Chapter 36 1995 Battle of Reconstruction

The Liu Ni turmoil subsided, the "market faction" gained the upper hand, and the "trade, industry and technology model" eventually became Lenovo's strategy. Next, Liu Chuanzhi once again demonstrated his long-sleeved and skillful management capabilities. Liu Chuanzhi is determined to give it a go in building his own brand.He told Yang Yuanqing, general manager of Lenovo's microcomputer division, "Whether we like it or not, we have actually become the standard-bearers of the national computer industry. At least we must make a desperate gamble, and even if we sacrifice, we must sacrifice ourselves generously." When a reporter asked him, "If China doesn't have its own national industry at all, what will happen after all?" A report with such a headline - "Lenovo and the "Eight-Power Allied Forces" Fighting for the Market" seems to be a life-and-death national defense battle.

The words are so exciting, but the actual work is very pragmatic. Liu Chuanzhi's first move was to seek the support of the government.He lobbied the Ministry of Electronics Industry and put forward two requirements, one is "pay attention to us and applaud us when we do well", and the other is "hope to formulate an industry procurement policy that is conducive to the development of the national industry, on the premise of the same performance-price ratio Next, give priority to the purchase of domestic products”.The Ministry of Electronics Industry accepted Liu Chuanzhi's proposal.With the support of relevant policies, Lenovo has repeatedly defeated multinational companies in many policy procurement biddings.

In terms of public opinion, Liu Chuanzhi is even more fanfare, creating a strong atmosphere for revitalizing national brands. On April 1, 1995, when the 100,000th Lenovo computer came off the production line, he declared that it was a milestone in the national computer industry, and planned a public welfare activity "to whom will the 100,000th computer be dedicated".In the end, he gave the computer to Chen Jingrun, a famous mathematician who became a role model for Chinese intellectuals in the late 1970s because of his research on the "Goldbach Conjecture".In addition, he also joined hands with local governments to launch the "Lenovo Computer Express" campaign to promote home computers and Lenovo products in more than 300 cities across the country.

In terms of product manufacturing, he forced Yang Yuanqing to "cut the cost by half."Yang Yuanqing's team actually did it. The "China's first economical computer" they launched was 40%-50% cheaper than multinational brands under the premise of ensuring the same performance.Yang Yuanqing said in a report, "We have reduced the assembly cost of each machine from 150 yuan to 38 yuan." "Huicong Computer Market" said in a comment, "The steel plate of the new chassis is very thin and the workmanship is rough, but the cost is only 200 yuan, which is 1/8 of the imported chassis."

Relying on the astonishing cheap advantage and the boost of the heat wave of national brands, Lenovo's economical computers have swept the country, and its market share has been rising steadily.In the face of Lenovo's flood of attacks, multinational companies seem to have not reacted, their prices are still high, and they are indifferent to Lenovo's price war strategy.This situation is even a bit strange to Yang Yuanqing. He discovered for the first time, "It turns out that the decision-making mechanism of foreign brands is not flexible, and the response is very slow. Of course, it is also possible that they underestimate the enemy." By July, the survey data showed that in the personal computer Among the top ten sales companies, Lenovo ranked fifth, the only national brand on the list.It is precisely under the demonstration effect of Lenovo that those domestic brand companies in Zhongguancun wake up from a dream, change their course one after another, and re-establish the banner of the brand.By the end of 1995, the results had been displayed very prominently.In a survey of "the most popular brands among consumers", the top two are Lenovo and Great Wall, the third is IBM, and six of the top ten Chinese brands.Yang Yuanqing said proudly, "Not only Lenovo, but also other big companies are all working together to cut prices. This is a victory for the national industry."

Looking at China in 1995, the national brand drama that took place in the computer industry was not the only one. Since 1992, with the influx of a large number of international capital and more and more multinational companies making efforts in the Chinese market, local companies in various industries are facing unprecedented impact, and the market structure is changing three times a day.At the same time, after more than ten years of development, Chinese local companies have already possessed considerable strength.Consumers have also begun to have certain confidence in domestic products.Against this background, the revitalization of national industry has not only become a strategic conception of China's industrial growth, but also formed a strong public psychological atmosphere.

In April 1994, a press release made many people feel uneasy: Chongqing Tianfu Cola, which was once put on the state banquet in the Great Hall of the People, was officially included in Pepsi.Some observers counted, so far, there are eight beverage companies producing carbonated beverages in China, except for Shanghai Zhengguanghe—do you remember this company? In the late 1970s, when Coca-Cola entered the Chinese market, it proposed to build the first production line in a joint venture with Coca-Cola, but was rejected—the other seven companies were all acquired by “Two Les”.The media used a very provocative and sensational title in the report: "Two Music Floods the Seventh Army".

This phenomenon makes people worry about the fate of local brands, but also arouses great national enthusiasm.Some smart entrepreneurs have capitalized on this enthusiasm in their marketing.In this year's corporate advertisements, many of them adopted the theme appeal of "revitalizing national industry", such as the above-mentioned Helios advertisements and Sanzhu advertisements.In almost all turbulent industries, the revitalization of national brands is the most dazzling and high-spirited theme.It is under the call of this battle flag that local companies have launched an unprecedented business war in the form of price wars.In the two major industries of refrigerators and washing machines, Haier is fighting on two fronts.Zhang Ruimin knew that Haier's products might not be able to surpass Japanese companies such as Panasonic and Sanyo in terms of technology and quality, so while launching a price war, he also launched a "star service" ingeniously, declaring that "users are always right" Zhongcheng employs a large number of after-sales service personnel.Zhang Ruimin told reporters, "If you compete with multinational capital, even if you die, Haier will die to the last." Haier is the first Chinese company to systematically launch "star service management". Professional service management mode, including providing detailed and enthusiastic consulting services before and during sales, reply within 4 hours if there is any problem with the product, repair within 24 hours, free of material fee, delivery fee, installation fee, etc.It also sums up the "one, two, three, four" pattern.One is "one result: satisfactory service"; the other is "two concepts: take away the troubles of users and leave Haier's sincerity"; the third is "three controls: the service complaint rate is less than one in 100,000, and the service omission rate is less than One in 100,000, the service dissatisfaction rate is less than 1 in 100,000"; four means "four no omissions: one records users' problems without omissions; one handles problems reported by users without omissions; one reviews without omissions Deal with the results; reflect the results to the design, production, and operation departments without omission."Haier has established a huge service network all over the country, which has become the core competitiveness for Haier Electric to dominate China's home appliance industry for many years.

