Chapter 70 Shangdao 69 Integrity is the foundation of doing business

The essence of business: In the view of Wenshang, integrity is the foundation of business. No wonder Wenshang can get tens of millions of loans with a single signature, relying on his own integrity. Integrity is a traditional moral character in Chinese thought, the most respected moral creed of Chinese businessmen, and the basis for their fortune and development.In modern society, honesty has more important meaning.We know that social behavior among people is functionally based on cooperation and exchange.For example, in factories, villages, government agencies, and companies, people's work is carried out in a cooperative manner, and even in a family, cooperation is indispensable.Exchange and transfer are essential in cooperation.The most typical is in the commercial field, buying and selling, entrusting, recruiting, hiring, etc., almost every kind of cooperation or exchange involves keeping promises and keeping promises.Between individuals and between groups, the multi-level nature of keeping promises and covenants is reflected.In modern society, in addition to the rigid provisions of the law to ensure the credibility of the exchange behavior, a person can only establish a reputation by relying on long-term honesty and trustworthiness. Reputation itself is valuable, and it is a passport for a person and an enterprise. , credit card, honesty and trustworthiness in life, this is the motto of our ancient nation in modern society.

However, many people now seem to be accustomed to the deceptions that surround them, and some people even admire the "capable people" who are able to deceive.Some people even think that "no business, no fraud", so despicable acts of cheating, cheating, reneging on accounts and harming others, cheating and slaughtering, and manufacturing and selling fakes frequently appear in the business field.This kind of person thinks he is smart, but in fact he is extremely stupid. He shoots himself in the foot with a stone, which harms others and himself. To a certain extent, the market economy is an economy of integrity. Without integrity, the market economy cannot operate at all.In today's increasingly fierce competition, honesty has become an indispensable "intangible capital" for everyone to gain a foothold in society, and keeping credit is one of the survival concepts that everyone should have.How dare people deal with a person who doesn't keep his word and doesn't count for what he says?In terms of "integrity", Wenshang has also experienced a process of shame and backwardness.

This is what happened in the 1980s.A young woman from the north bought a pair of fashionable Wenzhou leather shoes for her fiancé. Unexpectedly, at the wedding banquet two days later, the groom’s leather shoes were opened. Upon closer inspection, they were filled with horse manure paper.Annoyed, the young couple mailed the broken shoes to the mayor of Wenzhou City, asking Wenzhou people to cheat people with such inferior leather shoes, would the mayor be red-faced? In fact, the mayor couldn't say anything. When the market economy was chaotic and disorderly, he often received similar parcels.Due to the lack of effective constraints, among the thousands of leather shoe factories and hundreds of thousands of supply and sales personnel in the city, there are not a few people who produce and sell such "morning and evening shoes" that are worn in the morning and worn out in the evening. Where do you manage?

The famous "Liushi Kuroshio" and "Burning of Wuling Gate" incidents reduced the market reputation of Wenzhou merchants to zero.The former refers to the low-quality low-voltage electrical appliances in Liushi; the latter refers to the burning of more than 5,000 pairs of inferior Wenzhou leather shoes in the Wulinmen market in Hangzhou.These two incidents had a great impact on Wenzhou: not only the factory was inspected, the storefront was closed, the products were destroyed, and the contract was voided. For a while, Wenzhou merchants became synonymous with fraud and profiteers, and Wenzhou goods became fake and shoddy. Substitute name.

The disastrous consequences caused by the lack of credit in the early stage of the market economy made Wenzhou businessmen understand the importance of honest business spirit earlier, and they understood why they could get real returns and long-term wealth from the market. After the whole industry suffered humiliation, most business owners in Wenzhou are fully aware of the truth that "good quality companies prosper, and poor quality companies die".Later, under the guidance of the Wenzhou government, striving to create famous brands has become a common practice, and the awareness of brand, quality and credit has been continuously enhanced.Also because of this, from 1994 to 1995, Yu Jinhua advertised on CCTV and took the lead in launching the "Made in Wenzhou" brand.

Yu Jinhua's father, Yu Ashou, is an old shoemaker. He has witnessed and experienced the changes of the Chinese shoe industry with his own eyes. Yu Ashou, who started making shoes at the age of 12, started his business in 1973 by renting a shoe stall. He is kind and honest. Because he is the oldest in the shoe industry, he has a high reputation in Wenzhou and is honored as "Leather Shoe Shou". "Leather Shou" clearly remembers that Wenzhou leather shoes sold well when he first opened a shoe stall. Many Wenzhou bosses rushed to start the leather shoe business, and even some people who never knew the leather shoe production process also used hammers and scissors .A few people take the lead, and everyone rushes to it. In order to pursue profits, they will not hesitate to shoddy the inferior ones, which makes the quality of Wenzhou leather shoes drop sharply, and the reputation is ruined. Consumers hate Wenzhou shoes.Some reputable shoe merchants have also been blamed, such as Wang Zhentao of Aokang Shoes, and Yu and his sons of Gilda.At that time, there was a lot of condemnation of Wenzhou shoes, and even Wuhan shopping malls, which had the best sales of genuine Wenzhou leather shoes at that time, had to remove Wenzhou leather shoes from the cabinet.

