Chapter 34 1. The fate of the Iron Lady

Perhaps because of her personality or her special status, Dong Mingzhu, vice chairman and president of Zhuhai Gree Electric Appliances Co., Ltd., who is usually unsmiling and has a powerful voice, has always given the industry a very serious impression, even domineering and arbitrary.In fact, Dong Mingzhu was a quiet and lovely girl when she was a teenager. In the memories of her classmates and neighbors, she always smiled and listened to other people's words and seldom spoke. She agreed with almost everything others said, and she was an obedient girl.But she has a prominent advantage since she was a child that she is more persistent. If she wants to learn something, she must learn it.But in her heart, like any other girl, she is a romantic, naive, and fantasy-loving person.She especially wanted to be a teacher to help others, and later she wanted to be a soldier to protect others. She felt that this was very noble and great.Dong Mingzhu's parents are the kind of careless and kind people.When entertaining guests, I will eat ordinary dishes and leave good things for others to eat.I cook delicious food at home and share it with my neighbors.My father is upright, treats others equally without being snobbish, and dares to protect others.The family didn't set many rules for her, only one principle: don't do bad things.Influenced by her parents, she has also developed a frank, strong and helpful character.The years passed silently, and Dong Mingzhu's life trajectory was as ordinary as most people.Graduated from Wuhu Cadre Education College in Anhui, majoring in statistics, started working in July 1975, entered a chemical research institute in Nanjing to do technical work, and then got married and had children.

In the 1980s, when the tide of reform came from the south, she was inevitably touched.Then, an accident occurred in the family life: the husband died of illness, and the son was only two years old at this time, and the family was about to be overthrown.The misfortune of life did not overwhelm Dong Mingzhu, and her strong character determined her life development trajectory.She is unwilling to rely on others, unwilling to let others give alms, and would rather rely on her own efforts to achieve achievements. In 1990, Dong Mingzhu resolutely resigned from his job in Nanjing and left his family and business to enter Shenzhen.Since then, he has formed an indissoluble bond with Gree.

In 1985, the state-owned enterprise Zhuhai Special Economic Zone Industrial Development Corporation established Guanxiong Plastic Co., Ltd. This small state-owned factory has only a hundred people. It first made accessories for TV and tape recorder companies, and later made accessories for fan companies.Although the equipment is advanced, due to poor management, it has been unsatisfactory in the past three years since its establishment, with a loss of more than 2 million.The workers couldn't get paid, so they had to go to Gongbei Customs to resell cigarettes to make a living.Until 1988, a middle-aged man who later created Gree by himself returned to Zhuhai from his position as the director of Guangxi Baise Mining Machinery Factory and became the general manager of Guanxiong.He led the staff to quickly develop a series of household electrical appliances with injection molding parts as the main accessories, and quickly turned losses into profits. In 1989, the factory earned more than 700,000 yuan, and in 1990 it earned more than 4 million yuan. The fish turns over".

His name was Zhu Jianghong, and he later became Dong Mingzhu's boss and partner for eighteen years.Because the "Hai Le" trademark developed by Guanxiong was preempted by others, Zhu Jianghong created the "GREE" trademark, which was adopted by the superior Zhuhai Special Economic Zone Industrial Development Corporation and became the trademark of the entire group. . In 1987, Haili Air Conditioner Factory, another enterprise under Zhuhai Special Economic Zone Industrial Development Corporation, was established. It was also a small state-owned factory, and it was a small workshop that relied on a bank loan of 200,000 yuan to maintain its operation.

