Chapter 35 2. Standing in the same boat through thick and thin: Thanks to Zhu Jianghong

"You have made Mr. Zhu, and Mr. Zhu has made you—you have made Gree Electric together." Some relatives and friends said this to Dong Mingzhu in private.Although this sentence seems to overestimate the strength of the individual, from another perspective, it also shows the long-term fighting friendship between Dong Mingzhu and Zhu Jianghong.They have worked hand in hand with hardships and dangers for ten years, and have led the company into a new harbor of steady development.Behind a successful male entrepreneur, there is often a good female business partner.For example, Yang Mianmian is to Zhang Ruimin, Sun Yafang is to Ren Zhengfei, Dong Mingzhu is to Zhu Jianghong, and Liu Wei is to Shi Yuzhu.The "matching of men and women" in the leadership of Chinese enterprises is a unique management phenomenon in China that is different from the West, and it is also one of the most significant signs of women's progress in China in the past 30 years.In Dong Mingzhu's office, there is a sign: "Dedicate to the enterprise and forget yourself, a heroine who plays chess in the world".This is the birthday gift given to Dong Mingzhu by Zhu Jianghong, chairman of Gree Electric Appliances, in August 2005.That year, she was 51 years old.When Dong Mingzhu emerged, Zhu Jianghong, the most important creator and current chairman of Gree Electric Appliances, finally stood in the position that history arranged for him at the age of 46 after a lot of twists and turns.He is a native of Zhuhai, born in 1945, graduated from South China Institute of Technology at the age of 25, and was assigned to Guangxi Baise Mining Machinery Factory.Zhu Jianghong is a very talented but very low-key person.He returned to Zhuhai from Guangxi Baihuo in 1988 and started working as the director of Guanxiong Plastic Factory, a group company that belongs to Gree.At that time, the factory had more than 100 employees and suffered a loss of more than 2 million yuan. Zhu Jianghong turned the loss into a profit in the second year and made a profit of more than 700,000 yuan.

In 1991, Zhu Jianghong concurrently served as the director of Haili Air Conditioner Factory. In 1992, Haili changed his name to Gree Electric Appliances, and he started his Gree career.At that time, Gree was a complete mess. Not only was the scale of the company small, the sales of its products were not smooth, and there were serious quality problems in its products.Zhu Jianghong's background in technology quickly brought about a radical change in product quality, giving the product a new starting point in the market.In fact, Dong Mingzhu's success in Anhui is related to the quality of Gree's air conditioners that have been reborn this year.

In the autumn of 1992, Zhu Jianghong saw that Anhui's sales were 16 million, while the relatively affluent Jiangsu was only 3 million, so he went to East China to investigate.Zhu Jianghong arrived in Anhui first, and soon found that Dong Mingzhu was a "good seedling"—different from most salesmen who didn't consider the company's interests and only used their own abacus, Dong Mingzhu not only had a sense of responsibility and obligation, but more importantly, Also very thoughtful and savvy.On the car from Hefei to Nanjing, the road was short and the story was long. Dong Mingzhu introduced her marketing insights to Zhu Jianghong in detail.She said that a really good marketing policy is not only to sell the goods and earn money back, but also to form a stable and honest cooperative relationship between manufacturers and merchants to jointly create value for the society and consumers; Only by winning can the business last for a long time. If you don’t know how to protect the interests of others, you will lose your own interests in the end.These words reached Zhu Jianghong's heart.At that time, Zhu Jianghong was ambitious and wanted to achieve a career. With the improvement of product quality, the shortcomings of marketing became more and more obvious.From then on, he paid special attention to Dong Mingzhu, who was willing to endure hardships and work hard, and gave her opportunities again and again, while Dong Mingzhu returned the appreciation of this kind and kind leader with performance that exceeded expectations every time.Zhu Jianghong is a forward-thinking electrical appliance expert, and what is even more admirable is that he has a mind that most Chinese entrepreneurs rarely have.In order to cultivate the core competitiveness of the company, he handed over all human rights and financial rights to the vice president, while he focused on the research of technology development and gradually formed the core capabilities of Gree Electric's mold development and product upgrading.Over the years, he has led Gree's scientific and technological personnel to develop new products generation after generation, making the enterprise take off on the road of development relying on science and technology.In terms of talent selection, Zhu Jianghong adheres to the idea of ​​"eclectic and meritocracy", and cultivates the entrepreneurial spirit of "loyalty, friendliness, diligence, and enterprising". A good employment environment of "respecting, loving and using talents" has been formed.Nanjing is a rich place, but Gree’s experience in China’s richest market is very embarrassing: the new brand “Gree” has been in use for a summer, but there are still “Gree” brand products in the Jiangsu market. Under the market offensive of Chunlan and Huabao, they were powerless to fight back.At this time, Zhu Jianghong already trusted Dong Mingzhu very much, and handed over the Jiangsu market to Dong Mingzhu, hoping that she could open up the situation for Gree in this hottest air-conditioning market.

