Li Shufu, Chairman of Geely Holding Group
Author | Qiu is in charge of the machine
Source | Qiu is in charge of the machine
（ID：qiuchuji_1993)
At the national commendation conference for the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up, Li Shufu was awarded the honorary title of "Pioneer of Reform". He deserves this honor.
In the past few decades, Li Shufu has incarnated as a tide maker of the market economy, dared to practice, and repeatedly broke into the forbidden areas of the private economy.
He opened a photo studio, was criticized and educated several times, and persisted for two years before turning to other projects.
He ran a refrigerator factory, and without production qualifications, he used three years to do the largest private enterprise in Taizhou.
He built a car factory and lobbied for 8 years before he won China's first private car license.
It can be said that Li Shufu's exploration and persistence have made important contributions to the rise of China's private economy.
In addition, Li Shufu is also based in China and looks at the world.
Whether it is the acquisition of Volvo Cars or the largest shareholder of Mercedes-Benz's parent company, Geely has set an excellent example for Chinese companies in overseas mergers and acquisitions.
The most valuable thing is that in addition to business, Li Shufu also has a sense of education.
From Beijing Geely College to Sanya College, Li Shufu has founded 10 private colleges and universities in 20 years, training and exporting 150,000 technical and senior talents to the society.
Up to now, under the leadership of Li Shufu, Geely Holding Group has developed into a global automotive industry group, with brands such as Geely Automobile, Geometry Automobile, Lynk & Co, Volvo Cars, Polar star Automobile, Proton Automobile, Lotus Automobile, London Electric Vehicle, Long-range Automobile, Cao Cao Chuxing and Taili Flying Car.
According to the list of "2021 Zhejiang Top 100 Manufacturing Enterprises", in the past 2021, Geely Group has ranked among the Fortune Global 500 for ten consecutive years with a revenue of 325.619 billion yuan. As the founder of Geely, Li Shufu is also worth more than 200 billion yuan.
Li Shufu was once called a "car maniac" by the media in the industry. Whether it is "the car is not four wheels, plus two rows of sofas" or "selling the car like a cabbage", his "rumors" have aroused people's hot discussion.
But what impressed me most was the sentence: "Let China's cars go to the world, rather than let the world's cars run all over China." ”
One
The end of Qingping
Research policy, herding cows keep up with the pulse of the times
Li Shufu was born in June 1963 to a farming family in Luqiao District, Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province. He is the third oldest in the family, with two older brothers above and a younger brother below.
From the first grade of primary school, Li Shufu used the time of winter and summer vacations to herd cattle for the production team, earning 1 cent 5 per day, so that li Shufu could earn nearly 10 yuan for a summer vacation cattle.
This is a huge amount of money for Li Shufu. Because the tuition fee was waived at that time, after deducting the book fee of 1.2 yuan per semester, Li Shufu still had a surplus, and he became a "rich man" among his classmates in one fell swoop.
In the process of herding cattle, Li Shufu also realized some life principles.
At that time, Li Shufu, who was eight or nine years old, was short, and in order to climb on the back of the cow and ride the cattle, he thought hard for a long time before he came up with a solution:
Li Shufu first led the cattle to the place where the grass grew better, and asked the cattle to bow their heads and eat. Then using the cow's left thigh, when the cow is bent, he grasps the cow's neck with his hand and quickly steps on the cow's thigh joint with his foot, so that he can easily climb on the cow's back.
Later, when Li Shufu recalled this experience, he couldn't help but sigh: "As long as the method is appropriate and the attitude is sincere, effective communication will be achieved and win-win cooperation can be achieved." Since both man and cow can cooperate very well, why can't people get along honestly with each other? ”
The time of herding cattle is simple but carefree. This kind of life while reading books and living with nature has also become the most precious memory in Li Shufu's heart.
In 1978, the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee opened the curtain of reform and opening up. This spring thunder resounded throughout the land of Shenzhou, and also stirred up a thousand waves in the heart of a 15-year-old teenager.
At that time, Li Shufu, who had just entered the first year of junior high school, turned on the radio at home and heard the impassioned voice inside:
"Rural land can be contracted for operation, peasants can leave the land to engage in township enterprises, and they can also engage in individual and private economy..."
When Li Shufu heard this, he was dumbfounded.
Because you are not allowed to do business yourself, you will say that you are engaged in "capitalism." Now that I can do it, I really think that my ears are wrong, and there is such a great thing under the heavens? Li Shufu mentioned in his memoirs.
