Chapter 14 Figures in Corporate History: The Tailor Myth

On November 15, 1983, Bu Xinsheng, the director of Zhejiang Haiyan Shirt General Factory, went to work early in the morning. When he opened the newspaper, his face was flushed and his eyelids twitched. On the headline of the front page, he saw his own name.This long newsletter entitled "A Factory Director with Original Spirit - Bu Xinsheng" was published on the front pages of all Chinese party newspapers that day. Without any psychological preparation, Bu Xinsheng became the most dazzling corporate hero of the year. In Haiyan County, Bu Xinsheng is not very popular with his superiors. Since he became the factory director three years ago, he has started to carry out reforms in the factory according to his own ideas. Some workers who are not very diligent have been detained by him. Salary, and even fired two people. He implemented the bonus system in the factory, broke the "iron rice bowl" and "big pot of rice", and proposed "no cap on the top, no guarantee on the bottom", which made some old workers very dissatisfied. There are always some complaint letters written to the county and the province, which makes his life very difficult.Once, a reporter from Xinhua News Agency named Tong Baogen was interviewing in Haiyan. He thought Bu Xinsheng was very interesting, so he wrote an internal reference of "A Factory Director with Original Spirit-Bu Xinsheng".No one expected that on November 5, General Secretary Hu Yaobang would pick out this report from a pile of "internal references" and wrote a paragraph of instructions: "For those who are lax about their work and are content to be laymen for a long time, and become monks for a day For the leading cadres of enterprises who are beating the clock, Bu Xinsheng's experience should be a good medicine for curing diseases, so that they can learn from it." Ten days later, Xinhua News Agency issued Tong Baogen's newsletter to newspapers across the country as a "draft ", Hu Yaobang's instructions were issued in the form of "editor's note" at the same time. It is a tradition left by Mao Zedong to distribute certain remarks of the central leaders as "editor's note".In this way, the director of this shirt factory became a "living role model" for the whole country to learn from.

After Bu Xinsheng was selected as a model, all major news organizations across the country "moved after hearing the news", and "Bu Xinsheng fever" rose from the ground. Xinhua News Agency alone broadcast 27 reports in more than a month, with a total of 34,000 words Thousands of characters, all kinds of visiting groups and study groups poured into the small Haiyan County, and various central government agencies, provinces and cities invited Bu Xinsheng to give reports. The cloth scissors were included in the Chinese History Museum. The "Myth of Bu Xinsheng" gradually came into being. He not only became a management expert and business master, but was also "packaged" as a fearless fighter against the planned economic system.A reporter from the Associated Press vividly described in a news article on May 20, 1984: "His workers threatened to kill him, and his wife finally fell ill due to excessive worry and was admitted to a mental hospital. However, Haiyan, Zhejiang Mr. Bu Xinsheng, the director of the shirt factory, withstood the pressure from the 'left' forces and became a leader in the reform wave of the Communist Party in China. The 52-year-old tailor's son, when meeting with Western reporters yesterday, It tells how he fought against the egalitarianism of 'eating big pots of rice'." Such an image is undoubtedly tall, brave and popular, and it is what the era has repeatedly expected and called, as for whether it is Bu Xinsheng's true face seems to be unimportant.

It seems not an exaggeration to compare 1983 to "the year of Bu Xin's birth".In the 30 years since 1978, Bu Xinsheng has "enjoyed" the most publicity treatment. Some people compare it with the propaganda of Jiao Yulu and Lei Feng.However, the biggest difference between the three is that Jiao Jiao and Lei's learning activities were launched after their deaths, so they will no longer make mistakes, while Bu Xinsheng is different. Since it is a "myth", all higher-level departments of course hope that it will continue to shine and provide experience for the people of the whole country to learn from.Shirt factories originally won by style and pattern, and this advantage is difficult to be stabilized.Therefore, under the planning of the leaders and experts, the idea of ​​"Bu Xinsheng Garment Production Trust" was born spontaneously. Of course, the "Bu Model" who was born as a tailor had never heard of the word "trust". Fortunately, with the help of the leaders, Soon, under the advice of experts, Bu Xinsheng proposed to build a new suit factory and printing and dyeing factory to realize "one-stop" production of fabrics, shirts, suits and ties.His idea immediately received enthusiastic support from the higher authorities. At that time, support for Bu Xinsheng was support for reform, and no one dared to neglect it.His project was approved without a feasibility study, and the annual output was increased from 80,000 sets to 300,000 sets. Luxurious development opportunity.However, he obviously didn't know how to master it.In a later interview, he said to people, "At that time, I had an illusion that since the Party Central Committee set me up as a model, they would definitely not let me be dumped. Is there anything that cannot be done?"

