A few days ago, Dong Yuhui came to such a distinguished guest in the live broadcast room.
His live broadcast debut, in just 1.5 hours, was watched by more than 450,000 people.
Together with his new book "Eternal Living Fire", more than 30,000 copies were sold, setting a record for the highest sales on the live broadcast platform that night.
Such an influential and appealing guest was rare before, he was Zhang Ruimin, the founder of Haier Group and the honorary chairman of the board of directors.
Jeffrey Sunnyfield, associate dean of the Yale School of Management, once commented on him: "Zhang Ruimin is a true global business giant. ”
He once led a small factory on the verge of bankruptcy, rushed into the world's top 500, and built a Chinese famous brand, how did he do it?
In 1949, Zhang Ruimin was born, and both parents were ordinary workers.
Although there are no highly educated talents in the family, Zhang Ruimin loves to read and is particularly obsessed with celebrity entrepreneurial stories.
In 1966, Zhang Ruimin, who was less than 19 years old, graduated from high school and entered the state-owned Qingdao Construction Hardware Factory as a worker.
At that time, being able to enter the factory as a worker was to serve an "iron rice bowl", which was a very good way out.
However, working step by step is not what the young and ambitious Zhang Ruimin wants.
In his spare time, Zhang Ruimin found a teacher, learned skills hard, seized every opportunity, and grew himself.
逐渐，张瑞敏在厂里初露锋芒。
In the past ten years, Zhang Ruimin has worked from team leader and party branch secretary of the workshop to deputy factory director.
In 1982, Zhang Ruimin went to Qingdao Household Appliance Industry Company as deputy general manager, specializing in technological transformation.
Among the company's many subordinate enterprises, the most headache for Zhang Ruimin is Qingdao Refrigerator General Factory, the predecessor of Haier.
The main factory is in its infancy, there is no advanced technology, and there is no modern equipment, and the workers have nothing to do all day.
In order to save the factory, Zhang Ruimin went out to inspect and study, and found that the German Liebherr refrigerator technology and equipment were very good, which might be able to change the situation in the factory, and then signed an introduction agreement.
However, the factory is losing money, owes 1.47 million yuan in foreign debts, cannot even pay the wages of the workers, and has no ability to repay the loans.
The superior leaders really couldn't find anyone to be the factory director, and finally decided: Zhang Ruimin was the factory director to ensure that the equipment could be assembled in the factory as scheduled.
In this way, in 1984, Zhang Ruimin was appointed as the director of Qingdao Refrigerator General Factory.
As soon as he arrived at the factory, he was greeted by muddy dirt roads, dilapidated factory buildings, and a cloudy smell...... There is also a report of 53 people.
Zhang Ruimin, who came up step by step from the grassroots level, suddenly discovered the key to the problem - an enterprise at a low point, people's morale is weak, and everyone has no confidence.
Zhang Ruimin clearly knows that it is all false to talk to everyone about the truth and bright prospects as soon as he takes office.
What the workers care about is whether the factory director can really do it.
In order to regain his strength, Zhang Ruimin decided to start with the most chaotic labor discipline.
So, he followed the example of "Liu Bang's abolition of the Qin Law" and re-established 13 labor disciplines, written in red and black, directly on the wall for publicity.
Unexpectedly, the next day, someone flouted discipline and stole a box of spare parts from the factory.
Zhang Ruimin immediately made a decision and decided to "kill one to make an example" and directly punish the thieves.
You must know that in that era, people could not be fired casually, and the impact of a punishment on workers was already very great.
Zhang Ruimin's vigorous and resolute style of work made employees realize that the new factory director should not be underestimated, and they all took care of it and worked hard.
The discipline of employees has been grasped, but the problems of production lines and workers' wages have not been resolved.
Qingdao started too late, and the country had already determined the designated manufacturer of refrigerators at that time.
Zhang Ruimin didn't believe it, and went to Beijing again and again, grinding department by department, and made countless guarantees...... Finally, Qingdao Refrigerator General Factory became the last designated production unit in the country.
Without sales, there is no revenue. While waiting for the new equipment to enter the factory, Zhang Ruimin was worried about the wages of the workers.
The salaries of more than 800 employees, it was not a long-term solution to find the higher departments every time, and he began to borrow money from everywhere.
He aimed at the production team next to the factory, and the person in charge of the production team said: "You can borrow money, it depends on how good you can drink." ”
In this way, Zhang Ruimin relied on his stomach in exchange for tens of thousands of life-saving money.
During this period, there was also a "refrigerator smashing incident".
Once, Zhang Ruimin's friend found him and said that he wanted to buy a refrigerator, and after picking it for a long time, he barely pulled away a one with few defects.
Zhang Ruimin was furious when he found out, and immediately organized personnel to check the quality problems one by one.
I don't know if I don't check it, I was shocked when I checked it, and among the more than 400 finished refrigerators, 76 had various problems.
A defective product is a scrap product.
Zhang Ruimin put a label on each refrigerator, indicating what the problem was and who caused it.
Whoever caused it, by whom!
At that time, a refrigerator cost more than 800 yuan, which was equivalent to two years' wages for workers, which had a great impact on everyone's hearts.