Under the surging mood, Li Shufu's thoughts had long since flown away from his studies, and he began to study a series of guidelines and policies since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
In order to set aside sufficient research time, Li Shufu hurriedly completed three years of junior high school in two years. But even so, he was still admitted to the top class of Luqiao Middle School with excellent results, and I have to say that Li Shufu was also one of the school bullies in that era.
At the same time, it is lamentable that as a teenager in junior high school, Li Shufu is so sensitive and enthusiastic about changes in the times, which is very popular. To some extent, he is a natural hipster in the market economy.
And this habit of observing the world, Li Shufu has also maintained since then: "I spend a lot of time studying the world and seeing how the world has changed, which is the first important thing." ”
As the pace of reform and opening up continued to accelerate, Li Shufu gradually lost patience with high school studies, and he felt as if opportunities were being missed in front of his eyes, which made him depressed.
To this end, he plucked up the courage to propose to his father the idea of dropping out of school to start a business, and as a result, this attitude of "being in Cao Ying's heart in Han" made Li Shufu very angry and beat Li Shufu hard.
Although he was beaten, Li Shufu was still full of expectations for the market economy, and he began to conceive various business plans in his mind.
Two
Fledgling
Starting at 120 yuan, he earned the first bucket of gold by taking pictures
The practice of Li Shufu's first business idea occurred after graduating from high school. At that time, Li Shufu had just fallen behind the college entrance examination with a three-point difference.
However, in view of his previous academic achievements, there is reason to suspect whether Li Shufu deliberately released water in order to be able to quickly plunge into the market torrent of reform and opening up.
Therefore, Li Shufu neither re-read nor looked for a job, but chose to start a business.
Father Li couldn't help his own child, so he simply let Go of Li Shufu's decision, thinking that he would crash into the south wall, and maybe he would be able to retreat when the time came.
In this way, Li Shufu asked his father for 120 yuan to buy a handheld camera, and began the entrepreneurial journey of the next 40 years.
Riding the family's bicycle, Li Shufu began to walk the streets and alleys, visit the park, and when he saw people, he asked if he wanted to take pictures. In the eyes of Taizhou people, Li Shufu was also a "wild photo" at that time, and even today, there are such businesses in some parts of China.
Due to the diligent legs and feet, warm service, and good photo quality, Li Shufu's business is endless. Half a year later, he not only earned back the cost of the camera, but also saved more than 1,000 yuan, which is also the first bucket of gold for his business.
Subsequently, in order to improve the service and do a big photo business, Li Shufu decided to open a photo studio.
According to Li Shufu, at that time, because of limited funds, he could only spend all the money on equipment and venue rental, and the rest of the lights, props, and even camera bases were designed and produced by himself.
This was the case in the early days of entrepreneurship, due to limited resources, a company's penny often needs to be spent as two cents, and founders often need one person to use as several people.
In the early days of SF, Wang Wei needed to go out to solicit business and help sort and move goods in the store. The same is true of Nie Yunchen, in the early days of Xicha, he not only had to develop and debug products, but also personally designed the menus in the store.
Although the operation of the photo studio has brought Li Shufu a lot of income, the legitimacy of his business has always been tested.
"It was not easy to open a photo studio in that era, and it had to be approved by the Public Security Bureau. Because the photography industry belongs to the special industry, because I do not have a special business license, I have received education and punishment many times. But probably because my attitude is better, even if I asked to close its doors, the photo studio still insisted on nearly two years. Li Shufu later said.
If taking pictures is Li Shufu's first venture, then alchemy is his second venture.
When running a photo studio, by chance, Li Shufu found that he used the chemical method he learned in high school to separate various metals from waste electrical parts, and his eyes lit up.
After tasting the sweetness a few times, Li Shufu closed the "illegal" photo studio and threw himself into the project.
While converting his home into a workshop, he bought parts from the Taizhou waste electrical appliance market and engaged in a vigorous "circular economy".
Years later, Li Shufu recalled the start-up with great emotion: "The economic benefits at that time were not bad, but then my skills were learned by others, so there was fierce supply chain competition, the cost of waste parts was getting higher and higher, and I entered a new round of difficult transformation." ”
Three
Teenagers became famous
Selling "Arctic Flowers" refrigerators, 28-year-old multimillionaire
One day in 1984, Li Shufu came to a shoe factory in Taizhou to make leather shoes. Inadvertently, he found that the four workers in the shoe factory did not make shoes, but instead produced a refrigerator part.
