Chapter 20 Gu's New Deal: I have 20 cents in a dollar

Never before has an entrepreneur carried forward with such a strong and difficult to resolve suspicion like Gu Chujun.Any of his actions will be marked with question marks, his every word will be guessed, and all his data will be regarded as unreliable.To a large extent, people "alienated" their sympathy for Pan Ning and regret for Kelong into rejection and hatred for Gu Chujun.He has acquired a string of embarrassing titles in the various media: "The Helpless," "The Outlier," "Professional Liar," "The Robber Baron," "Super Broker," and more.Once, Gu Chujun said aggrievedly: "I am the Sun Zhigang of the business world."

In China's transformation period, many entrepreneurs have secrets in the primitive accumulation stage in the early stage of entrepreneurship. They lurk there like nightmares and may be horribly detonated at any time.The reflection, repentance and cleansing of this original sin experience tested the wisdom of entrepreneurs.The method used by Gu Chujun may be the most "clumsy" one. In the face of all kinds of doubts from the media, he always adopts a method of fierce confrontation and no explanation.When answering the source of the money, he said impatiently: "Money is not a problem. As long as there is a good project, I will buy it without hesitation." Even greater doubts and resentment made him come to the center of people's sights without losing his basic credibility.

In fact, Gu Chujun suffered heavy losses in the battle of Kelong.In order to raise funds to buy shares, he reduced his holdings of 80 million Greencool shares and cashed in HK$248 million.One month after announcing the acquisition of Kelon, Caijing published a news investigation of "A Closer Look at Greencool", pointing out many major doubts about the company's astonishing performance. , the market value evaporated by 2 billion Hong Kong dollars, and Gu Chujun lost more than 1.3 billion yuan in net worth.In this sense, the cost of his acquisition of Kelon is far greater than 348 million yuan.Therefore, at a press conference at the Great Wall Hotel in Beijing, he said dejectedly: "Some people say that I became famous in the first battle, but the price of my fame is too high. I lost 1.3 billion in 3 days. I am this year. The unluckiest man in business."

Although the method of becoming the leader of Kelong is ambiguous, to be fair, Gu Chujun has shown his determination and superb means to save Kelon from danger after he took charge.After Pan Ning, he may be the second person who really regards Kelon as his own company. His basic judgment on Kelong was not wrong.Although this is a company that has been hollowed out internally, its sales network is still sound, its brand image is still intact, and its technological leadership in the refrigeration industry has not been lost.Therefore, as long as strict cost control and optimized management are carried out, it is still a salvageable situation.Therefore, after entering Kelong, he quickly launched the "Gu's New Deal".

First, he took drastic measures on cost control.He often said: "If you spend one dollar from Kelon, you will get 20 cents from me, Gu Chujun." After all the previous troubles, Kelon's internal management has become a mess, with management failure and internal thieves seeking profit. Phenomena abound.Gu Chujun acts sternly and restores order.He first consolidated the finances, then dismantled and merged departments, and implemented transparency in parts procurement and other links that are prone to corruption.Once these measures were implemented, the cost of purchasing 50 million yuan of components in half a year saved 10 million yuan compared with before.He also slashed administrative and marketing budgets.According to the records of He Zhimao, author of the book "Red Black Kelong", during Xu Tiefeng's time, the vice presidents and above were all Mercedes-Benz cars, and the annual maintenance cost of each car was nearly 200,000 yuan.

Six months after Gu Chujun took over Kelon, the maintenance cost of similar vehicles dropped by 70% year-on-year, while the marketing cost of the marketing department dropped by 30% compared to before.In the front line of production, he vigorously promotes "value engineering", conducts a comprehensive analysis of the functions and performance of products, and eliminates excess functions, so as to reasonably save raw materials or processing costs.There is an F-type refrigerator product. After he re-planned the process, the cost per unit dropped by 70-80 yuan.At the company's mid-level and high-level meeting, he said: "I am here, and I can deal with problems mercilessly. Either you can reduce costs, or you dismiss the get out of class. In the past, when someone greeted you, you had to save face, but now there are no people who say hello." " He also half-jokingly and half-seriously said to the cadres who followed him into Kelong: "You must do well, otherwise, before I jump off the building, I have to push you down first."

Gu Chujun's high efficiency is surprising.In the third month of his tenure, he launched two new products: discrete cycle refrigerators and high-efficiency refrigeration refrigerators. His advertising slogan is similar to the sensational language he used when he was making Xiaokang air conditioners - "Global refrigerators are epoch-making Technology”, he claimed that the new refrigerators using Greencool refrigerants greatly surpassed the globally recognized energy-efficient Japanese refrigerators in terms of energy efficiency.At the same time, he lowered the price of his Huabao air conditioner in an all-round way by as much as 40%, re-entering the fiercely contested market in a price war.Refrigerators and air conditioners originally belonged to the same marketing channel. It is obviously a very clever integration strategy to promote Kelon refrigerators with high-tech concepts and stimulate dealers with ultra-low-priced Huabao air conditioners. With results, Kelon products, once sluggish, returned to the mainstream of the market.

Under his strong leadership, a large number of Kelon's former ministers left one after another, while the business operation was gradually normalized.From March 2002, when he officially took office, within half a year, Kelon's internal setup has been reduced from 11 departments to 7, and the number of departments has changed from 34 to 22. Internal illegal funds of 260 million yuan have been found, and the cost of air conditioning has dropped. 25.3%, and the cost of refrigerators dropped by 40.6%.Also in the past six months, Gu Chujun's hair has turned half gray, and he looks almost 10 years older than his actual age. The 2003 mid-year report revealed that Kelon Electric made a profit of 112 million yuan, reversing the loss-making situation of several years in one fell swoop.

After Gu Chujun's accident, many media reporters came into contact with Kelon personnel. Although they had mixed opinions about him, almost all of them agreed with his dedication to cost control and iron-fisted management.