Chapter 10 1. With great power comes great responsibility

If a person has not experienced setbacks in his life, he is not mature, and if he does not have enough will, he will never be a successful person.A person who does not believe in his own will is not a competent leader.As a manager, you need to have the will to lead.Here, let me tell you a little story: Sun Wu, a military strategist in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period, went to see King Helu of Wu one day. King Wu asked him if he could train female soldiers, and Sun Wu said, "Yes." The maid gave it to him.Sun Wu organized the court ladies into two teams, appointed the two most beloved concubines of King Wu as captains, taught them some basic military moves, and warned them to abide by military orders and not to disobey them.Unexpectedly, when Sun Wu started to issue the order, the maids thought it was fun, and they all laughed.Sun Wu thought he didn't speak clearly, so he repeated it again, and the maids still laughed when he ordered the second time.This time Sun Wu got angry and ordered the captain to be dragged out and beheaded on the grounds that the captain was incompetent in leadership.King Wu heard that Sun Wu wanted to behead his concubine, so he hurriedly interceded with him, but Sun Wu said: "Since the king has given them to me for training, I must manage them according to the army's regulations. Anyone who violates the military order will be punished." There are no exceptions for being punished." In the end, the captain was still killed.Seeing that he did what he said, the ladies in the palace turned pale with fright.When the order was issued for the third time, no one dared to laugh.King Wu was very angry with Sun Wu's domineering, and felt that Sun Wu didn't give him face too much.Sun Wu said: "Orders and prohibitions, clear rewards and punishments, this is the common law of military strategists, and it is the general rule for generals to govern the army; use the crowd to prestige, and the officials are strict. Only when the three armies abide by the law and obey orders can they defeat the enemy." King Wu listened to Sun Wu. After the explanation, the anger disappeared, so he abandoned the hatred of beheading the concubine and worshiped Sun Wu as the general.The enlightenment from this story is that whether an enterprise can be truly successful, it needs to adhere to the principle, and for this principle, it is even possible to "deny all relatives".As the saying goes, there is no rule without rules, and if the mechanism of any enterprise is destroyed, then its development will not last long.The collective resignation of Gree's business staff caused a great shock inside the company. At that time, the whole company was in danger. The major media also reported on it. Gree's internal affairs were temporarily clouded and people's hearts fluttered.Dong Mingzhu resolutely chose to stay when Gree was facing such a life-and-death situation, which required determination beyond others.General Manager Zhu Jianghong used to put his main energy on product quality and technology development, ignoring the business department. After this incident, he realized the importance of establishing and stabilizing the middle-level cadre team of the enterprise.A lot of problems left by the operation department have completely exposed the defects and deficiencies in management. How many middle-level cadres are competent?Since the problem first comes from the business department, the construction of the cadre team must first start from the business department.Zhu Jianghong decided to use the method of democratic elections to select suitable people from the following public opinion polls. Dong Mingzhu stood out and became everyone's first choice.She rose from a low-level salesman to the head of the business department.Regardless of personal interests or personal character, Dong Mingzhu has no intention of being an official.First of all, although the head of the business department has a high position and authority, she is a Qingshui yamen. She only has a dead salary and a little bonus, which is far less than the commission she gets as a salesman; secondly, as far as her nature is concerned, although she has the desire to do business, No desire to be an official.She is not a person who is greedy for wealth, she has a higher pursuit, which is difficult for ordinary people to understand.Dong Mingzhu accepted this hot position out of a sense of responsibility.

She wants to challenge herself to do something for the company and for those who trust her and support her.After experiencing the blow of the collective resignation of business staff, Dong Mingzhu believes that the power of sales staff should be limited.The best-selling of Gree air conditioners is due to the credit of all employees of the company, technicians, workers and company leaders. It is unreasonable for salesmen to receive excessively high bonuses.The salesman is an employee of the enterprise, and what he works for the enterprise is wages and commissions; although the dealer is not an employee of the enterprise, he earns profits from his sales.In this sense, there is no difference between the salesman and the dealer in the essential purpose of serving the enterprise.If an appropriate control strategy can be adopted and dealers are regarded as an extension of the enterprise, it is not impossible to replace salesmen in the traditional sense with dealers.In order to manage the sloppy sales teams in various places, Dong Mingzhu stipulated that the marketing salespersons of Vangelis are not allowed to take kickbacks, and if they take 1 cent, they will be fired immediately.A survey form was designed, asking the salesperson to carefully fill in when, where, who she met, what she did, and who can prove it; Winning more with less and occupying a high share of the market often In order to prevent behaviors that harm the public and benefit private interests, Dong Mingzhu made a decision beyond common sense shortly after she became the head of the business department in 1994: she went to general manager Zhu Jianghong to ask for financial rights.This is a very bold move. First of all, Gree is a state-owned enterprise, and all personnel decisions must be voted by the top leadership collectively. Dong Mingzhu’s behavior seems too crazy; secondly, although Chinese people love power, it is well known that Chinese people engage in power It is all done behind the scenes, and will never blatantly demand power like Dong Mingzhu.But Dong Mingzhu has her own ideas. In her opinion, the need for financial power is first of all because of the close relationship between the operation department and the finance department.