In the color TV industry, the battle is equally fierce. Li Dongsheng of TCL seized the Beijing market with large-screen color TVs. At that time, the golden booths of large shopping malls in Beijing were occupied by Japanese brands. Li Dongsheng signed a "guarantee agreement" with each shopping mall, promising that the monthly sales per square meter of counters should not be less than 50,000 yuan. , and then start a war at a price lower than 2/3 of Japanese color TVs.Like Zhang Ruimin, he told the Beijing media in a very tragic and impassioned tone, "We usually like to talk about going to the international market, but now, the foreign legion has rushed to our courtyard, and the international market is right at our doorstep. If there is no war, when will we wait? Besides, is it okay if there is no war? You can’t just watch the national industry being defeated like this. Competing with the foreign corps, TCL Group Corporation will be a "death squad" for the industry to serve the country. I, Li Dongsheng, are 'Captain Daredevil'." A few months later, the sales volume of TCL color TVs in Beijing surpassed all international famous brands and took the top spot.

If Li Dongsheng considers himself a "captain of death", then Ni Runfeng, who lives in the Sichuan Basin, is a "price butcher" who has completely subverted the color TV industry. Changhong, transformed from a military factory, is the first company in China to introduce color TV production lines from Japan's Panasonic. In 1985, Ni Runfeng, who was full of military temperament, was in charge of Changhong. He had a strong style and was full of domineering. In 1989, the state imposed a special consumption tax on color TVs, which led to a depression in the market. He took the lead in making the decision to cut the price of color TVs by 300 yuan, breaking the dull sales deadlock.Since then, every Spring Festival and National Day sales season, Ni Runfeng resorted to price cuts, and tried repeatedly, without exception.Changhong, which has no advantages in terms of brand image and product quality, relied on this "first move in the world" to rush to the top three sales of domestic color TV companies.

In 1995, Ni Runfeng proposed that Changhong’s mission was to “serve the country with industry and prosper the nation” and shouted “Build our new Great Wall with our brand.” "Changhong" was changed into the heroic "Changhong takes the prosperity of the nation as its own responsibility and dedicates it to you - Changhong Red Sun." These slogans echoed Lenovo, Haier, Sanzhu and Giant in the health care products market, and for a while incited Strong national enthusiasm.It was at this time that local color TV companies were in the most difficult moment of hard work.After more than ten years of development, major enterprises such as Changhong, TCL and Konka have already possessed considerable manufacturing capabilities. However, due to the lack of core technology and insufficient brand power, they have always been at a disadvantage in the competition with international brands. The color TV market was deeply affected by the smuggling trend and was in turmoil.According to the statistics of the national commercial department, only 549,000 foreign color TV sets came in through normal foreign trade channels this year, but the actual sales volume in the market was 5 million sets.In the fall, the government announced that it would reduce the import duty on color TVs from 35.9% to 23% on April 1, 1996.Multinational companies were very excited about this, and Japan's Matsushita announced that it would "do not hesitate to occupy an absolute share of China's color TV market at US$3 billion" and set the goal of "defeating an enterprise and occupying an industry".Affected by these policy expectations and public opinion, domestic color TV sales continued to slump.As the leader of domestic color TVs, Changhong's inventory of color TVs has reached 1 million sets, with a total value of more than 2 billion yuan. With no way out, Ni Runfeng once again demonstrated his true qualities as a price killer.He said at a company meeting, "emergencies must be treated with urgent medicine. There is only one way, which is to use your own price advantage to fight off the other party's brand advantage." At that time, the price difference between Changhong and international brands was not too big. The price of a 29-inch imported color TV is about 10,000 yuan, Changhong is more than 8,000 yuan, the price of a 25-inch imported color TV is 6,000 yuan, and Changhong is more than 5,000 yuan.Ni Runfeng believes that domestic color TVs should be at least 30% cheaper in order to "fight away" the brand advantage of the opponent. "This is a decisive front." The commercial gross profit of Changhong Color TV at that time was about 25%, and a sharp price reduction of 30% was obviously unprofitable.Ni Runfeng recalled later, "I thought about it for a whole winter, and I was still calculating accounts until the Spring Festival. After thinking about it, thinking about it, calculating it, and calculating it, there was only one