After some inquiry, Li Shufu found that this was another huge business opportunity. With the improvement of people's living standards, refrigerators began to enter thousands of households, Li Shufu decided to embark on the entrepreneurial journey again: research and production of refrigerator accessories.
Because the company was founded, there was neither land nor a factory, Li Shufu could only rent a street workshop for the research and trial production of refrigerator evaporators, condensers and filters.
In fact, it is difficult to imagine that several high school-educated grass bench teams, in the case of poor conditions and facilities, can develop refrigerator parts with some technical content.
But the entrepreneurs of that era who were passionate about the future were always able to create miracles, especially Li Shufu.
After nearly 400 days and nights of repeated failures and summaries, when Li Shufu's palm was tossed to no piece of intact skin, they finally successfully tried to give birth.
Although the research and development of products has been solved, the production plant has once again become a problem faced by Li Shufu.
Because the street office wanted to develop its own industry, the previous workshops were taken back by them, and Li Shufu could only move to other places.
Fortunately, with the help of the parents of his classmates, Li Shufu rented a factory run by Luqiao Middle School, and he could use the name of the school-run factory to produce and sell.
But helplessly, less than a week after moving in, Li Shufu's factory was protested by the teachers due to the noise. The school was under pressure and could only let Li Shufu move away quickly.
After learning his lesson, this time Li Shufu asked someone to help find a nearby uninhabited place: an old waterworks.
Li Shufu thought to himself: This time there should be no problem, God has enough to toss me.
But fate played a joke on him again.
Since the water plant has cut off the power supply, if the electricity is reused, it must seek approval from the power supply bureau. Li Shufu was troublesome, and as a result, he was reported for receiving electricity without permission, so the county power bureau asked the county procuratorate to place them under residential surveillance and file an investigation.
This frightened Li Shufu, who for a time did not dare to go to the waterworks again, and the production of refrigerator parts also came to a standstill.
Mountains and rivers are doubtful and there is no way, and the willows are dark and the flowers are bright and another village. Just when Li Shufu was desperate, the director of the industrial office in Huangyan County, Taizhou, took the initiative to find them. In order to develop the township enterprises in the county, the director is willing to solve this problem for them.
Under the coordination of the director, Li Shufu's production equipment in the waste waterworks was lifted. On the day of the re-move, even after many years, Li Shufu still remembers it vividly:
"The handling of these equipment, we are all using human hands to pull the cart, like a snail to achieve the transfer. There are three or four people in a hand-pulled cart, and there are dozens of hand-pulled cars, pushing and pulling.
And those days happened to be pouring rain, although sweaty, but can not distinguish between rain and sweat. I thought at the time that as long as we can move forward, it will be our success and the common pursuit of everyone.
Later, it was tens of kilometers, and the road was muddy and the potholes were narrow. Because these devices are too heavy, the binding lock is very difficult, and we only completed the transport for several days and nights. The hardship and torment is the same as when I was holding a cow, when I was ploughing the land. ”
Because of the relocation, the name of the factory run by Luqiao Middle School can no longer be used by Li Shufu. Later, with the help of the director of the Work Office, Li Shufu got the business license of the township enterprise and incarnated into the regular army, named Huangyan Shiqu Refrigerator Accessories Factory.
After the documents were completed, Li Shufu began to recruit soldiers on a large scale, develop new products, and expand production capacity.
Due to the excellent technology and the market shortage, the products of Shiqu Refrigerator Accessories Factory were once sold to almost all refrigerator factories in the country.
Li Shufu saw that the development of the enterprise was in full swing and his ambitions were further expanded, so he decided to march to the downstream terminal of the industry and began to produce refrigeration equipment such as refrigerators and electric freezers.
Again, this is a bold decision. At that time, the private economy had not yet been officially recognized by the state, and refrigerators, which were previously uniformly placed by the state, did not have production policies to implement.
But Li Shufu was bold enough: although you did not approve production, you did not prohibit it. Since it is reform and opening up, feeling the stones to cross the river, then I will first produce and see.
In 1986, Li Shufu officially established the Huangyan County Arctic Flower Refrigerator Factory, once again breaking into the forbidden area of the private economy.
Due to the high quality and low price, the supply exceeded the demand, and within two years, Arctic Flower became a well-known refrigerator brand in China.