In 1990, Haili had just started production, and there was only one outdated window machine assembly line. The annual output of air conditioners did not exceed 20,000 units, and the sales revenue was more than 20 million yuan, a considerable part of which still did not receive money.Haili not only has a small scale and its products are not sold well, but also has serious problems in product quality.Often the newly packaged products are pulled out with joy, and it doesn't take long for some of them to be pulled back in disgrace.Once a batch of air conditioners were delivered to the customer's home by agricultural vehicles, but they could not be started after installation. It turned out that the copper pipes in the air conditioners were broken when the agricultural vehicles shook during transportation.In addition, the noise of the air conditioner is very loud, and it is like a plane circling back and forth overhead in the dead of night.In view of Zhu Jianghong's outstanding ability, in 1991, Zhuhai Special Economic Zone Industrial Development Corporation decided to let him serve as the director of Haili Air Conditioner Factory. At that time, Guanxiong Plastic Industry Company and Haili Air Conditioner Factory merged to form Gree Group Electric Co., Ltd. , Gree Electric was born out of nowhere.Dong Mingzhu, who is new to the industry, is both strong and timid, eager to adapt to the new environment as soon as possible and enter the role.At that time, many salesmen sold their products while drinking and eating.Dong Mingzhu doesn't drink alcohol, she is very principled in doing things, and she doesn't know how to "act on occasion", which can be described as a congenital deficiency.She half-believes some rumors: Some salesmen drink with customers, and the customers say they can buy as much as they want after a drink, but they drink themselves hard and roll on the floor drunk.Some female salespersons think that they are women, so they have better conditions than men in marketing, how to accompany customers, and so on.However, the stubborn Dong Mingzhu does not take this speculative path at all.Dong Mingzhu has lived under the traditional system for more than 30 years, and the people she deals with are all responsible people. How should those cunning businessmen deal with them?Whether we can gain a foothold in such an unfamiliar environment is a realistic and urgent question.But she always believes that only doing things down-to-earth is the most important thing.Dong Mingzhu spared no effort to run here and there with the old salesman, and achieved sales of more than 3 million yuan with the old salesman, and became familiar with the installation, configuration, use and maintenance of air conditioners, and knew how to communicate with them. Deal with different dealers.These practices have allowed her to initially form confidence in herself: there is nothing in the world that you don’t know, only those you don’t learn.

More importantly, relying on the sales commission, she and her child's life finally had a preliminary guarantee.In the early days of Gree’s start-up, Dong Mingzhu spent 40 days chasing debts from a bad debtor. Confidence enough to keep going.The debt collection experience has made Dong Mingzhu start to think about how to deal with the relationship with the dealer to ensure a win-win situation, that is, to ensure integrity and fairness.A dealer emphasized that he gave Dong Mingzhu 200,000 yuan, but asked for 400,000 yuan in goods. At that time, it was the seller's market. After arriving, Dong Mingzhu only sent 200,000 yuan in goods.In doing so, the other party thought that she had broken her promise, but she would definitely keep her promise at the time.In order to increase the dealer's confidence, Dong Mingzhu desperately helped him push the market, and sold all the 200,000 yuan worth of goods in just a few days.This kind of behavior moved the dealers, gained their trust, and made dealers in many places gradually adapt to this habit.Since then, there has never been a penny in arrears in the sales area Dong Mingzhu is in charge of.That year, Dong Mingzhu achieved sales of 16 million yuan, fought a beautiful battle that was envied by his colleagues, and opened up Gree's sales situation in Anhui Province.Afterwards, Dong Mingzhu was sent to the extremely competitive Nanjing market. Within a year, sales in the Nanjing market soared to 36.5 million yuan.The frequent good news from the marketing frontline attracted the attention of Zhu Jianghong, the general manager of Gree Electric Appliances at the time.

