent a lot of time explaining the story and experience of promoting the establishment of modern internal management mechanism in Gree Electric and fighting against a large number of unhealthy trends in Gree Electric when she was transferred back to the current head of the headquarters from the branch salesman. For the first time, he made the contradictions and conflicts with Zhu Jianghong, then the chairman of Gree Electric, public.
Dong Mingzhu once publicly stated that she had specially repaired a person brought from Guangxi by the general manager. "Responsible for billing, who want to open to open. I cleaned up his accounts immediately after I went back and found a major problem. I lowered his first-class salary, which means that he will earn 80 or 90 yuan less than others in his life, and he is very anxious. "
"At that time, I foresaw that the boss would definitely look for me. As expected, I was called over early the next morning. I told my boss, what am I doing against you? I do this to safeguard the interests of the enterprise (that is, to safeguard your interests). Do you know that?/You know what? It’s not that I have a problem with you, it’s that he has a problem with you. Do you know what the people below are saying? Once employees have no confidence in this enterprise, can this enterprise still talk about development? Can you still talk about survival? "
Although Dong Mingzhu did not publicly mention the name of "Zhu Jianghong" in the process of telling the story, he replaced it with "the top leader, the boss, who came back from Guangxi", but in Gree Electric at that time, Zhu Jianghong seemed to be the only one who met these appellations.
In fact, rumors about Dong Mingzhu’s disagreement with Zhu Jianghong have been circulating since Zhu Jianghong was retired at the age of 60 in 2012 and Dong Mingzhu took over.
When Dong Mingzhu was a guest of CCTV in 2015, he publicly mentioned that Gree really had patented technology from 2012. In 2012, it happened that Zhu Jianghong officially left Gree. Some insiders believe that this remark has a strong meaning of "de-Zhu Jianghong".
In Zhu Jianghong’s autobiography, it seems that we can also see some responses. He wrote: "Many media say that I am the boss who mainly focuses on technology and quality, regardless of sales. In fact, which of Gree’s sales policies and decisions has left my participation and formulation? " It seems to be responding to the statement that "Gree Electric’s marketing depends on Dong Mingzhu".
In the meantime, there was an embarrassing incident. When Zhu Jianghong retired, China Household Electrical Appliances Association held an award ceremony for Zhu Jianghong’s "20 Years of Dedication and Creation of Legends". However, after Zhu Jianghong, who retired only one month at that time, arrived in Beijing by plane, Gree didn’t arrange anyone to pick him up, so Zhu Jianghong had to take a taxi to the meeting place himself.
According to media reports, a person familiar with the matter said that it was because Dong Mingzhu was eager to put power in his own hands and rejected the "Zhu faction" internally. Under the strong shock of Dong Mingzhu, no one in Gree Beijing Company dared to arrange the pick-up without authorization. After Zhu Jianghong arrived at the meeting, he shed tears.
But even two people with such different personalities, who don’t like each other’s ways of doing things, can still work together for more than 20 years, creating a billion rivers and mountains of Gree, which is also a miracle. Some people say that "it is Zhu’s blessing for Zhu Jianghong to meet Dong Mingzhu, and it is Dong’s luck for Dong Mingzhu to meet Zhu Jianghong." No matter who makes it, Gree can come to this day, or it is all due to fate. (Zhongxin Jingwei APP)