conclusion: no price reduction!" So, on the one hand, he strictly ordered the company Internally rely on management to tap the potential, and on the other hand, we have cleverly carried out a combination of price reductions. The color TV sets with the largest price reductions are the products that occupy the most inventory and have been unsalable for many years. Changhong's "price reduction war" was planned in the fall and winter of 1995 and launched on March 26, 1996.Changhong announced that all kinds of color TVs will be sold in 150 large shopping malls in 61 large and medium-sized cities across the country at a substantial discount, ranging from 18% to 30%.In order to attract media attention, Ni Runfeng rushed to the front line of sales.Wearing a red ribbon, he stood in front of the counter of the Chengdu shopping mall and yelled loudly, becoming a salesperson himself.Changhong Color TV’s brochure proclaims: “We have all the functions that foreign products have; we have all the varieties that foreign products have; we provide all the services provided by foreign products; Under the quality, our price is 30% lower than foreign products.” Changhong's price reduction storm immediately set off a bloody storm in the color TV market, and domestic color TV brands followed suit.Konka announced a big price cut on June 6, and TCL launched a big profit sharing activity of "Embracing Spring", which completely activated the consumption that had been silent for a long time.Just one month after the price cut was announced in March, Changhong's national sales doubled, and by the end of the year, its market share had soared from 22% to 35%, surpassing all international brands, and becoming an unprecedented sales volume in China's color TV market. champion.By the end of 1996, in the national color TV market, domestic brands such as Changhong, Konka, TCL, and Panda had accounted for 71.1% of the market share, and the pattern of "foreign power and weak country" was completely broken.At the same time, the devastating price war is also a brutal reshuffle of the industry.Before this war, there were still more than 60 local color TV brands in various provinces in China.However, under the impact of Changhong's price reduction, most brands withered quickly and disappeared in the next few years.The color TV industry has entered an era in which five or six large companies divide up the market. In 1997, Changhong's sales revenue climbed to 18.8 billion yuan, and Ni Runfeng, who was at the peak of his career, was elected as an alternate member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. This is a role that is difficult for most Chinese entrepreneurs to achieve.By the end of 2007, entrepreneurs who had been elected as alternate members of the CPC Central Committee included Ni Runfeng from Sichuan Changhong and Tao Jianxing from Jiangsu Chunlan. Until many years later, researchers of Chinese corporate history are still talking about the big business war around 1995, which is considered to be the Normandy battle of national industry "recovering lost ground".In the company news this year, we can read reports of the national brand Jedi counterattack everywhere.There are joys and sorrows, mixed with various flavors. On April 15, a veteran named Qiao Ying opened a "Red Sorghum Fast Food Restaurant" with an area of ​​less than 100 square meters in the most prosperous Erqi Square in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, declaring that he would fully challenge McDonald's, the global fast food hegemony. The day chosen was the founding day of McDonald's 40 years ago.What Qiao Ying used to challenge the McDonald’s burger was Henan’s traditional mutton stewed noodles. His advertising slogan was “Where there is McDonald’s, there is red sorghum.” , 70% at home and 30% abroad".This very high-profile action immediately aroused enthusiastic reports from hundreds of media at home and abroad, and was interviewed by the three major cable television networks in the United States.Qiao Ying's business started very smoothly, and opened 7 branches in Zhengzhou that year.In the second year, he went to Wangfujing, Beijing, which is known as "the first commercial street in China", and opened his Beijing branch only one step away from the first McDonald's in China. There was a thunderous applause.Due to the rapid pace of expansion, Red Sorghum's capital chain broke in May 1998, and branches all over the country closed down one after another. The company's total debt reached more than 30 million yuan, and Qiao Ying "disappeared". Around 2000, Qiao Ying reappeared, declaring that "McDonald's will die in 2015, and human beings will enter the era of digital catering where eating with a mouse". In September 2002, Qiao Ying was suspected of illegally absorbing 31.53 million yuan in public deposits and was sentenced to 4 years in prison. Similar to Qiao Ying's challenge to McDonald's, in the south, Shanghai New Asia Group launched "Ronghua Chicken" to compete with KFC. Its slogan is "Wherever KFC is open, I will open it!" In the city, wherever