In 1993, Dong Mingzhu doubled Gree's sales in Jiangsu by 10 times, selling 36.5 million yuan.In addition to the Anhui market, Dong Mingzhu’s sales alone were 50 million, accounting for 1/6 of the entire company! In 1994, Gree’s sales in Jiangsu increased again to 160 million yuan, ranking among the top three with Chunlan and Huabao. Dong Mingzhu One person accounted for 20% of the total sales.Just when Gree Electric was booming and began to rank among the first-tier domestic brands, the vice president of sales of Gree Electric suddenly resigned en masse with 8 sales staff and 2 financial staff under the lure of high salaries from a newly established air-conditioning company nearby.When the news came, Zhu Jianghong was so surprised that he couldn't speak for a moment.He didn't try to keep him. He knew that if he only kept people, his heart was still erratic, and he couldn't become a real partner who could help each other.

At that time, there were also many people who wanted to win over Dong Mingzhu, and she was not at all tempted. Everyone has the right to choose their own development path, but morality still prevailed over interests.Dong Mingzhu chose to stay and develop together with Gree through thick and thin. In October 1994, Dong Mingzhu ended her three-year career as a salesman, returned to the headquarters of Gree Electric Appliances in Zhuhai, and took up the post of Deputy Director of the Operation Department.Since then, Zhu Jianghong has an additional partner who can share weal and woe. There is another more significant reason why Dong Mingzhu was reused.Gree Electric Appliances is a state-owned holding company, and its network of relationships and interests is intricate. In addition, the management system was not in place at the time, and the shortcomings of the system were becoming more and more obvious. At any time, the good situation that everyone has worked hard for several years may be lost. Jing Zhu Jianghong knows this well Ming, but there is nothing to do.He is generous and kind, and is known for his kindness. As a manager at that time, he "did not seize money or arrest people." He was not interested in these matters, and handed them all over to the deputy general manager. He devoted himself to the development of new products.Therefore, the important task of reversing the long-standing management malpractices is placed on Dong Mingzhu, who is capable and "hard-hearted".It is Zhu Jianghong's promise to Dong Mingzhu to be the head of operations in charge of marketing.However, this appointment encountered strong resistance from the company's top management, and some people only agreed to let Dong Mingzhu be the deputy minister.Zhu Jianghong can only let Dong Mingzhu be the deputy minister for a period of time and then become a full-time minister.But Dong Mingzhu not only didn't complain about this "little official", but did it with gusto.She works so hard that she only sleeps 5 hours a day, and even when she talks in her sleep, she talks about Gree.Whenever she has an idea, she will jump up in the middle of the night, pick up a notebook and write it down, and even call her colleagues to discuss it together. Many well-known marketing tricks are born in this way.In order to live up to Mr. Zhu's trust in her, Dong Mingzhu is not only strict with herself, but also with others.In the business department, arriving late and leaving early, drinking tea, reading newspapers, eating snacks and chatting are all "traditions" for many years.As soon as Dong Mingzhu came up, he caught the internal staff and trained the employees to tears.Zhu Jianghong is not good at expressing human feelings and sophistication, but Dong Mingzhu has always been very moved by his meticulous attention to colleagues and subordinates.

