Chapter 54 Xinxin observes the "political game" of entrepreneurs

On the growth path of Chinese companies, the close relationship between enterprises and the government is far beyond the imagination of ordinary scholars.This is not just a matter of rent-seeking and profit-seeking, but is caused by the transformational logic of the Chinese economy.With the deepening of reforms, China's business will never enter the situation of "politics belongs to politics, and economy belongs to economics". On the contrary, the closeness between politics and business will become higher and higher.We observe the failures of enterprises in the mid-to-late 1990s, such as Sanzhu, Aiduo, Qinchi, etc., most of which were mistakes in the marketing strategy of entrepreneurs; while the failures of enterprises in the past five years, such as Brilliance, Delong, and Green Cole, Tieben, Sanjiu, etc., all showed a strong atmosphere of political and business games.

This feature requires entrepreneurs to have certain political qualities.At many critical moments, the "political game" of entrepreneurs often determines the fate of the company.Yang Rong showed amazing talent in business, but lost his mind in handling political and business relations, so that he fell suddenly at the peak of his career.The most important reason for this outcome is the failure of the political game.In contrast to his "confrontational type", we can also summarize some other types. ●"Dependent"—early reforms often have the characteristics of being typical first, and those entrepreneurs who are selected as typical reforms sometimes have an illusion, thinking that since they are typical, the government will not let me down .The most typical one is Bu Xinsheng. In 1983, Bu Xinsheng, the director of the Haiyan Shirt General Factory, became a "living role model" for the whole country to learn from because of strict management. The political halo made Bu Xinsheng relax his management and was busy with speeches and presentations every day.Later, he once said to people: "I had an illusion at the time. Since the Party Central Committee set me up as a model, I would definitely not be let down. What can't be done?" Afterwards, the enterprise was unsustainable, and no one could protect him. In the end, he resigned sadly and stopped his career as an entrepreneur.

●"Abusive type"—become famous because of the reform, but abuse the hard-earned credit. Around 1991, Mou Zhong of the Nande Group, who had neither foreign trade rights nor aviation rights, nor enough cash, exchanged a few truckloads of Sichuan canned food for Soviet aircraft, and he became a "capitalist". pioneer.At that time, national public opinion and local governments were full of respect for him.However, Mou Zhongzhong never did a serious business again. He gave speeches and promises everywhere, often talking nonsense.Over the past few years, his continuous, jaw-dropping, and mischievous promises have finally caused him multiple breaches of trust in the political, economic, media, and public levels.

●"Borrowing"—China's reform is very cyclical, and a new trend of thought will be formed at each stage, and those who are good at borrowing will naturally become the most likely beneficiaries.In this regard, many veteran private entrepreneurs are among the masters.Wu Renbao, a well-known peasant entrepreneur who served as the village party secretary for 48 years, and Wu Renbao of Huaxi Village in Jiangsu, once said bluntly: "Political advantages should serve economic construction, and Huaxi Village has never wavered in this regard." It is said that he must be on time every night Watch the news broadcast and speculate on the political weather vane from it. In 1992, as soon as Deng Xiaoping's southern talks were made public, he convened a meeting that night, predicting that China's economy would grow again at a high speed, so he decided to hoard steel products, and later made a fortune.

Among the foreign businessmen, Huang Hongnian is the most typical.After the publication of Deng Xiaoping's speech on the South, it became a consensus to speed up opening up.At this time, Huang Hongnian, the son of a wealthy Indonesian businessman, came to China for the first time. He first established a Zhongshi company in Hong Kong, claiming that it was to "cooperate with China's reform and opening up strategy", and then carried out large-scale acquisitions in China.His mergers and acquisitions were basically "mayor's projects": communicating directly with the top leaders of the government, taking advantage of their eagerness to create reform results, taking advantage of Deng Xiaoping's talk in the south, using political cards well, holding high and building momentum.In just over a year, Zhongce invested US$452 million to purchase nearly 300 state-owned enterprises.After that, Huang Hongnian sold high-quality resource packages to other multinational companies or listed them overseas, becoming the most profitable foreign capital investor at that time.

●“Even if you are out of style”—keep one step away from politics. This is another famous saying of Lu Guanqiu, chairman of Zhejiang Wanxiang Group, another private entrepreneur. Therefore, he has become an “evergreen tree” in the business world.Lu Guanqiu became famous very early, and became one of the representatives of township enterprises in the mid-1980s.When the China Association of Township Enterprises was established, the chairman was concurrently held by the Minister of Agriculture, and the two vice-chairmen were Yu Zuomin and Lu Guanqiu.In the creation of corporate history, I collected a very interesting detail: In 1993, Yu Zuomin confronted the Tianjin Municipal Government openly, and the conflict intensified.Lu Guanqiu, who has a good relationship with Yu Zuomin, once sent a letter of condolences, including the word "throwing rats and taboos", which means to comfort Yu Zuomin. The government should consider his reform influence and not give severe discipline.However, the future developments were far beyond his expectations.After this incident, Lu Guanqiu began to rethink the game relationship between entrepreneurs and the government. Today, more than 10 years later, the political color on him has been very light, showing the true qualities of a seasoned family entrepreneur.