there is KFC on the street, there must be traces of Ronghua Chicken. Its business was once very prosperous. The Huangpu store in Shanghai is said to have an annual profit of 3 million yuan.Such competition did not die down until 2000, when Ronghua closed its last branch in Andingmen, Beijing, and KFC announced that it had 400 chain stores in China. A "National Tea Defense War" took place in Hangzhou, Zhejiang.A British black tea company named "Liheng" plans to invest 200,000 yuan to make a brand advertisement at the entrance of the China Tea Museum in the place where Longjing tea is produced.The media was in an uproar, seeing it as a provocation.Under the pressure of public opinion, the museum announced its refusal to advertise, and domestic tea experts collectively published an emotional "National Tea Declaration". In Beijing, consumers voted for a newspaper, alleging that the air conditioner of a well-known Japanese home appliance company was of poor quality and the cooling effect was very poor.The Japanese chief engineer of this company said when answering the reporter's question, "The reason why the air conditioner is not working properly is because the air in Beijing is too dirty." A reader said in a letter to the newspaper, "Since they think Beijing's air is dirty, then they should go back to Tokyo." The Japanese brands that dominated the Chinese home appliance market throughout the 1980s are now facing a collective crisis.The reasons for this are very complicated: on the one hand, since 1991, the Japanese economy has fallen into a long-term downturn after the bursting of the real estate and stock market bubbles. The Chinese market is regarded as the "third world" outside of its own country, the European and American markets, and refuses to put the most advanced technologies and products into the Chinese market, which gives multinational companies from other countries an opportunity to enter; in addition, the rise of Chinese local companies and The upsurge of national sentiment added fuel to the flames.By the late 1990s, Japanese home appliances had lost their leading edge and brand appeal. In autumn, a dramatic event happened in the field of daily chemicals where multinational corporations had gained a decisive advantage. The MAXAM brand, which was once popular but disappeared due to a joint venture, was revived from the dead. Born in 1962, Maxam was the most well-known domestic cosmetics brand in China in the 1980s. It created many firsts: China’s first bottle of styling mousse, first sunscreen, and first hand cream , the export of MAXAM toothpaste once accounted for 70% of the total toothpaste export in the country. In 1990, Shanghai Jahwa, the largest state-owned enterprise in China's cosmetics industry, entered into a joint venture with SC Johnson of the United States. The latter incorporated Maxac under its brand in the form of brand leasing, and then quickly abandoned it.Two years later, Meganet's sales dropped sharply from 300 million yuan to 6 million yuan, and soon lost its position as the number one domestic brand. In 1995, in the atmosphere of revitalizing national brands, Ge Wenyao, the chairman of Shanghai Jahwa, resolutely decided to spend huge sums of money to "redeem" Maxam, and vowed: "Persist in the development of Maxam for 15-20 years!".In the process of Sino-foreign joint ventures, the abandonment of domestic brands is very common, which is regarded as one of the strategies for international companies to eliminate local competitors. In 1994, Beijing Daily Chemical No. 2 Factory, which produced the well-known washing powder brand "Panda", entered into a joint venture with Procter & Gamble. Procter & Gamble paid 140 million yuan to buy out the right to use the "Panda" brand for 50 years, and then hid it. In 1995, Jiangsu Xiangxuehai, one of China’s top ten refrigerator brands, entered into a joint venture with South Korea’s Samsung. The Chinese party gave up evaluating the value of the Xiangxuehai brand, which had a very high market share in Jiangsu at that time. In addition, it also agreed to abandon the use of the brand after three years of joint venture. Xiangxuehai.When Shanghai Jahwa restarted Maxam, multinational brands such as Procter & Gamble, Unilever, and SC Johnson had grown rapidly in the past few years. At a time when domestic enterprises are flourishing one after another and the momentum of national industries is booming, multinational companies seem to have not yet grasped the law of firmly occupying the Chinese market. Danone, the largest food company in Europe, has entered the Chinese market for eight years. It has built a biscuit factory and acquired a brewery in Sichuan, but both have suffered losses.Jiabao Lighting Engineering Co., Ltd. founded by General Electric (GE) in Nanjing has been unable to make profits.Although this century-old company founded by Edison is the inventor of the light bulb, in the Chinese market, due to the high operating costs, it cannot compete with the small and medium-sized lighting factories in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.At