At its peak, the annual sales of Arctic Flowers once surpassed that of the state-owned refrigerator factory, reaching 40 million yuan, becoming the largest private enterprise in Taizhou. Li Shufu, who was only 26 years old at the time, also became a full multi-millionaire.
However, in June 1989, the state promulgated a directory of enterprises that produced refrigerators at designated points, and Arctic flowers failed to be listed among them.
"I was deeply tired because of changes in the objective environment and the difference of opinion among internal shareholders, and then I gave all my assets to the township government. After the government took over, although I returned to the proletariat overnight, I was relaxed and went to college. Later, Li Shufu recalled.
Regarding This statement of Li Shufu, the situation is half-believed. It is not impossible to send the fixed assets of enterprises to the government, but whether to retain and allocate some liquid assets remains to be examined.
After all, if there is no property leaning over, I think It is unlikely that Li Shufu will temporarily put the knife and gun into the warehouse and put the horse on the South Mountain.
Four
Fight again
Drop out of school and rekindle your passion for entrepreneurship
From graduating from high school to leaving the refrigerator factory, Li Shufu also spent 8 years in Shanghai, and he felt that it was time to precipitate himself, so he ran to Shenzhen University for further study.
It is said to be learning, but now in retrospect, as a city at the forefront of reform and opening up, Li Shufu went to Shenzhen to investigate the market.
Once, when Li Shufu and a friend went to a decoration materials market, they found that an imported material called "Alcoa curved board" had great market prospects.
After several understandings, Li Shufu felt that the opportunity could not be lost, so he decided to interrupt his studies and return to Taizhou to fight the mall again.
Soon, the factory jointly founded by Li Shufu and his brothers produced China's first Alcoa curved board. Due to the excellent quality and cheap price, it quickly replaced imported products and became a hit in china.
At the best time of business, the Alcoa curved board produced by Li Shufu was not only sold domestically, but also exported to dozens of countries and regions. To this day, this business is one of the important sources of income for the Li Shufu family.
However, Li Shufu did not stay in this industry for long, and he chose to withdraw personally and handed over the company to his brother Li Shutong to take care of. The reason is the same as the original alchemy: it has been copied, homogenized competition, and profits have declined.
Later, Li Shufu could not help but complain: "Although we had patents and so-called intellectual property rights at that time, being copied by others may be the fate arrangement of that era." ”
In fact, not only in the 90s, but even now, China's entrepreneurial environment is still the most competitive environment in the world. In the case that the objective environment cannot be changed, if enterprises want to be imitated by others, they need to continuously consolidate their own moats. As Musk said:
"As long as you innovate fast enough, you don't have to worry about intellectual property protection, and competitors will always have to chase your ass."
Like many private bosses, Li Shufu was also driven by expected profits, and his head was hot, and he could not restrain the impulse to expand.
After withdrawing from the decoration industry, when the Hainan real estate market was in full swing in 1992, Li Shufu rushed to Hainan with tens of millions of yuan and joined the army of speculation.
Unfortunately, before Li Shufu, Pan Shiyi, Feng Lun, Wang Gongquan and other bigwigs had already entered first, so Li Shufu unfortunately became a receiver and buried tens of millions of yuan of snowflake silver in the ends of the world in Hainan.
Years later, whenever the reporter mentioned this experience, Li Shufu was secretive and unwilling to talk about it.
He only said that the biggest lesson for me from Hainan speculation is: "I can only do industry." ”
Five
Darkness Chen Cang
I don't know "the sky is high and the ground is thick", to create China's first private car company
During his studies in Shenzhen, Li Shufu spent 60,000 yuan to buy a Zhonghua brand car. What he didn't expect was that when he lost Hainan a few years later, he actually started to think of building a car.
However, throughout the 1990s, the domestic automotive industry was not open to private enterprises, so when Li Shufu found the leader of the Economic Committee of Huangyan District of Taizhou City and just said the idea of making automobiles, he got a "impossible" reply.
Li Shufu was not reconciled, and then found the Provincial Machinery Department, the answer was still "impossible", the relevant leaders told him: "It is useless for you to go to Beijing, the state does not agree, the factory cannot be built, and the car cannot be produced and cannot be licensed." ”
Several blows did not make Li Shufu completely give up, and he decided to save the country by curve: first set up a motorcycle factory, and then wait for the opportunity to build a car.
In 1993, Li Shufu spent tens of millions of dollars to acquire a state-owned postal motorcycle factory on the verge of closure in Linhai, Taizhou, starting a huge wave of car manufacturing.