At the end of 1994, Dong Mingzhu broke her ribs. At that time, she was busy with work, and she didn't want to be hospitalized. Zhu Jianghong knew about it, and went to the operation department in person, and said to the employees: "You should also carry Dong Mingzhu to the hospital." After get off work every day Later, Zhu Jianghong often visited the hospital, often sitting for an hour or two, asking about Dong Mingzhu's recovery, or talking about work.When Dong Mingzhu took office, the receivables on the account books were as high as more than 50 million yuan, and a considerable part could not be recovered at all.For example, a company in Jinan clearly owed more than 1 million yuan in debt, but Gree Electric could not produce any valid certificates, and it was so strange that it was impossible to find out who was responsible internally.These loopholes made Dong Mingzhu very dissatisfied, and she was determined not to let such a phenomenon happen again.The market price of a leaflet is 0.2 yuan, but the price paid by Gree Electric Appliances is 0.88 yuan; the company spent 4.5 million to rent a billboard at the airport, but its back is facing the direction of the flow of people and can only be seen by gods...

Dong Mingzhu couldn't stand the behavior of harming public and private interests, so she ran to Zhu Jianghong's place, and opened her mouth to demand that all external finances be taken care of by herself.It is a taboo for subordinates to ask for power from their superiors. Of course, this has been opposed by many people, but Zhu Jianghong has seriously considered this request.When many people accused Dong Mingzhu of reaching out for power, Zhu Jianghong said calmly: "Operation and collection are now divided into two departments. There are indeed many problems in the finance of the inflow and outflow of goods. Some people have no money to give goods, and some people have money to take If the goods are not available, there will be problems if it continues like this. My opinion is to set aside part of Dong Mingzhu’s management, that is, the part of personnel and collection.” This is a compromise plan, but after all, let Dong Mingzhu take over part of the financial power , which played a great role in the entire business operation.Some people think that Dong Mingzhu is too "nosy", hindering their "financial resources", and united in an attempt to force Dong Mingzhu to step down.Whenever this time, Zhu Jianghong always gives Dong Mingzhu the most firm support.Not long after, Dong Mingzhu was promoted to the post of business manager. After taking office, he took drastic measures to clean up the debts and fully implemented the sales policy of paying first and goods later. As a result, Gree Electric never had a penny of receivables.

From 2003 to 2005, during the restructuring of Gree Electric Appliances, Zhu Jianghong was severely slandered, and Dong Mingzhu was also under pressure from various aspects. Gree was in turmoil for a while, rumors and rumors were flying everywhere, and everyone was in danger. Zhu Jianghong and Dong Mingzhu were calm in their hearts and worked together to overcome the greatest difficulty in history.Zhu Jianghong and Dong Mingzhu, it's hard to say who made who.Without the support of Zhu Jianghong, Dong Mingzhu would not be able to embark on such a brilliant path.Zhu Jianghong's broad mind, full trust in his subordinates, and courage to use talents boldly gave Dong Mingzhu a chance to show his talents.Whether it is the early "year-end rebate" and "shipment after payment", or the later regional marketing network, it would not be possible without Zhu Jianghong's strong support.

In 2001, the "Huaidi mutiny" occurred. Zhu Jianghong supported all the measures of Dong Mingzhu, decided to deal with it together with Dong Mingzhu, overcome difficulties together, and finally put down the civil strife.In Dong Mingzhu's second autobiography "Playing Chess Without Regrets", there is a special chapter "Standing Together Through Wealth and Rain", which talks about the tacit understanding of her career with Zhu Jianghong: "I hope one day I can surpass Mr. Zhu, and I believe he also hopes that I can surpass Mr. Zhu." He; but I also believe that Mr. Zhu hopes that he will always stand taller than me, just like he is the chairman and I am the general manager... Gree's development is inseparable from the sincere cooperation between the two of us. To put it a little bit out of line Otherwise, if I hadn’t come back in 1994 to help rectify the business department, Gree would not be where it is today. In this sense, Mr. Zhu is also lucky, if he doesn’t know me, it will be his great regret.”