that time, a GE light bulb with soft optical fiber and environmental protection could be used for one year, but the price was 10 yuan, while the light bulbs produced by some small light bulb factories in China could be used for one year, but the price was only 2 yuan. GE's market researcher said helplessly, "compared with the excellent performance of GE light bulbs, Chinese consumers seem to prefer the price of light bulbs." Qi has been brooding but there is nothing he can do. If Danone and GE were lackluster, Whirlpool, the world's largest maker of white goods, was even worse. Compared with those Japanese home appliance companies that arrived early, Whirlpool's arrival is obviously a long time late.So it wanted to quickly enter the market through mergers and acquisitions. In the four major fields of refrigerators, washing machines, microwave ovens and color TVs, it found four Chinese companies that performed well in the market at that time. In February 1995, Whirlpool and Beijing Snowflake jointly established "Beijing Whirlpool Snowflake Electric Co., Ltd.".Snowflake is one of the earliest and most well-known refrigerator companies in China. It is famous for its strong technical force. When Panning in Shunde developed the Rongsheng refrigerator in 1984, he hired Snowflake's engineer team.The registered capital of the newly established company is 29 million US dollars, and the US side shares 60%.Later, it successively turned Shanghai Narcissus Washing Machine Co., Ltd., Guangzhou Xianhua Microwave Oven Co., Ltd., and Lanbo Air Conditioning Co., Ltd. into its own joint ventures.Many media commented that Whirlpool's joint venture will have a major impact on China's home appliance industry. Over the next few years, the Americans put on a pretty poor takeover show.In the field of refrigerators, Whirlpool has the world's most advanced fluorine-free complete set of technology, but it believes that the Chinese market will not be able to reach such a high level of consumption and consumer awareness in the short term, so Whirlpool Snowflake continues the production of original products.The cultural gap between the U.S. management and China has been very serious from the very beginning. Whirlpool’s headquarters has always emphasized that the U.S. side is in control of everything from production, management to sales. It is hoped that Chinese partners will not intervene in the company’s “internal affairs.”A Snowflake employee named Shao Min recalled that after the joint venture, the tall, bearded American general manager locked himself in an office sealed with frosted glass all day long, and from time to time came out American-style English, Or the Chinese in the New Malaysia-Thai style, standard Mandarin can hardly be heard, and the original Snow Flower people are mainly responsible for delivering hot coffee.In more than two years, the joint venture company lost 89.86 million yuan. In November 1997, Whirlpool resold 60% of its share capital to Snowflake for a discount of US$2 million, and the joint venture was declared broken. The situation with Whirlpool Narcissus is very similar.The United States believes that the original sales network of Narcissus is too "backward" and is subject to dealers in various places, so it decisively decided to follow the practice of the American market and establish its own marketing team and channels.This decision made Whirlpool Narcissus unaccustomed, with sales falling and operating costs rising sharply. In the few years after the joint venture, the company lost more than 100 million yuan a year.A very typical little story also happened in this company.Market personnel found that when some drum washing machines were delivered to customers, the glass cover on the drum was often broken.According to Whirlpool's usual rules, R&D and product departments need to do many experiments to re-test product quality, which requires a rather long cycle of testing and product development.The grassroots Chinese employees told the U.S. side that the damage was caused by the rough loading and unloading by the logistics workers in various places, so it is only necessary to put a sponge shockproof pad worth less than 2 yuan in the box.But for American personnel, adding a sponge pad in the box is an unprecedented "innovation".So, after several years of reporting, research and development, and discussions, the U.S. side finally adopted this simple but unbelievable suggestion from the Chinese side. At that time, the reputation of Whirlpool washing machines’ “poor quality” had already spread throughout China. In the microwave oven market, Whirlpool lost even more.The merged Xianhua Company was the largest microwave oven company in China at that time. After the joint venture, the company quickly suffered from the "big company disease". A market promotion or new product research and development plan must first be passed to the Hong Kong branch and then to the United States. It takes two to three months for a report to go back and forth for approval at the headquarters.Its low efficiency gave Galanz, another