At the beginning, Li Shufu built a straddle motorcycle, but the sales were not good.
Later, in an accident, Li Shufu found that scooters were simple and easy to build, but the import price was expensive, and no one in China made them, so he changed the direction of the product.
After a year of research, China's first scooter was born, and the supply of products on the market exceeded demand.
Subsequently, Li Shufu cooperated with the industry boss "Jialing" to produce "Cargill" brand motorcycles. In less than two years, his motorcycle sales not only occupy the leading position of domestic scooters, but also export to 32 countries such as the United States and Italy.
While the motorcycle business is booming, Li Shufu also does not forget to lay out the layout for future car buildings.
In June 1996, Li Shufu, who had recently officially established Geely, called the newly graduated An Conghui, who has now grown into president and CEO of Geely Holding Group.
Li Shufu pointed to a drawing and told An Conghui: "You go to Linhai to build a motorcycle factory." ”
A month later, on the way to run an errand, Li Shufu suddenly said to An Conghui: "We want to use that land to build cars." ”
"Is it that kind of car?" An Conghui was surprised and pointed to a pickup truck outside the car window and asked.
"No, we're going to build this Mercedes!"" Li Shufu looked at the other party, patted the seat in the car and said.
"Aren't we approving motorcycle factories?" An Conghui was stunned.
"If we say cars, can we be approved?" Let's give him a dark chen cang. Li Shufu smiled slyly.
At the same time as the secret construction of the base, Li Shufu also began to build cars.
He bought several Mercedes-Benz cars, and then got the main components such as Hongqi's chassis and engine from FAW, and then knocked out the shell with fiberglass, and finally assembled them to create a "new car".
Subsequently, Li Shufu excitedly drove the car for a ride on the street, but was soon warned by the authorities that it was "illegal" to build a car without a production license.
In 1997, during a small talk, Li Shufu learned that a state-owned car factory in Deyang, Sichuan Province, was on the verge of bankruptcy, and immediately invested tens of millions to buy it.
However, the other party's qualification can only produce mini-buses, and if you want to produce hatchbacks, you must rub elbows with the policy. But this is enough for Li Shufu, who has always been bold.
Subsequently, Geely officially announced an investment of 500 million yuan to enter the automobile industry.
After the news spread, Geely attracted a lot of ridicule. In their view, the automotive industry belongs to the monopoly of state-owned enterprises, and a private enterprise with no experience in building cars also wants to insert a lever.
In this regard, Li Shufu's response is quite domineering:
"It's not difficult to build a car, isn't it just four wheels and two sofas?"
Years later, when the reporter asked why there was such a firm determination to build a car, Li Shufu admitted frankly:
"Although not many people believed that Geely could build cars at that time, I firmly believed that China's reform and opening up policy would be more mature in the future, China's modernization would continue to advance, and China would certainly become the world's largest automobile market."
And at that time, if China didn't have its own car brand, it would be a terrible thing.
In the face of this historic business opportunity, although there will be many difficulties in entering the automotive industry, there is enough time and space for us to grow, which is an opportunity benefit that cannot be bought with money.
So we must seize this window of time and unswervingly enter the automotive field. ”
On August 8, 1998, Geely's first car "Pride" rolled off the production line, and Li Shufu issued more than 700 invitations and hosted a 100-table banquet.
On the same day, Li Shufu wore a suit and tie and waited for the guests to arrive. However, due to the fact that Geely is still a black household, no guests dare to come to the scene.
7 o'clock, 8 o'clock... Until 10 o'clock, the tables in the guest seat were still missing, and Li Shufu's heart was like a knife.
"Go!" He couldn't wait any longer, so he shouted.
Just then, a voice sounded: "Shufu, I am coming!" ”
Li Shufu turned around and looked at Ye Rongbao, who was then vice governor of Zhejiang Province. At that moment, he burst into tears.
Years later, Li Shufu talked about the scene again, and still felt a little sad.
After the proud offline, Li Shufu continued to run for Geely, and he waved the flag for private enterprises in front of the media and the public.
In 1999, when Zeng Peiyan, then director of the State Planning Commission, inspected Jili, Li Shufu also emotionally pleaded with the leadership:
"Please allow private enterprises to try, allow private entrepreneurs to dream of a car." If it fails, give me a chance to fail!
In early November 2002, the long wait finally came to fruition. On the eve of China's accession to the WTO, Geely finally got the production license of the car as it wished, becoming the first private car company in China.
