Behind Zong Fuli's "ascension": taking over the family business, what did the "second generation of enterprises" do?

Recently, Zong Fuli's taking over of the general manager of Wahaha has once again aroused the attention of the outside world to the succession of the "second generation". Zhongxin Jingwei combed and found that some of the "second generation" were not willing to take over at first, some people wanted to be "supergirls", and some people were addicted to entrepreneurship.

After taking over, they are also "transforming" the enterprise in a low-key manner, trying to live stream the goods, changing the spokesperson, etc., trying to break the stereotype of the outside world on the enterprise and push the enterprise more to the young people.

Zong Fuli - the heir of the beverage empire who is eager to prove himself

Recently, Hangzhou Wahaha Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Wahaha) announced personnel changes, zong Qinghou's daughter Zong Fuli as vice chairman and general manager of the group company, responsible for daily work, effective from now on. Zong Qinghou remained the chairman of the company. As for what business Zong Fuli is specifically responsible for, the announcement does not elaborate.

Although Zong Qinghou has not yet retired, Zong Fuli, as the successor of the group, is gradually moving to the center of the stage.

Zong Fuli official website screenshot

Zong Fuli entered the food and beverage industry in 2004, since 2007 as the president of Hongsheng Beverage Group, independently led Hongsheng to grow into a top 500 private enterprise in China, and since April 2018, he has served as the director of the brand public relations department of Wahaha Group, and since March 2020, he has also served as the deputy general manager of Wahaha Group Sales Company.

"In the food and beverage industry for seventeen years, Zong Fuli is well versed in the production and market frontline, not only has rich experience in production and operation, industrial chain building, enterprise management, but also has in-depth insight into the consumer market, led and presided over a number of important brand construction projects, and made important contributions to the upgrading of wahaha brand." Wahaha said this about Zong Fuli.

Zong Fuli went to the United States to study alone at the age of 14, and since returning to China after completing her studies in 2005, she has started from the most basic production management and has continued to "crawl and roll" in workshops, factories and laboratories. In 2007, Zong Fuli independently took charge of Hongsheng Beverage Group, and in 2018, she became the director of the brand public relations department of Wahaha Group, testing the waters of brand breaking the circle.

Zhou Jiuming, the elder who had been sent to "assist" Zong Fuli, said of her, "She is also very anxious, no matter how well she does in Hongsheng, everyone still thinks that she is a small umbrella protected under the big umbrella." ”

The desire to prove herself became even more apparent after Zong Fuli became the head of the brand's public relations department. Zong Fuli has made a series of innovations inside Wahaha: the "top brand product" nutrition express line that has not changed the packaging for 10 years has been remodeled, the limited packaging with rich colors has been launched, and the corresponding makeup plate has been launched; Wang Lihong, who has endorsed Wahaha for 20 years, has been replaced; and has also actively embraced the Z generation, launching zhong Xuegao's joint AD calcium milk ice cream, bubble mart co-branded PH9.0 soda, League of Legends co-branded soda, Douluo Mainland co-brand nutrition express...

In 2020, Wahaha also tried to launch a direct-operated milk tea store. In the 2020 "Wahaha Natural Nutrition Natural Good Tea Cooperation Manual", Zong Qinghou sent a message: "This is Wahaha's third entrepreneurship, and I hope that every partner can realize self-worth and social value." ”

Nowadays, Wahaha milk tea shops have fallen into the storm of closing stores, and there have also been voices of franchisees defending their rights on the Internet.

To this day, when wahaha is mentioned, the first thing consumers think of is still "childhood memories" AD calcium milk and pure water.

"I think she's doing a pretty good job." For his daughter's achievements, Zong Qinghou, who has long shown the image of "strict father", did not hesitate to praise, but at the same time had reservations. "She's running around and doing market research everywhere, but you say it's probably a little bit far off to take on sales now, but at least she's already starting to admit it."

"Now I want to gradually retreat to the second line, let young people go to the front to do, go to the back to see, check the pass, so that the young people can be cultivated, and the foundation can be guaranteed to be evergreen." Zong Qinghou said.

Liu Chang - the head of fashionable pig farming

Regarding the inheritance of the enterprise, Liu Yonghao, chairman of New Hope Group, considered it very early. He believes that it may be too late to inherit the company after the child graduates for more than twenty years. "At that time, values and everything had been formed."

In 1996, at the age of 16, Liu Chang went to the United States to study, and returned to China after completing his studies in 2001. The following year, at the age of 22, she entered the New Hope Group and successively worked in Sichuan New Hope Agricultural Co., Ltd. (new hope six and predecessor), New Hope Dairy and other companies, starting from grassroots work.

When he first came into contact with the agricultural and animal husbandry industry, Liu Chang naturally had a kind of resistance, did not want to smell the smell, did not want to enter the chicken killing factory... Liu Chang initially wanted to participate in the "Super Girl" competition, but was stopped by Liu Yonghao for safety reasons.