The operation department requires the dealers to pay first and then deliver the goods, but only the finance department knows whether the customer has money in the company's account and how much money he has.Some customers paid for the goods to Gree but could not get the goods, and some customers did not pay but got the goods.Sometimes the business department is about to deliver the goods, and the invoicer asks if the dealer has sent the payment, and the financial side always answers: "You can only find out after checking the accounts." In this way, no matter how hard the business department works, as long as there is a slight lack of cooperation from the financial department , It will also make it difficult for the operation department to operate normally. If things go on like this, I am afraid that it will return to Gree's previous management situation, with unclear responsibilities and disordered division of labor. This is absolutely intolerable for Dong Mingzhu.It is a taboo for a subordinate to ask for power from a superior, but Zhu Jianghong agreed on the spot after hearing Dong Mingzhu's reasoning. Afterwards, the person in charge of finance was very dissatisfied when he heard it, and told Zhu Jianghong that she would be controlled by no one. ?Zhu Jianghong thought about it and found it reasonable, so he asked Dong Mingzhu, if you take away the financial power, who will supervise you?Dong Mingzhu's answer is: Anyone can supervise, and you can come to check the accounts at any time.Her financial rights are not the right to use the property, but just to understand the company's payment situation. She controls this process in order to further speed up the response speed of the operation department.She pointed out that the finances do not need to be owned by herself, but the finance department must inform the operation department of the daily inflow and outflow of dealers at any time.In face-to-face communication, Dong Mingzhu's words were very straightforward. She wanted this power not to maximize her own power, but to be able to do one thing well.If Zhu Jianghong does not support, then she will not have the confidence to do it in Gree.Speaking of this, who does Zhu Jianghong support Dong Mingzhu?After consideration, and in order to balance the emotions of others, Zhu Jianghong adopted a compromise plan, which is to set aside a part of the finance department under her management, and Dong Mingzhu can get the power of personnel, functions and collection.This decision was quite ideal, and Zhu Jianghong was under great pressure to make this decision.You know, at the high-level discussion meeting, when many people heard that Dong Mingzhu wanted power, they were immediately excited: "Dong Mingzhu stretched out his hand to ask for power, but I can't give it to her!" "Is Dong Mingzhu stretching his hand too far?" " Isn't it all under her control? What if I make a mistake?" According to the Chinese way of thinking, it is a big taboo to take the initiative to ask for power, not to mention that Dong Mingzhu has just become the head of the business department.

But, on the other hand, Chinese companies always fail to improve their management, isn't it just because of this mindset?People are always used to following the rules and dare not break through themselves.Blindly relying on traditional management philosophy, in today's globalized market economy, how can we take the lead and preemptively strike?Dong Mingzhu dared to risk the world's dissatisfaction in this incident, firstly because her motive was for the enterprise, so she had no scruples; secondly, it was also due to her personality, she was not used to playing cards according to common sense .In fact, it is precisely because of this management style that is accustomed to breaking the rules and constantly innovating that Dong Mingzhu later helped Gree to achieve one after another impressive achievements on the road of development.In any case, Dong Mingzhu successfully obtained part of the financial rights she wanted.The opportunity was hard-won, and she knew that she must cherish and treat it with caution, and must use this rare power to create a new situation in Gree's business operations.Therefore, she first established a circular supervision mechanism with relevant colleagues: the plan is supervised by the finance; the finance is supervised by the invoicing clerk;After the system is established, the key depends on whether it can be truly implemented.If a good system is not enforced vigorously, it will still not be able to exert its due effect.Many companies have very perfect rules and regulations, and some companies even spend huge sums of money to ask large foreign consulting companies to help design the system, but in the end it is still difficult to get rid of the ending of failure. One of the reasons is that the good system is not implemented well.Dong Mingzhu's ability to create a series of marketing miracles since then is also due to her strict implementation of management rules and regulations, as well as strict selection and training of salesmen.Dong Mingzhu is not afraid of offending people, because the greater the power, the greater the responsibility, and the more people who may scold you.When you offend some vested interests and protect the interests of the majority, someone will definitely scold you, so when you have a lot of power, it is very important to dare to face yourself and challenge yourself.When Dong Mingzhu was a salesperson, she was very popular. Almost everyone said that Sister Dong was the best at talking, so people in the business department thought that her being a minister would be good for everyone.Some salespersons told her privately that when you are a minister, you should show some kindness to us and let us take care of them, and we will express to you together at the end of the year.They thought that after Dong Mingzhu became a leader, they could get more personally, but what they did not expect was stricter management.Some people in the company called her "three fires" as grasping internal affairs, auditing accounts, and punishing people.A tree that is beautiful in the forest will be destroyed by the wind. Since then, Dong Mingzhu has gained a bad reputation as "dominant" and "humane".People often think that Dong Mingzhu is too much of a hindrance, and they unite to force her to step down. At this time, Zhu Jianghong will give Dong Mingzhu the most steadfast support and come forward to do the work of her peers or superiors.With the passage of time, the "rectification movement" has been recognized by most people, and Gree employees' feelings for her have also turned into awe.