Six
Blockbuster
Acquisition of Volvo, staged "snake swallowing elephant"
In the early days of Geely Automobile, like most private entrepreneurs, Li Shufu opened the domestic market with cost performance.
At that time, Geely Meiri and Geely Pride, each price was about 30,000 yuan. The price of the upscale Geely Eureo is only 40,000 yuan. The ultra-low price has also triggered a wave of price cuts for similar cars, and cars are no longer the exclusive property of the rich.
Under the advantage of price, Geely Automobile soon became one of the top ten automobile enterprises in China. But at the same time, Geely has become synonymous with cheap and low-end, and it has even been teased: "Driving an Auspicious car must have a spirit of not being afraid of death and not being afraid of suffering." ”
In addition, because it is too imitative of other cars, Geely has not eaten less lawsuits, Li Shufu's situation was once very embarrassing, and his mood was extremely low.
Some people said that he was going crazy at the time: when he saw people, he told how he built a 30,000 yuan car. Even once, after drinking with his colleagues, he cried loudly: "I don't steal, I don't rob, I work from 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day, working hard to run a business, why do others always laugh at me?" ”
Perhaps it was then that Li Shufu had the idea of acquiring a high-end car brand.
In 2006, as the cost of parts and steel rose, Li Shufu found that Geely had almost no profit margins, and he realized that it was time for Geely, which had enjoyed a few years of market dividends, to make up its mind.
The following year, under the leadership of Li Shufu, Geely issued the Ningbo Declaration and began to implement a comprehensive strategic transformation: no price war, technical war, brand war, service war, and moral war.
The slogan has also shifted from the previous "build a good car that the people can afford" to "build the safest, most environmentally friendly and most energy-saving good car".
Fortunately, in the third year of the implementation of the strategic transformation, when new models such as the Liberty Ship, King Kong, and Envision gradually replaced Haoqing, the United States and Japan, and Eureo, Geely passed the painful period, with sales reaching 330,000 vehicles, a net increase of more than 100,000 vehicles over 2008, and achieved sales revenue of 16.5 billion yuan.
A new and powerful Geely automobile brand image is clear in the minds of consumers.
While Geely continues to practice internal skills, Li Shufu also clearly knows that the establishment of high-end brands and the improvement of technology are not a day's work.
In order for Chinese cars to go global, he must find a "good teacher" for Geely. Therefore, Li Shufu chose to acquire some foreign vehicle and parts manufacturers, of which the most important one is Volvo.
As early as 2002, Li Shufu, who soon got the automobile production license, was amazing. At an internal meeting, he announced to employees: "We want to acquire the world famous brand Volvo!" ”
The employees in the audience looked confused: Was the boss joking?
Indeed, volvo was one of the world's four luxury cars at the time, belonging to the Ford Group and with a glorious history of nearly 70 years. And Geely is just a newcomer who has just stepped into the industry, neither brand nor capital, talking about acquisition is tantamount to a fool's dream.
Li Shufu's idea was madly ridiculed by countless people. But he didn't give up and has been quietly preparing for the next few years.
By 2007, a financial crisis had created a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Mr. Li.
At the time, Ford was in deep financial trouble, losing $12.6 billion. Mulari, who was the CEO of Ford at the time, launched the "One Ford" strategy, successively selling sub-brands such as Land Rover and Jaguar, but still reluctant to sell Volvo.
Since Being Acquired by Ford in 1999, Volvo has not reversed its losses. Li Shufu felt that the opportunity could not be lost and decided to go all out.
He first ran to the headquarters of HSBC Holdings in the United Kingdom to "find money", and after getting the financing support of the other party, he personally went to the United States to visit Ford executives, but soon touched a nose of ash.
Li Shufu did not give up, and ran to Detroit in the United States for two consecutive years to participate in the auto show, the purpose is to find an opportunity to have a cup of coffee with Ford's chief financial officer and chat about Volvo.
Initially, in the eyes of Ford's senior management, Geely Group's plan to acquire Volvo was completely a "snake swallowing elephant" delusion, which was a manifestation of self-inadequacy.
However, Li Shufu has been grinding hard for a long time, and many people in Ford remember this yellow-skinned, smiling, persistent Chinese private entrepreneur.
Therefore, at the end of 2008, when Ford decided to get rid of the burden of Volvo, the first thing that came to mind was Li Shufu.