local company in the same area, a chance to breathe. The latter relied on the price reduction strategy to eat up the market piece by piece. After a few years, Xihua Whirlpool had to announce its withdrawal from the domestic market, and Galanz took advantage of the trend to grow Scale, eventually became the world's largest microwave oven manufacturer. As a large company with a 14% market share in global home appliances, Whirlpool invested $500 million in China but got nothing. This is an embarrassing negative lesson.Shi Decheng, who once served as the president of Whirlpool China, said in a review in the future, "No matter the experience or the lesson, if you can sum it up in one sentence, you must be patient! Just like General Electric's Welch said, 'The key word to understand the Chinese market is Patience!' China is not only a big place, but also a level of complexity that Western companies have never experienced." In 1995, in the field of state-owned enterprises, the biggest news was that Zhou Guanwu of Shougang, the first "model of state-owned enterprise reform" since the reform and opening up, stepped down sadly.At this time, Shougang under his leadership is galloping on a dangerous road of diversification. In April 1994, Claude Sura, a senior reporter of the French "New Observer" weekly magazine, was surprised to find in an interview with Shougang that "as the first reform pilot after China's reform and opening up, today's Shougang operates everything. , steel, noodles, bicycles, hospitals, barbells, coats, furniture, houses, restaurants, machines and computers, the company also owns a bank, a fleet of ships, 24 branches in the country, and one in Peru that spends 120 million US dollars The iron ore purchased.” Obviously, Shougang has become a comprehensive company with cross-industry operations at this time. In the heart of the 76-year-old Zhou Guanwu, the biggest dream is to transform Shougang into a consortium-style enterprise similar to Japan's Mitsubishi and South Korea's Daewoo.As early as July 1992, the State Council issued a special document "Notice on Further Expanding the Pilot Reform of Shougang's Autonomy" to expand Shougang's investment project establishment rights, foreign economic and trade foreign affairs rights, and capital financing rights.Zhou Guanwu ambitiously proposed Shougang's "non-tempered and consortium-style road". He established China Shougang International Trade Engineering Company, participated in the reorganization of Huaxia Bank, and acquired Peruvian iron ore through international bidding. The company jointly acquired four Hong Kong-listed companies including Hong Kong Dongrong Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. and Baojia Group.By 1994, Zhou Guanwu brought Shougang to its peak.This year, Shougang became the leader in the domestic steel industry with a crude steel output of 8.237 million tons. November.He was named "China Reform Figure". However, what is unexpected is that only three months later, Zhou Guanwu was implicated in his son Zhou Beifang's economic crimes and resigned. .Bi Qun later described Shougang in its grand occasion as "a mess": chaotic structure, chaotic finances, chaotic management, and unreasonable debt. Zhou Guanwu's resignation did not change Shougang's established diversification policy.In the following ten years, it has been inattentive in the capital-intensive steel industry. 80% of Shougang's annual profits come from steel, but most of its investment has been dissociated from this industry.A scholar who has observed Shougang for a long time said, "Since the mid-1990s, the idea of ​​focusing on one industry and diversifying operations has infected a large number of domestic enterprises. Shougang began to invest in the construction of large-scale integrated circuit production lines and other high-tech projects, but It has no intention of adjusting the strategic direction, but only trying to start a new economic growth point other than steel. Obviously, this was caused by the impetuous atmosphere of various industries rushing to diversify investment. These high-tech projects were based on a kind of The attitude of 'trying' began to grow in the 'greenhouse'." Shougang's plan to develop high-tech industries lacks careful consideration, and the tactics implemented are all-out attacks and blooming everywhere.Under the framework of high-tech, there are so many types of industries involved, which surprised many people in the industry. In 1994, when Lenovo's Ni Guangnan and Liu Chuanzhi were arguing over whether to invest in chips, Shougang, which had no relationship with the computer industry, rashly took the lead.It established Shougang NEC Electronics Co., Ltd. in a joint venture with Japan's NEC, and took the lead in producing 6-inch, 0.35-micron chips in China, becoming the core manufacturing enterprise of Beijing's microelectronics industry.Shougang is also involved in the software industry. It has joined forces with Tsinghua University to enter the Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park, hoping to form a