In the face of his daughter in the rebellious period, Liu Yonghao did not blindly force it, and when he learned that his daughter wanted to do fashion-related things, he lent Liu Chang 1 million yuan to let her open a store. Because Liu Yonghao knows very well that the truth of doing business is unchanged, his daughter must have gained something in her experience.

During this period, she also tried to start her own business, selling jewelry, opening a store, and doing advertising consulting. In this regard, Liu Chang once said, "I originally wanted to come according to my own interests, but later found that interests are not necessarily careers."

In 2006, Liu Chang returned to a new hope. In 2013, Liu Yonghao handed over one of the largest sectors of New Hope Group, New Hope Liuhe, to Liu Chang.

For Liu Chang to take over New Hope Liuhe, Liu Yonghao gave her enough power. In Liu Yonghao's view, the inheritance of enterprises should not only be early, but also put away. "It's not that she's the chairman and has to listen to me for everything, no, she decides."

Liu Yonghao said that in the past few years when He handed over New Hope Liuhe to Liu Chang, he has saved a lot of things, and the company has made steady progress in market value, sales, profits, corporate governance and other aspects. "It has to be voted by hand, that is, to be released."

According to the annual reports of New Hope Six and 2020, in 2020, the company achieved operating income of 109.825 billion yuan and net profit attributable to the mother of 4.944 billion yuan, an increase of about 58% and 160% respectively over 2013. Over the same period, the market value also increased by more than 3 times.

In addition to his achievements in performance, Liu Chang also gave "pig raising" a sense of technology, and constantly expanded new business segments, began to attack the hot pot ingredient market, and successively began to launch new dishes.

"She (Liu Chang) often tells me about young entrepreneurs, about the Internet, big data, entrepreneurship and other things. I used to take her, now she takes me. Liu Yonghao said.

Jiang Xiaoying - Princess Xiangpiaopiao, who started her business at the age of 20

Jiang Xiaoying is the only daughter of Jiang Jianqi, chairman of Xiangpiaopiao Group, who could have studied abroad and returned to take over the family business, but she pushed off the admission notice of foreign universities and chose to guarantee Zhejiang University to study, in order to understand her own country and social development and lay the foundation for future entrepreneurship.

When she was a sophomore, she found that many families liked to camp on the playground of Zhejiang University on weekends, which attracted Jiang Xiaoying's attention. After understanding the high cost, low utilization rate and difficult to lease of camping equipment, Jiang Xiaoying immediately found a gap in the market and wanted to provide rental services for camping equipment.

Jiang Xiaoying, who said that she was done, did not reach out to her father for money, but took out a scholarship with several classmates, pooled 14,000 yuan, bought 3 sets of camping equipment, registered the public account "snail camp" on Renren. With the continuous expansion of the reputation of the rental business, Jiang Xiaoying's business has become more and more prosperous, and just one year later, the camping equipment of the "snail camp" has reached more than 150 sets, and for this reason, they have also rented a warehouse near the school.

In the operation, Jiang Xiaoying found that although camping equipment rental can be provided, suitable camping space is still lacking. Aiming at this pain point, in April 2014, Jiang Xiaoying launched the camping booking management platform "Easy Camping".

After going online, "Easy Camping" has achieved 100,000 users from 0 in just 4 months, and the transaction volume has reached nearly 1 million yuan. In September 2015, "Easy Camping" received a round of financing of 10 million yuan, with a valuation of 50 million yuan, ranking first in the domestic campground industry platform and management system. At that time, Jiang Xiaoying was just 22 years old.

At the end of 2016, Jiang Xiaoying launched "Orders Are Coming" to provide data services for the still booming homestay industry. After a year, the "order is coming" website turnover reached more than 100 million. By October 2017, the project had achieved breakeven, financing had entered the B round, and more than 100 customers had been served.

However, when Jiang Xiaoying made her career prosperous, as the pioneer of traditional cup milk tea, Xiangpiaopiao was facing the dilemma of slow touching the net and the age group of consumers. In 2016, Jiang Xiaoying relieved her father's worries and joined Xiangpiaopiao, responsible for e-commerce and new media operations. In 2017, Xiangpiaopiao launched two aseptic filling liquid milk tea products, "MECO" (Honey Valley) Milk Tea and "Lanfangyuan" Silk Stocking Milk Tea. It is reported that Jiang Xiaoying also served as the product manager of "Lanfangyuan".

So is it out of their own interests and hobbies, or the needs of corporate inheritance?

"I'm a deep user of milk tea, and I think that milk tea or tea drinks can bring consumers a sense of pleasure, and I also like such a category; in addition, to some extent, it is a very fulfilling thing to be able to make a healthy and delicious product for peers or the next generation." As a native of the Internet, we have a deeper understanding of the Internet, Xiangpiaopiao also needs the participation of young people like us, and I myself have started a business in the Internet industry, which can better empower enterprises. Jiang Xiaoying said.