In order to successfully acquire Volvo Cars, Li Shufu also recruited 4 top elites in the industry - Tong Zhiyuan, former president of Huatai Automobile Group, Zhang Peng and Yuan Xiaolin, former executives of BP, and Shen Hui, former president of Fiat Power Technologies China, to create a new management team.
This team understands both the procedures of international M&A matters and the routines of dealing with european and American governments, so it has become the decision-making body of Geely Group's acquisition of Volvo.
It is said that during the negotiations, the Geely acquisition team weighed tens of kilograms just by preparing materials, and the members often traveled back and forth between China and Europe, sometimes waking up in the morning without knowing where they were.
Among all the acquisition conditions, the trade union problem is a "roadblock" that Chinese enterprises often encounter in overseas acquisitions, and Li Shufu also encounters this problem.
Once, during negotiations with a Union representative at Volvo, the other side gave Li Shufu a problem and asked him if he could use 3 words to explain why Geely was the most suitable bidder.
At that time, the atmosphere in the field was somewhat awkward, and the host was going to come out of the round field, but Li Shufu waved his hand and decided to face this problem himself.
He replied, "The 3 words I want to say are I loveyou." I love you guys, I love the Volvo brand. It is Geely's responsibility and obligation to operate the Volvo brand well, as well as to love Volvo's employees and protect the interests of employees! ”
Li Shufu's confession won a round of warm applause at the scene.
On October 31, 2009, Ford finally made a choice between two bidders, The French Renault Automobile Company and the Chinese Geely Group: The Geely Group was listed as a preferred bidder.
At this time, no one ridiculed Li Shufu's "wishful thinking" anymore.
On March 28, 2010, Geely and Ford officially signed a contract in Gothenburg, Sweden, and won Volvo Cars for $1.8 billion, becoming the first car company in Chinese history to have a luxury car brand, rewriting history in one fell swoop.
Seven
Inclusive
Complementary advantages, topped the first domestic car brand
After the acquisition was completed, many people worried that Geely would not be able to integrate with Volvo Cars.
After all, since being acquired by Ford in 1999, Volvo has been in a state of loss, and the earlier failure of SAIC to acquire South Korea's SsangYong is also a lesson for the past.
But Mr. Lee seemed confident, vowing to make Volvo profitable in two years.
In Li Shufu's view, the reason why Volvo lost money is because of its small scale and large investment in research and development, resulting in high unit costs. He believes that as long as the scale is up, it can be profitable.
So how do you scale it up? Li Shufu's approach is to fully decentralize power.
After Ford acquired Volvo, it sent one or two hundred people to the past, resulting in many middle and senior executives being Americans, which seriously affected the enthusiasm of the other side's employees.
On the contrary, Geely implements a "Hong Kong people governing The Port" management of Volvo. Li Shufu believes that Volvo is like a tiger trapped in a cage, and all Jili has to do is to let the tiger return to the mountain and restore its wildness.
He also mentioned: "Geely is Geely, Volvo is Volvo, the two are brothers, not father and son, and the future direction is like Volkswagen and Audi." At the same time, the two sides should exert synergies through joint research and development and joint procurement. ”
It turns out that Li Shufu's strategy has played a huge role.
With Geely's support, Volvo went from a regional company that relied heavily on the Nordic market to three major markets in Europe, Asia and North America. Among them, the Chinese market has become its main growth market.
In addition, Volvo Cars has a brand and technology, but does not have a good product strategy. Geely always follows the trend quickly and knows what models will be popular in the market.
Complemented by this advantage, Volvo Cars has doubled its annual global sales in the past 11 years, becoming one of the fastest growing luxury car brands.
On October 29, 2021, Volvo Cars was successfully listed in Stockholm, Sweden, with a market value of more than $22 billion, becoming sweden's largest domestic listing in 20 years.
While Geely empowers Volvo, it also obtains the technology that Chinese car companies most desire from the latter.
In the 11 years since the merger, Geely has built five major engineering R&D centers and five major design centers around the world, with a cumulative R&D investment of more than 100 billion yuan.
By joining hands with Volvo Cars, collaborating with global resources and talents to create modular architectures such as SPA and CMA and new three major technologies, Geely has become one of the world's mainstream manufacturers in many technical fields.
With strong technology and market acumen, Geely has launched a number of stunning mid-to-high-end cars such as Emgrand, Borui, Boyue, Xingyue, and Lynk & Co.