This kind of thinking made Bu Xinsheng gradually drift away in the next two years.Once, when he went to other places to give a report, a construction contractor asked to build a suit workshop, and he readily agreed.When an assistant in the factory questioned this person's qualifications, he was furious: "You have the final say, or I have the final say?" Who knows that this contractor is really a liar, and quality problems occurred when the workshop was built on the second floor , had to blow up and rebuild.Another time, a tie factory in the suburbs of Shanghai hired Bu Xinsheng as a consultant, and he generously agreed to buy 130,000 ties to solve the "difficulties" for the factory.At this time, there was a backlog of more than 100,000 ties in his factory. After more than a year, he was unable to pay and had to default.The other party sued the Haiyan Shirt Factory to the court, and finally used a large truck to pay off the debt.

The Haiyan Shirt General Factory could not continue in 1985, and Bu Xinsheng, who had lost his pace, acted disorganized at this time. He came up with a trick, declaring that any resident of Wuyuan Town who pays 1,000 yuan can enter the factory. As a worker, I managed to scrape together quite a fortune, but the suits produced were not sold well, so I had to sell them at a reduced price. As a result, the "tea drinkers, fisherman and pig killers" in the town all wore them. Put on Bu's suit.By early 1988, the Haiyan Shirt General Factory was insolvent and practically bankrupt. On January 15, he was removed from the post of factory director.

This naturally became sensational news again.The uniformly distributed press release has a very long title-"Rough and Bossy, Taboo Diseases and Avoid Doctors."Bu Xinsheng was dismissed.The heavily indebted Haiyan Shirt Factory is now recruiting managers,” the reporter sternly wrote: “Bu Xinsheng can’t hold back in the face of achievements and honors, he is arrogant and complacent, rude and domineering, especially does not pay attention to learning the party’s principles and policies, and lacks modern management knowledge , leading to disordered corporate management, serious losses, and insolvency... Bu Xinsheng kept taboo about his illness and avoided medical treatment, and he is still unaware of it, and has failed the expectations of the party and the people." After his dismissal, Bu Xinsheng was abandoned like a shoe.He left Zhejiang and went to Beijing to set up a factory in March. After failing, he went north to Panjin, Liaoning. Later, he even went to Russia.Soon, he was forgotten. In July 1990, Lu Guanqiu, who had visited a shirt factory and had a close friendship with Bu (Lu Guanqiu news, let’s talk about Lu Guanqiu), learned that Bu Xinsheng was physically and mentally exhausted, his old illness had relapsed, and he was living alone in Beijing. So he sent someone to go north, and wrote a note: "This is the end of the matter, the disease has been cured, and everything has been done. God will take pity on it, so don't worry about it. I hope you have time to go south." In September, I carried a Bu Xinsheng, who folded the hospital invoices, went to Xiaoshan. He said to Lu Qiran, who was ten years younger, "We rely on running a factory for a living. Without this, it is really worthless." Lu Guanqiu later said, this sentence The words were like a knife and an axe, and they were deeply embedded in his subconscious.After more than two years, Lu Guanqiu sent Bu Xinsheng 500 yuan of living expenses on a monthly basis until he wandered around and lost sight of him.

In 1993, Bu Xinsheng, who was over 60 years old, was invited by a 26-year-old young man named Zhang Bin to Qinhuangdao to establish a Bu Xinsheng garment company named after him. A historical term that evokes people's memories. The last time Bu Xinsheng appeared in public was in November 1998. As the president of Bu Xinsheng Group Co., Ltd., he went to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to participate in the business community of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Conference. summit. In 1999, Bu Xinsheng and "The Rise and Fall of the Haiyan Shirt Factory" were compiled into a 1300-word case and appeared in the "Tsinghua University MBA Exam Pre-exam Management Simulation Test Questions". Three years later, a manager of this university Professor Xue said, "We are about to eliminate the management case of Bu Xinsheng. After all, it is too far away from now. In recent years, our case database has been updated very quickly."

The "last myth" sheds its light and condenses into a "fossil of reform" that is not reconciled but is eventually forgotten.