Back then, Wenzhou's shoe industry was besieged on all sides, which made "leather shoes longevity" a painful experience.Under the contact of relevant departments in Wenzhou City, Yu Ashou shouldered the moral responsibility and resolutely prepared to establish the Footwear Association, serving as the president for four terms.During this period, he and the directors of more than 370 shoe factories jointly issued a proposal: to ensure the quality of Wenzhou leather shoes, not to earn a penny of ignorant money, and to regain market credit.During his 8 years in office, Yu Ashou spent half a day working in his own factory, and half a day driving to various factories and shopping malls for supervision and guidance.Having experienced the pain of dishonesty, Wenzhou Shoes finally won back the market by relying on integrity.It took Wenzhou people 14 years to go from dishonesty to trustworthiness.

Today's Wenzhou merchants have regarded honesty as the foundation of their own business and the foundation of their lives.What happened to Gui Xiaohuan, a boss in Tongcheng City, Anhui Province, is enough to illustrate Wenshang's advocacy of honesty. Gui Xiaohuan, who is nearly 50 years old, is the owner of a cloth wheel workshop in Tongcheng, Anhui. The cloth wheel he produces is a professional product for polishing shoe soles. The price of each is between 30 and 80 yuan. Year one checkout.After the goods were delivered this time, more than 20 Wenzhou customers of Gui Xiaohuan issued him an IOU of 1.31 million yuan.This is the total amount of products sold by Gui Xiaohuan's family for more than a year. One day at the end of October 2002, Gui Xiaohuan, who was sold out, took a long-distance bus from Wenzhou back to her hometown in Anhui, in order to hurry up and send some cloth wheels to Wenzhou.As a small businessman, it is not easy to sell more than 130,000 yuan of goods. Unexpectedly, Gui Xiaohuan’s bag was lost in the car on the way home. It contained 36 IOUs issued by customers. That means that Gui Xiaohuan's 130,000 yuan of hard work for a year is gone.Gui Xiaohuan searched like crazy, but still couldn't find it.

The wife who got the news suddenly collapsed on the bed and didn't react for a long time. Gui Xiaohuan knew the rules of repaying money with IOUs, but without IOUs, would those Wenzhou bosses trust a small businessman from out of town?Gui Xiaohuan felt a little desperate.But without 130,000 yuan, it means that I have lost all my money and gone bankrupt. At this time, Gui Xiaohuan thought: "Anyway, let's treat a dead horse as a living horse doctor", and go back to Wenzhou again, try your luck, and pay as much as you want.So Gui Xiaohuan didn't listen to his wife's advice, and went to Wenzhou, and each family came to reissue the IOUs.Gui Xiaohuan's first target was the more formal Taima shoe factory. After learning about the situation, Chen Haiyong, the manager, said: "I lost the IOU? How many goods have not been paid? Whoever receives the goods should make up the IOU." Gui Xiaohuan I didn't expect that "asking for debts" was so easy, and I felt ecstatic, and immediately went to the financial office to make up the bill and received the money.

Gui Xiaohuan struck while the iron was hot.Immediately afterwards, he ran to four large shoe factories in one breath.Since these factories all have deposits or computer records, it didn't take a little trouble, or they made up the IOU or paid him in cash.In one morning, Gui Xiaohuan recovered the loss of more than 30,000 yuan, with a smile on her face.But then the worry turned into a bitter gourd: because a considerable part of the IOUs were issued by some small factories, and the IOUs of those small factories were issued casually. Don't admit it? The first one Gui Xiaohuan went to in the afternoon was a female boss. After knowing his intentions, the female boss said: "If you lose the item, you will lose it. As long as the goods are delivered, we will admit it, but I can't remember the exact amount. how much!"

Gui Xiaohuan's heart felt cold for a while, but she had something to say, once she became stiff.She couldn’t deny herself a penny, so she said, “Lady boss, you can take as much as you want.” The female boss said, “Hey, you can’t say that, we all make money by doing business, and we all need to be careful Integrity. Don’t think I’ll just rely on you if you lose your IOU, it’s impossible.” Later, the female boss remembered the amount at Gui Xiaohuan’s reminder, and paid him the money happily. In this regard, Gui Xiaohuan told people that we are all small businessmen, and I did not expect a rural woman in Wenzhou to be so honest. Credit is the real "magic weapon" for Wenzhou businessmen to make money.A small lighter is composed of 28 parts, and these parts are made by different suppliers.If any accessory supplier deviates, the whole lighter will go wrong.As a result, the supplier who does not keep promises will be kicked out by everyone. Wenzhou merchants value credit very much, and those who do not speak credit will never stand up in Wenzhou. Take borrowing money as an example. In many places, borrowing money is not an easy task, because in the end it is often "Huang Shiren" who is afraid of "Yang Bailao".But in Wenzhou, it is not difficult.Sometimes small short-term loans may not even require an IOU. People who borrow money will often repay the money in advance. Why is there such a big contrast?Because of a dishonest person, no one will deal with him next time. "This is a dishonest person." In Wenzhou, no one wants to end up with such a reputation. What is credit?Credit is money. Li Ka-shing said: "The beginning of an enterprise means the beginning of a good reputation. With reputation, there will naturally be financial resources. This is a must-have business ethics. Just like being a human being, be loyal, have integrity, and say to yourself Every word you say, every promise you make, must be kept firmly in your heart, and you must be able to keep it.”