software-design-chip microelectronics industry chain. In 1997, it jointly established Shougang Motorman Robot Co., Ltd. with Japan Yaskawa Electric Co., Ltd. and Iwatani Industry Co., Ltd., realizing a zero breakthrough in my country's robot industry.It also injected capital into a touch computer Co., Ltd., becoming an enterprise with the strongest technical strength and the largest production capacity in China's domestic touch industry.Shougang's investment in these fields is vigorous, but the economic benefits have not been obvious.By 2002, the loss of Shougang Ridian alone had reached 230 million yuan. From 2000 to 2002, Shougang's industrial chain continued to spread in multiple directions. In the past two years, the company actually invested 550 million yuan in the non-steel field, but the investment income generated was only 105.8 billion yuan.Since 2003, Shougang has risked the layoff of 50,000 employees and reduced its steel production from 8 million tons to 6 million tons, a reduction of 1/4. At the same time, it announced that it will participate in the investment in Hyundai Motor Project and develop the production of auto parts.It has also invested heavily in the real estate industry, building buildings in the suburbs of Beijing and Zhengzhou, and has planned to build a large theme park. By 2006, in the ranking of China's top 500 companies published by the China Enterprise Confederation, Shougang, which had been in the top ten 10 years ago, had slipped to 30th.Due to the changes in national policies and the disorder of its own strategy, this company, which was placed with unlimited high hopes, experienced ups and downs on the road to consortium. In 1995, there were two billboards that are often mentioned in the future. On May 1st, the busiest day in Manhattan, New York, USA.Times Square, which is also the most commercial symbol, erected the first billboard of a Chinese company. Beside Coca-Cola, Sony, Toyota and other international brands, the neon advertisement of "999 Sanjiu Pharmaceutical" is very eye-catching.Zhao Xinxian, the general manager of Sanjiu Group, stood under the billboard to accept interviews from dozens of Chinese and American media. He talked eloquently and confidently. This should be the most proud moment in his entrepreneurial career.The next day's "New York Times" reported, "This is the first time that a Chinese company has advertised in Chinese in the commercial area with the highest advertising density and influence in the world, and a new advertising language has emerged in Times Square. ——Chinese.” In the next few years, when many people went abroad to Manhattan, they must visit this 39th billboard, which became a landscape for Chinese companies to enter globalization.For this billboard, the Sanjiu Group had to pay US$120,000 per month. It was not quietly demolished until May 2003, when the Sanjiu Group broke out in financial crisis due to disordered expansion. The second famous billboard appeared in the noisy Zhongguancun of Beijing.In the deep winter, at the corner at the southern end of Baiyi Road, people who pass by in a hurry every day suddenly saw a huge signboard: "How far is the Chinese from the information superhighway—1500 meters to the north".It is regarded as a road sign by many people, and the busy traffic policemen are even more angry: where is the "information superhighway" coming from the roots of the imperial city?The billboard is considered a monumental event for China's Internet industry.The woman who erected the billboard and her little-known small company thus entered history. Before founding Beijing Yinghaiwei Information and Communication Company, 33-year-old Zhang Shuxin was a businesswoman who resigned from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and went to sea. She was in the business of paging stations in Zhongguancun. At the end of 1994, she traveled to the United States with her husband.At a classmate's home, she saw an address book with an E-mail address printed on it. At this moment, the "Internet", a winged elf, flew into Zhang Shuxin's field of vision. At that time in the United States, the Internet economy was at a critical moment of breaking out of the cocoon, and Mark Anderson had just invented the Mosaic web browser.Four years younger than Zhang Shuxin, Stanford University Chinese-American student Jerry Yang invented the earliest website search software during his doctoral dissertation. He gave up his Ph.D. and established Yahoo in a trailer to commercialize the Internet search engine.Since there were very few companies that could provide free information retrieval services at that time, Yahoo was widely recognized by the market and soon became the world's largest portal website. On April 12, 1996, Yahoo's stock was publicly listed, and its market value on that day was as high as 848 million U.S. dollars. Yang Zhiyuan became another global Chinese business hero after Wang An. In September 1994, Nicholas Negroponte, a professor of new media studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote it.在这本让他名闻天下的著作中，他大胆地提出“整个社会构建的基本要素将发生变化”。