Chapter 16 Chapter 12 Kelong: A Dragon Deliberately Hunted

In 1984, in Ronggui Town, Shunde, Guangdong Province, Pan Ning, who was only educated in the fourth grade of primary school, used parts instead of molds and soda bottles as test objects. The first two-door refrigerator in China was built under the simple conditions.There was a thunderstorm that day, and he rushed into the heavy rain alone and cried loudly. Pan Ning is the deputy director of the Gongjiao Office of Ronggui Town.At that time, it was common practice to start businesses in cities and towns in Guangdong, and many of these capable people were from grassroots cadres in townships.They are the people with the most advanced ideas in the local area, and more importantly, they can integrate various resources.Technically, Pan Ning relied on the support of the Beijing Snowflake Refrigerator Factory to manufacture refrigerators, and in terms of funds, the town government paid 90,000 yuan for the trial production.Therefore, this factory became a "township collective enterprise".This ownership of property rights ultimately determines the tragic fate of entrepreneur Pan Ning.In October of this year, Zhujiang Refrigerator Factory was established. The brand of refrigerators was "Rongsheng", and Pan Ning was appointed as the factory director.

One can imagine the hardships in the initial stage of the enterprise. At that time, the township enterprises were quite discriminated against.Pan Ning went to the most famous Xidan shopping mall in Beijing to sell refrigerators. A staff member crossed his legs and asked him: "What's the matter with Rongsheng? What level is it?" Pan Ning said: "We are a township enterprise." Then A staff member immediately issued an order to evict the guest. In 1986, Pan Ning wanted to ask Hong Kong film and television star Wang Mingquan to endorse the refrigerator advertisement.Because Wang Mingquan is a deputy to the National People's Congress, he had to ask his superiors for instructions before the advertisement was broadcast, but the report was typed up, like nothing.Therefore, for a long time, this advertisement can only be broadcast on local TV stations, but not on CCTV.

These status discrimination and institutional suppression did not cause fatal troubles to Kelong.Just like all township enterprises at that time, Pan Ning and his team actually enhanced their competitiveness. In the mid-to-late 1980s, well-known refrigerator companies in China all started by introducing production lines.Zhang Ruimin, who started his business in the same year as Pan Ning, saved a small factory on the verge of bankruptcy by running the ministry and introducing the last "indicator" Liebherr refrigerator production line in Germany.The most exaggerated thing is that 9 companies introduced the same type of Ariston refrigerator production line to the Italian Meloni company.In those years, 79 refrigerator production lines were introduced in China, which triggered a refrigerator war.Among these refrigerator factories, Zhujiang Refrigerator Factory is the most humble one, but it stands out because of its novel style, high quality and flexible marketing strategy.Although Pan Ning is not an expert, he regards quality and technological progress as his life.He asked Wang Mingquan to endorse the advertisement, and the planners thought hard about a lot of fancy advertisements, but in the end he settled on the most plain sentence: "Sound and sound, quality assurance."

Around 1989, the equipment and scale of Zhujiang Refrigerator Factory were no less than that of state-owned enterprises.In the winter of this year, a reporter from the "Economic Daily" wrote in his interview notes on Zhujiang Refrigerator Factory: "This township enterprise located in Ronggui Town, Shunde has 80 million yuan in fixed assets, 45% of which are imported equipment, and many large and medium-sized None of the state-owned enterprises have such good conditions. The principle of the factory is: buy whoever makes the best. The entire production line is 6 kilometers long and is composed of the best equipment from Europe, America and Japan. Medium-sized companies can’t match it.” In the Pearl River Delta, Rongsheng refrigerators have become the most well-known brand of home appliances, and in the national market, a duo pattern of “North Haier and South Rongsheng” has formed.

In the initial stage of the company, a very important fact is that the development and growth of Zhujiang Refrigerator Factory is inseparable from the full support of Shunde local government. At that time, South China was the first to lead the trend of reform and opening up, and the local government spared no effort to support township enterprises. Therefore, it brought about a prosperous scene of "fires in every town and smoke in every village".Among all the cities and towns, Shunde, Zhongshan, Dongguan, and Nanhai are known as the "Four Little Tigers of Guangdong" because of their most active economies.Shunde ranks first among the four little tigers, and its full support to Kelon is exemplary.One example has always been talked about: In the early 1990s, Pan Ning wanted to expand the factory area, but there was no land to acquire in Ronggui Town. The town leaders spread out the map, carefully calculated, and finally decided to blow up a hill in the town. , razed it to the ground, and asked Pan Ning to build a workshop.A reporter was deeply moved by this: "If other local governments can take care of enterprises in this way, how can there be any reason why the economy cannot develop?" Therefore, his report used "Terrible Shunde People" as the title.

Due to the open-mindedness and full support of the government, Shunde at that time was indeed very "terrible": 1/3 of the country's home appliance production was in Guangdong, and Shunde accounted for "half of the country". It was the country's largest refrigerator, air conditioner, water heater and disinfection. The production base of cupboards is also the world's largest manufacturing center of electric fans, microwave ovens and rice cookers. Rongsheng, Midea, Macro and Galanz are also known as "the four golden flowers of Chinese home appliances".Among the top 10 township enterprises in the country selected this year, Shunde unexpectedly occupied 5 seats.

The full support of the local government has created the Shunde enterprise group, and what is related to this is that the government also plays a very important and strong role in the business decision-making of enterprises. An intriguing detail is that many enterprises in the Pearl River Delta Entrepreneurs have half-official and half-business identities when they start a business: Pan Ning is the deputy director of the Industry and Communications Office of Ronggui Town, Shunde; Liang Qingde, who founded the world’s largest microwave oven company Galanz, was the deputy director of the Industry and Communications Office of Guizhou Town, Shunde; Before starting his business, He Boquan was the Secretary of the Youth League Committee of Xiaolan Town, Zhongshan.

At the end of January 1992, Deng Xiaoping, who was inspecting Guangdong and other places, made a special trip to inspect the Zhujiang Refrigerator Factory.The largest refrigerator manufacturing plant in China is equipped with the most advanced production lines in the world.Standing in the spacious and modern workshop, Deng Xiaoping looked very surprised.He asked: "What type of enterprise is this?" The accompanying comrades replied: "If you count by the administrative level, it is only at the stock level; if you count by the economic benefits and scale, I am afraid it is also at the Corps level." When Deng Xiaoping visited the factory area, He asked three times with emotion: "Is this a township enterprise?" It was during this process that Deng Xiaoping put forward the Deng's motto that will become famous all over the country in the future: "Development is the last word."

Not long after Deng Xiaoping left the factory, relevant agencies in Beijing announced the national production and sales ranking list of household electrical appliances. Zhujiang Refrigerator Factory was crowned the "No. .