In 1995, Dong Mingzhu was transferred back to the headquarters of Gree Electric Appliances in Zhuhai to take charge of the operation department of Gree Electric Appliances. After a series of reforms, the once lazy and backward department was reorganized into a model department of Gree Electric Appliances.Gree in the early days was a little-known small brand, and it was difficult to attract the attention of consumers and dealers in the mainstream market at that time.At this time, domestic air-conditioning brands such as Chunlan and Huabao are in full swing, with an annual production and sales scale of hundreds of thousands of units and an annual output value of hundreds of millions. To achieve a career, you need to support it with pure faith and a strong heart.Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, who is known as the world's chief executive, said: "For me, great enthusiasm can cover all the ugly. If there is any one quality that successful people share, it is that they are better than others. Others are more passionate." Dong Mingzhu has this crazy passion.Dong Mingzhu has been selling Gree air conditioners in Nanjing for more than two years. She is in the market almost every day. She seldom goes home to see her mother and children.When the smoke from the air-conditioning battle cleared, she decided to go home and spend a few days with her mother and children.As a result, before returning home and saying a few words to the child, he suddenly received a call from the company, asking him to return to the headquarters to handle the work of the business department, and once again hurriedly packed his luggage and set foot on the train.At the moment of seeing off at the station, his son shook his little hand to Dong Mingzhu, with tears on his face.The siren blared, and Dong Mingzhu couldn't hold back her tears.Dong Mingzhu, who grew up with Gree, has experienced Gree's transformation from a small enterprise with an annual output of 20,000 units to a production capacity of 13 million units. From an unknown small brand to today's well-known brand-name products, you can It is said that earth-shaking changes have taken place.But she is still not satisfied, "But I think my goal has not been achieved. I hope that Gree air-conditioning can become a brand for global consumers, not just Gree in China." Marketing is a very challenging job, and it can fully It fully reflects the hard-working side of life.If you are simply a technician or a manager, you only face a single thing, while doing marketing is to face a complex market. You need to communicate with more people and let others accept your product. There are many skills in it.Dong Mingzhu believes that the most fundamental thing in marketing is to be honest. If you grasp this point well, there is nothing you can't do.Her experience is that if you pay attention to others, love others, and help others overcome their difficulties, then in the end, all the friends and partners you come into contact with will try their best to help you share your difficulties.In the face of challenges, Dong Mingzhu still strives to stick to her principles.She is unwilling to use drinking or kickbacks to solve the problem like some colleagues do, because similar problems will repeat again and again, when will this end?Only try to persuade the other party to accept your product, this is the solution once and for all.In an interview, Dong Mingzhu, who has always been known for her marketing, was quite surprised by her interpretation of marketing.

Dong Mingzhu believes that the success of an enterprise comes from many aspects. First of all, it should not depend on other people's technology or capital.Marketing is important, but business management is even more important. Marketing is not absolute. Enterprises should pay more attention to internal management. If there is no good management, there will be no good marketing.Air-conditioning is already a mature product, and companies are facing fierce competition and unpredictable market conditions. The success of an enterprise depends not only on marketing, but also on leading technology and management.Over the years, Gree has made no mistakes in marketing, and its policies and decisions are often imitated by other companies.It can be said that Gree's today is inseparable from a reasonable overall operation without obliterating the marketing credit.In essence, the marketing model is just an integral part of the overall marketing strategy of the enterprise. In addition to the marketing model, the operation of the enterprise also includes important aspects such as product planning, brand building, and corporate culture construction.Therefore, Dong Mingzhu's personal ability is very important, but it does not mean that he can conquer the world. The proper operation of Gree as a whole is the guarantee for the success of the enterprise.There is no way to do things well without offending others. The only choice is to be brave in taking responsibility. Only a leader with a pure spirit can create an internal atmosphere of striving and enterprising and bring out a strong marketing team.And Dong Mingzhu is such a leader. She has a responsibility, acts vigorously and resolutely, and leads Gree to create one brilliance after another.Because of Dong Mingzhu's outstanding performance in marketing, there is a saying that there would be no Gree without Dong Mingzhu.In her own opinion, there are some factors like this, but the bigger factor is not herself, but the quality of Gree products and the joint efforts of all leaders and employees.Dong Mingzhu attributed her early success to Zhu Jianghong’s trust in herself, “If he hadn’t been resourceful and decisive, and he was not ashamed to ask his subordinates, my voice as an ordinary salesman would not have been adopted.” Yes, without Dong Mingzhu, there would be no Gree, without Gree, there would be no Dong Mingzhu today.The relationship between Dong Mingzhu and Gree is inseparable. The encounter between Dong Mingzhu and Gree is of great significance. This extraordinary encounter has created both Gree and Dong Mingzhu.