Li Laibin - the e-commerce young marshal who came out of Mercury Home Textiles

Born in 1986, Li Laibin is the only son of Li Yujie, the founder of Mercury Home Textiles. In 2017, his father accidentally fell to his death during the critical period of the IPO of the company, and at the age of 31, he took over the burden of the family business.

Before taking over, Li Laibin, who liked to delve into e-commerce-related knowledge, had already begun to reform the family business. In the past, Mercury Home Textiles has continued the traditional marketing model, mainly based on the direct operation or franchise of physical stores. In 2008, Li Laibin began to lay out e-commerce for Mercury Home Textiles, becoming one of the first companies to open an online store on Alibaba, and relying on the platform to find online distributors.

The e-commerce business of Mercury Home Textiles has gradually developed into a highlight of the company's business under the leadership of Li Laibin. At the same time, Mercury Home Textiles has built two models of C2C and B2C, and tried to develop to O2O, taking the lead in building a complete e-commerce channel in the home textile industry.

In 2016, Mercury Home Textiles had planned to list on the A-share market and submitted a prospectus, but it was unsuccessful. In 2017, Mercury Home Textiles once again launched an impact on A-shares, and officially landed on the main board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange in November of that year. The death of Li Yujie and personnel changes did not affect the listing process of Mercury Home Textiles.

The data shows that in the first three quarters of 2021, Mercury Home Textiles achieved operating income of 2.456 billion yuan, an increase of 28.23% year-on-year; achieved a net profit attributable to the mother of 250 million yuan, an increase of 44.43% year-on-year.

Li Laibin once said in an interview with the media that "it is necessary to build Mercury home textiles into a fashion industry."

Zhou Lichen——

Turn a "man's wardrobe" into a wardrobe for the whole family

On November 25 last year, Heilan Home issued an announcement that Zhou Jianping applied for resignation as chairman of the company for personal reasons, and after resigning, Zhou Jianping no longer held any position in the company. At the same time, the company elected Zhou Lichen as the new chairman and member of the strategy committee.

Zhou Lichen, the son of Zhou Jianping, was born in 1988 and graduated from Tsinghua University with a major in finance.

According to public reports, Zhou Lichen worked for an equity investment fund company in Shanghai after graduating from university. In 2012, he entered Heilan Home and took over the advertising department, information center, commodity center, e-commerce and other departments step by step. At the end of 2014, Zhou Lichen, then 26 years old, attended the event publicly for the first time as vice president of Heilan Group.

In 2017, Zhou Lichen served as the president of Heilan Group, was fully responsible for the operation management and brand building, and was elected vice chairman of the listed company, which was also interpreted by the market as Zhou Lichen officially entered the succession stage.

Since Zhou Lichen served as the president of the group in 2017, Heilan Home has successively cultivated furniture brand Heilan Preferred, baby and child brand Yingshi, children's clothing brand boys and girls, fast fashion men's and women's clothing brand Black Whale, women's clothing brand OVV, etc., turning "men's wardrobe" into a wardrobe for the whole family.

As a young manager, Zhou Lichen better understands the needs of young people. In recent years, Heilan Home is working hard to get rid of its "earthy fashion" stereotype and cater to the needs of young people with spokespersons and IP cooperation.

Zhou Lichen also appeared in new channels such as live streaming with goods, communicating with users and selling goods, and he himself registered the video number "Heilan Xiao zhou zong", recording small videos to teach users how to wear clothes and narrow the distance between the brand and young users.

Under the leadership of Zhou Lichen, in 2017, Heilan Home began to carry out in-depth cooperation with Tmall New Retail to open up online and offline channels. At present, Heilan Home's e-commerce business has been developing for many years, but it has achieved little success. According to the data, as of September 30, 2020, heilan home's main business online sales revenue was 1.326 billion yuan, accounting for only 11.59%, which was also more than 10% for the first time.

However, since Zhou Lichen took over the brand building work of Heilan Home in 2017, Heilan Home's marketing expenses have increased significantly. According to the data, from 2017 to the third quarter of 2020, the sales expenses of Heilan Home were 1.549 billion yuan, 1.799 billion yuan, 2.467 billion yuan and 1.691 billion yuan, respectively, an increase of 8.86%, 16.17%, 37.07% and 13.18% respectively.

"As the second-generation successor of entrepreneurs, the burden on my shoulders is not light. Stress and motivation are always in the game. It is necessary to guard the country and mountains laid by our fathers, and we must also constantly adapt to the changes of the times, introduce new ideas, and carry on the work from top to bottom. Zhou Lichen said.

Column Editor-in-Chief: Zhang Wu Text Editor: Cheng Pei Title Image Source: Visual China Image Editor: Yong Kai

Source: Author: Zhongxin Jingwei