In 1995, a labor training center in Hainan Province caught fire. It was said that it was caused by a quality accident of Gree air conditioners. It was the peak season for air conditioner sales at that time. solve.Moreover, the first article of the compensation agreement drawn up by the two parties admits that Gree Electric is responsible for the fire. At this time, Dong Mingzhu was only the head of the business department and had no right to intervene in this matter. Seeing that the company handled the matter in such a "worse" manner, she could only sulk herself. In 1996, Dong Mingzhu was promoted to the general manager of the sales company.Just this year, the center in Hainan caught fire again, and the claim amount rose to 1 million. The company held a meeting to study the solution. If this problem is not handled properly, it will seriously affect the reputation of Gree Air Conditioning in the market. concerns, that may directly affect the sales of Gree air conditioners.The person in charge who handled this matter last year did not dare to take over this kind of troublesome matter at all, saying: "That guy is too difficult to deal with, and it seems that he will not be able to get through without paying compensation."Others followed suit.After all, now is the peak season for air conditioner sales, and if things get serious, it will directly affect Gree's brand image and sales this year.Dong Mingzhu was very angry about this incident last year, but she didn't expect that the other party would play this trick again this year, and she became angry all of a sudden. Now, she just happens to take care of this mess.Dong Mingzhu insisted on the lawsuit: "We must first investigate and then make a decision. If it is our problem, then we will sincerely compensate them. If it is not our problem, but the other party intends to extort money, we will not give any money to the other party! There was a fire last year, and another fire this year, if we lose money again, maybe they will have another fire next year!" What Dong Mingzhu said made sense, and the company decided to let her handle the matter with full authority.Dong Mingzhu sent a few people to go together to prevent the other party from making troubles, and talked with them on the phone every day. The people they sent took pictures, flipped through the drawings, looked at the scene, checked the records of the fire brigade, and after a lot of trouble, Gree Electric finally paid a penny. No compensation at all, the other party is obviously extorting money.In the third year, the center did not catch fire again.The local shareholders and the general manager of the Anhui sales company conspired to monopolize the property. They used both red and white methods. The banks, public security and other departments all targeted the locals. More than 100 people were gathered to fight each other with sticks. The young man who followed him trembled and cried, while she Calm and composed, dealt with it calmly, moved to Nanjing Remote Control, and then flew to Beijing Central Financial Work Committee to get Shangfang Sword, and everything was settled.Dong Mingzhu did not dare to be so tough when she gained power. Since the day she stepped into the marketing industry, she has shown a personal style of daring to face and challenge difficulties.To challenge difficulties, you must first dare to challenge yourself. If you don’t even have confidence in yourself, how can you challenge external difficulties?A leader once told Dong Mingzhu that people are a circle, from an ordinary employee to an official position, no matter how big or how high they are promoted, in the end, they still return to the starting point and are still ordinary people.Because there will always be a day when you step down from the official position, and then you will return to being an ordinary person.This sentence had a great influence on Dong Mingzhu, and it also made her realize that the degree of power actually means the degree of responsibility. The greater the power, the greater the responsibility, and the more people who may scold you.When you offend some vested interests and protect the interests of the majority, someone will definitely scold you.Therefore, when the power is great, it is especially important to dare to face yourself and challenge yourself.