他认为，随着互联网技术的成熟，物质性的世界突然向虚拟性转向，通过电子流的方式，知识、信息及商品制造和销售将可能实现与以往完全不同的生存方式。这本书一出版就成为全美畅销书，它标志着人们对互联网的认识已经达到了空前的高度。根据美国《商业周刊》的统计，到1995年初，互联网已经连接全世界4万多个网络、380万台计算机，154个国家和地区通过互联网互通电子邮件。未来学家阿尔文·托夫勒三年前在《第三次浪潮》中所描写的景象似乎正在变成现实：这是一个无限开放的信息世界，打开网络令人头晕目眩的丰富信息纷至沓来。对于入网的用户，世界从来没有如此开阔而又如此亲近。 就当尼葛洛庞帝用“互联网时代”来定义未来世界的时候，中国与世界的距离终于近到了呼吸相闻的地步了。1994年5月15日，中国科学院高能物理研究所设立了国内第一个Web服务器，推出中国第一套网页，内容除介绍中国高科技发展外，还有一个栏目叫“Tour in China”。9月，邮电部电信总局与美国商务部签订中美双方关于国际互联网的协议，协议中规定电信总局将通过美国Sprint公司开通两条64K专线(一条在北京，另一条在上海)。中国公用计算机互联网CHINANET的建设开始启动，中国最早的网民出现了，其中包括后来创办了电子商务网站阿里巴巴公司的马云、创办了新浪的王志东、创办了第一家B2C网站的8848公司的王峻涛等人。就在一书出版半年后，北京的青年学者胡泳在台湾一家图书代理公司的北京办事处发现了它，他在20天的时间里便完成了全部的翻译，也因此，世界顶级学者关于互联网的最新思想在第一时间被引入了中国。它的出版引发了人们对于未来信息世界的狂热想象，这几乎被视为中国互联网的启蒙运动的开始。 就这样，在1995年的中国，出现了第一批投身互联网事业的先行者。 3月，美国得克萨斯理工大学博士田溯宁把他在美国创办的亚信公司搬到了中国。他与国家科委合作在国内介绍Internet。田溯宁认为，互联网技术的兴起对中国与世界的交流是一个巨大的商业机遇，他争取到了包括道琼斯在内的两千多个美国的信息服务商作为用户，同时也想在中国发展数千乃至上万个商业用户。一个很少被人关注的事实是，那些最早在中国从事互联网事业的人在一开始都把赌注压在电子商务上。他们认为，第一批有能力使用和“消费”互联网的应该是中国的企业家们。这显然是一条歧路。除了田溯宁、马云和张树新之外，1996年，归国创业的张朝阳做的第一个网站也是“中国商务网”，后来他发现此路不通，很快转向做“雅虎的中国版”——搜狐。但很快，他发现做不下去，第一个原因是中国消费者对Internet毫无认知，第二个原因是技术根本无法实现。亚信购买了第一套网络设备，制定了在Internet上传输中文的IETF标准，当时在北京、上海使用的网络路由器总共加起来只有32个拨号端口，一个端口大约能支持10—20个用户，这意味着亚信建成的网络最多能够支持500个用户。 4月，在杭州，一个叫马云的31岁大学外语教师创办了“中国黄页”网站，它自称是第一家网上中文商业信息站点。跟田溯宁的想法几乎一样，马云也想要创造一个面向企业服务的互联网商业模式，他当时想到的赚钱模式是鼓动企业把自己的商业信息挂到网上。比留洋归来的田博士要本土一点的是，他把Internet直接翻译成了一个中文名字——因特乃特网。在一次外出游说时，有人问他，“你说的因特乃特，跟《国际歌》里的英特纳雄耐尔有什么关系吗？”为了鼓动别人参与他的事业，马云拿大家熟知的比尔·盖茨来说事儿，他说，“比尔·盖茨说了，因特乃特网将改变人类的方方面面。”很多年后，他承认，“这其实不是他说的，是我说的。1995年全国刚刚知道Internet，但是我说马云说的话没有人相信。其实，1995年的时候比尔·盖茨是反对Internet的。”到1995年，微软已发展成一家拥有员工1.78万人，年收入高达130亿美元的巨型公司。面对新出现的互联网和浏览器技术，比尔·盖茨认为，决定未来计算机世界命运的，仍是微软的“视窗”技术而不会是浏览器技术。也正是他的这个判断，让硅谷的一间名叫网景的小公司应声崛起，它开发出一套基于互联网而首次与微软无关的软硬件体系。盖茨为了挽回被动，付出了数十亿美元的竞争代价，并因强行的捆绑营销而受到反垄断调查。 后来创办网易的丁磊也是在这一年开始他的创业生涯的。过去两年里，他一直在浙江宁波的电信局上班。4月，他决心辞职。这一想法遭到家人的强烈反对，但他去意已决，“这是我第一次开除自己。但有没有勇气迈出这一步，将是人生成败的一个分水岭。”他独身一人跑到热浪滚滚的广州，进了一家美国数据库软件公司赛贝斯（Sybase）做技术支持工程师。在那里，他第一次接触到互联网，并成为第一批用户。一年后，他又辞职，与他人合办了一家与互联网技术有关的小公司。 5月，张树新与丈夫姜作贤创立瀛海威公司，她的“瀛海威时空”宣称是国内唯一立足大众信息服务、面向普通家庭开放的网络，“进入瀛海威时空，你可以阅读电子报纸，到网络咖啡屋同不见面的朋友交谈，到网络论坛中畅所欲言，还可以随时到国际互联网上走一遭……”登录瀛海威的用户必须登记注册，并缴纳一笔入网费。曾经做过记者、策划人的张树新很快让瀛海威获得了惊人的知名度。她在北京魏公村开办了中国第一家民营科教馆，所有人可以到这里免费使用瀛海威网络，免费学习网络知识。她向中国科学技术馆无偿提供“中国大众化信息高速公路”展区，同北京图书馆合作，在瀛海威上提供北京国书馆图书目录查询。亚特兰大奥运会期间，她还为新闻单位开通亚特兰大到北京的新闻信息通道。张树新还在各大新闻媒体开设专栏，一遍遍地告诉国人：信息产业是中华民族崛起于世界的一个重要机会。 在中国互联网的发展初期，瀛海威扮演了一个启蒙者和领跑者的角色。它是第一个形成公众品牌效应的网络公司，在第一届“最受用户欢迎的中文信息网站”评选中，瀛海威无可争议地名列第一。让人遗憾的是，张树新与当时的田溯宁、马云一样，都没有找到盈利的模式。她想做城市网站，推出过“网络中国”的项目，想做网上图书馆，还曾经投资开发网络游戏，可是都相继失败。在瀛海威员工中流传最广的一句话是，“我们知道2000年以后我们会挣钱，可我们不知道现在应该做什么。” 在张树新成为商业明星的时候，人们除了对她的互联网事业充满了神秘的敬畏和仰视之外，还津津乐道于她的财富暴涨。瀛海威是一家产权清晰的私人公司，张树新夫妻为此投资了100万元。在企业创办16个月后，国家经贸委属下的中国兴发集团决定参股瀛海威，总股本扩充为8000万股，张树新以无形资产加其他股权获得2120万元的公司股值，赫然成了十分罕见的“阳光下的女千万富豪”，这当然引起年人轻无穷的遐想。美国《新闻周刊》在一则报道中称，“人们在谈论金钱时，不再像过去那样羞羞答答，谁拥有更多的金钱，成了一个最值得炫耀的事情。在今天的中国，百万富翁正以每分钟一个的速度在诞生。” 1995年2月，美国《福布斯》首次发表中国内地亿万富豪榜，这一富豪榜先是香港出版的中文杂志《资本家》刊出的。列入富豪榜的共有19人，首富是四川的刘永好兄弟。这兄弟四人靠养鹌鹑起家，进而在饲料行业潜心经营，做成了当时中国最大的私营企业。在他们被评为首富之后，《经济学人》专门采访了刘家兄弟，文章描述说，“在过去，四川穷乡僻壤的宣传板上可能写着'向中国人民解放军致敬'这样的话。而现在几乎每块砖墙上都刷着一家名为'希望'的饲料公司的广告语：'要致富，养牲畜，希望帮你忙'，或者'猪吃一斤希望饲料长两斤肉'。同时，地方上的小学也用希望公司的广告语来编写他们的童谣。希望公司现在声称有10亿的销售额，拥有60家工厂，1万名全职雇员和9万名市场代理。”文章还写道，“在采访中，刘永好先生避开了关于他是否是一个资本家的问题，他说，'这些问题关乎理论；我对理论还没有进行过深入学习'，他还特别强调了希望公司的博爱之处，包括一些扶贫的计划，以此证明他的“社会主义市场经济”性质。希望公司的总部在四川省会成都的郊区，两排低矮的房子，刘先生的车很普通，中国产的大众桑塔纳汽车，招待客人也如普通农家一样，白米饭、蔬菜和一些牛肉，这很难让人想到刘是一个有钱的人。刘的十多岁的女儿则不同，穿迷你裙，喜欢比萨、煎(又鸟)和汉堡，西方消费文化已经深深影响了近年来在美国就学的她。” 在《福布斯》的这份富豪榜上，第二名到第十名分别是张宏伟、冼笃信、牟其中、张果喜、罗中福、罗西峻、李晓华、热比娅、宗庆后，这十人的财富从6亿元到2亿元不等。对很多中国人来说，除了四川的刘家兄弟和善于炒作新闻的牟其中之外，其他都是一些陌生的人名。在此之前，人们所熟知和崇拜的商业明星要么是国有企业里的改革型企业家，要么是知名的乡镇企业家，而《福布斯》的富豪榜却从另外一个价值评估标准给出了一个新的答案。也就是从此开始，一个人拥有财富的多少渐渐成为是否成功的最重要的价值标杆。在一个物质化的商业时代，人们也许真的需要一个更为直接而易于计算的评价方式。 当《福布斯》的富豪榜还被全国媒体津津乐道的时候，到年底，一个更加耸动和刺激的“商业桂冠”又在北京诞生了，它的背后因为有中国最重要的电视媒体在全力推动和炒作，所以也更为轰动和富有戏剧性。 11月8日，北京的梅地亚会议中心，全国最重要的保健品、饮料食品及家电企业的当家人都冒着风沙聚集到一起。在这里即将上演一出当场厮杀、无比刺激和血腥的成名大战。 这个竞斗场的搭建者是一个叫谭希松的女策划人，她当时担任中央电视台的广告部主任。20世纪90年代中期，随着全国性消费市场的成型，中央电视台的传播价值已然被发现，不过，当时每年的广告收入还不足10亿元。谭希松想出了一个绝招，她把电视台黄金时段位拿出来，进行全国招标，她还给投标金额最高的企业准备了一顶虚无而金光四射的桂冠：“标王”。招标会就被定在每年的11月8日，谐音为“要要发”。 1995年举办的招标会已经是第二届了。1994年办的那场并不热闹，谭希松广发英雄贴，还北上南下四处遍访，结果来了数十家企业，最出名的是广州太阳神和山东的孔府家酒。标底打开，令人大跌眼镜的是，中标者竟是此前毫无知名度、与孔府家酒同在泗水河畔的孔府宴酒，其加冕封王的代价是3079万元。在中央电视台不遗余力的热炒下，孔府宴酒一夜之间名扬天下，竟然成了该年度销量最好的白酒之一。新闻和促销效应之大，出乎所有人的预料。于是，到第二届的时候，各地豪杰闻风而动，通往京城的大道上，一时间马蹄声疾、尘土飞扬。谭希松实在是一个十分了解国民性的人，她辟出一块硕大的斗牛场，在旁边的旗杆上高高挂起一顶桂冠，然后放进所有雄心勃勃的企业家为之一搏。称王夺标，历来是中国男人一生最辉煌的梦想，何况是在众目睽睽之下，以一掷千金的豪气博取一份举国瞩目的喝彩。 在众豪杰中，有一位个头中等、一脸憨厚的中年人姬长孔，他来自山东省临朐县一家叫秦池的酒厂。这是一个正营级退伍军官，4年前奉命到全县最大的亏损企业秦池酒厂做厂长。他靠着一股子军人气魄，大胆投广告硬是让企业有了起色，到1995年时销售额达到了1亿元，在北方市场有了点小名气。在朋友的怂恿下，他也赶到梅地亚来凑热闹。那时与会的企业已有太阳神、娃哈哈、乐百氏、沈阳飞龙及山东三株等品牌大佬，当然还包括志在卫冕的孔府宴酒以及发誓雪耻的孔府家酒这对“欢喜冤家”。跟这些成名英雄比邻而坐，秦池只是个不起眼的小角色。姬长孔问朋友，“今年夺标大概需要多少钱？”答，“起码6000万元。”姬长孔咬着嘴唇不吭声。6000万元——3万吨白酒，秦池大半年的销售额，中国首富刘家兄弟1/10的资产。 8日上午10点整，招标会准时开始。134个企业家整装肃然，鱼贯而入。会场四周横幅高悬，摄影机和照相机伺机而立。夺标热点果然在“两孔”之间展开。孔府家酒卷土重来，开出的标底是上届标王的两倍，达6298万元。孔府宴酒又岂甘人后，标底恰好高出100万元，眼看大势已定，半路突然杀出一匹同省黑马。唱标唱到山东秦池时，主持人展开标纸猛地停住了，全场寂静，以为出了什么意外，数秒之后，一个声嘶力竭的高音把会场推向了无比亢奋的(禁止)：“秦池，6666万元！” “谁是秦池？”“临朐县在哪里？”从当时的一张照片可以看出，在场的姬长孔还很不习惯镁光灯的聚焦及众多记者的簇拥。在拥挤的人群中，在火一样蹿升的热情中，他还笑得不太自然。但他显然知道，此刻，他已冲上了华山之巅。