In Zhang Ruimin's eyes, this is far from being a matter of 800 yuan. He knows that people must be created before creation, and according to the current attitude of workers to the quality of products, even if they come in with first-class equipment, they cannot make first-class products.
Smashing the refrigerator is to change the concept of workers, and if the concept does not change, 76 units will appear today, and 760 units will appear tomorrow.
Under pressure, the workers shed tears one by one and smashed the refrigerators they had made. Later, the hammer was collected by the National Museum.
At the end of 1985, all 15 production lines and equipment arrived at the factory.
Liebherr refrigerators began to be produced one by one from the workshop of Qingdao Refrigerator General Factory, and everyone knew that this factory was alive.
Qingdao Refrigerator Factory produced a total of 12,224 refrigerators throughout the year, with a total output value of 13.447 million yuan and a total profit of 1.073 million yuan.
In 1990, Qingdao Liebherr also won the first National Quality Management Golden Horse Award in China's refrigerator industry.
Zhang Ruimin's ambition is far more than that.
At one time, Qingdao Refrigerator Factory wanted to export 8,000 refrigerators to Germany, but the German customs and commodity inspection departments refused to let them go.
Zhang Ruimin invited German experts to tear off the labels of Chinese refrigerators and the best refrigerators on the German market, mix them together, and conduct blind evaluations.
As a result, Chinese refrigerators scored the highest among all products, leaving the Germans speechless at once.
That year, the factory exported 20,000 refrigerators to Germany.
In December 1991, Qingdao Refrigerator General Factory, Qingdao Electric Freezer General Factory and Qingdao Air Conditioner Factory merged to form Qingdao Haier Group Company, which was officially renamed Haier Group in 1993.
Since then, the Haier era has come.
After winning the German market, Zhang Ruimin aimed at the United States. This time, instead of selling products to the United States, he built a factory in the United States.
As soon as the news came out, everyone thought that Zhang Ruimin was crazy and felt that it was impossible.
The reporter openly questioned him: "Any investment in a different place or a foreign country should first consider the comparative advantages of oneself and the other party. Today, what Haier has done is tantamount to sacrificing its own advantages for the inferiority of others, and attacking the enemy's strengths with its own shortcomings.
For this reason, Zhang Ruimin directly counterattacked, to set up a factory abroad to lose at least 8 years, then be ready to lose 8 years, if for this small profit, there will never be a world-renowned brand of our own.
The progress of the European and American markets was not as smooth as expected, and it took 26 years to go from loss to profit.
Zhang Ruimin and Kazuo Inamori
During this period, Zhang Ruimin also proposed many subversive and unheard of work management methods.
In 1994, he put forward the working method of "daily affairs, daily clearance and daily high", and listed most of the management work into routine management.
At the beginning of the implementation, the employees were very uncomfortable, Zhang Ruimin took the lead in insisting, every Saturday senior managers Nissin regular meeting has never fallen, and then if there is no Nissin meeting on any day, the employees are not used to it.
In the 90s of the 20th century, Haier acquired 18 companies one after another, and each time it was a great success.
What everyone didn't expect was that after the company's acquisition, Zhang Ruimin did not increase investment, but just copied Haier's management methods in the past, and the company regained its vitality.
Not only company management, Zhang Ruimin also pays attention to the self-development and improvement of every employee.
In September 2005, Zhang Ruimin proposed the operation mode of "one-in-one", which closely connected the work of employees with the needs of users and stimulated the "self-motivation" of employees.
In his words, "everyone is a CEO", which coincides with Kazuo Inamori's "all employees are managers".
He divided the 80,000 employees into more than 2,000 independent business entities, each of which has the right to use human rights, decision-making power and profit distribution power, and advocated that all employees face the market and find customers.
In the face of the impact of the Internet, many enterprises have been eliminated, and Haier has relied on this novel "Rendanyi" operation mode to stabilize the market.
This method has also been applied by Zhang Ruimin to Japan and the United States, and has achieved a certain degree of success.
Zhang Ruimin's management method always adheres to the main line of "people-oriented", and he pays attention to the needs of employees and customers, which makes the company have the potential for development.
On November 9, 2015, 66-year-old Zhang Ruimin was selected into the list of "2015 World's 50 Most Influential Management Thinkers" and won the "Best Concept Practice Award", becoming the only Chinese entrepreneur to win two awards at the same time.
Along the way, the Haier Group led by him has explored a path that no one else has taken, a road of transformation of traditional manufacturing in the Internet era.
Looking at Zhang Ruimin's more than 30 years of management experience, it is not difficult to find that although there is no standard for the way forward, and there is no ready-made model to copy, he has never flinched and has been leading everyone to explore boldly.
As Kazuo Inamori said, "If you firmly believe that as long as you work hard to move forward, you will definitely get good results, and you should keep a good mood and stride forward with confidence." ”
Now, he has retired from the rivers and lakes and is no longer active on the front line, but his spirit and energy are influencing generations of "Haier people".
The times are changing, and I hope that more "Zhang Ruimin-style" entrepreneurs will ride the wind and waves and move forward bravely.
Author: Lan Yan Ziyu, a person who likes to explore the stories of characters, discovers the shining points of others, absorbs energy, and continues to move forward. This article was first published on the public account: Reader (ID: duzherenwu), please add WeChat ID: dz568dz568 for reprinting.
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