In 2017, Geely Automobile's annual sales exceeded 1.24 million units, ranking first in the sales of domestic automotive independent brands, and this achievement has been won so far.
In general, Geely's acquisition of Volvo Cars has created a win-win situation, and has been included in the case library of world-renowned business schools such as Harvard, Wharton, and Ceiblia, which can be called a successful model in the history of global auto mergers and acquisitions.
Eight
Centennial Tree Man
The king of education, deeply engaged in private education for 20 years
The rise of Geely is largely related to Li Shufu's emphasis on education and talents.
In 1997, when Li Shufu first stepped into the automotive industry, China's automotive industry not only lagged behind the international level in terms of equipment conditions, but also had a shortage of talent reserves.
Adhering to the concept of "to build a good car, first build talents", Li Shufu founded the first school of Geely Holding Group: Zhejiang Economic Management College.
Later, this seemingly ordinary private college became the "education embryo" of Geely Holding Group, and hatched three full-time colleges and universities: Zhejiang Haoqing Automobile Industrial School, Zhejiang Geely Technician College and Zhejiang Automobile Vocational and Technical College.
For more than 20 years, these three schools have sent more than 23,000 talents to the automotive industry chain, becoming the backbone of all aspects of the automotive industry.
By 2000, Li Shufu was not satisfied with running a technical college that only transported technical talents, he hoped to create a university in the true sense of the word to cultivate and transport talents for China's automotive industry, and even more high-tech industries and the entire Chinese society.
However, at that time, all colleges and universities were founded and managed by the Ministry of Education. Such an idea is no less than a fantasy.
But Li Shufu still broke through many difficulties and finally built a Beijing Geely College that cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
Today, Beijing Geely College has become the "National Automobile Shortage Talent Training Base", and more than 2,000 alumni have grown into executives of large and medium-sized enterprises in China.
In 2005, Li Shufu set his sights on Hainan, where educational resources are scarce, and funded the construction of Sanya's earliest and largest undergraduate college: Sanya College.
As the first undergraduate institution in Sanya, Sanya College is now not only rated as a six-star top private university in China, but also ranked second in the ranking of China's comprehensive private universities for six consecutive years.
Involved in the education industry for more than 20 years, Geely has opened a total of 10 colleges and universities, covering different levels from vocational high schools to graduate schools, and cultivated more than 150,000 talents for the society. Among them, 10% of the talents entered Geely, successfully feeding back the companies that provided them with the opportunity to study.
Obviously, the closed-loop chain of "school-enterprise cooperation" that supports the development of China's high-tech innovation has been passed by Li Shufu.
"In addition to building cars, education is the softest feeling in my heart." At a meeting of company executives, Li Shufu emotionally said, "So far, the only thing that makes Geely different from others is that we have a strong education and training system. ”
Nine
Reborn from the cocoon
The wave of intelligent electric is rising, and the veteran will wear a cloak and break through
Looking back at Li Shufu's entrepreneurial experience in the past few decades, you can find a key word, that is, "transformation".
From photo studios to metallurgy, refrigerator accessories to refrigerators, decoration materials to motorcycles, low-end cars to high-end car brands, localization to globalization, Li Shufu led Geely to seize every opportunity of the times, face difficulties, and constantly upgrade and fight monsters, so that there is a global automobile industry group that stands in the world's top 500 today.
A reporter once asked Li Shufu: "What is your biggest fear?" ”
Li Shufu's answer was: "The world has changed, and I don't know it yet." ”
From this answer, it can be seen that as the first generation of entrepreneurs in reform and opening up, Li Shufu's success benefits from keeping up with the pulse of the times, so what he is most afraid of is being abandoned by the times. Perhaps for him, this was both a loss and a disgrace.
But there is no hundred days of red flowers, no one has a thousand days, and it is not easy to seize the dividends of each era.
Under the wave of vehicle electrification and intelligence, Geely's transformation in recent years has encountered many challenges.
In fact, when it comes to discovering trends, Li Shufu and Jili's perception is not dull.
As early as 2016, in the New Year's message to all employees, Li Shufu put forward the "Blue Geely Action" plan, saying that by 2020, 90% of Geely's cars will be new energy vehicles, and will realize the strategic transformation from traditional car companies to new energy vehicle companies.
Guided by this goal, Geely has also made a lot of efforts in the past few years.
In order to improve its own electrification technology, Geely acquired a 9% stake in Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler for $9 billion in 2018, becoming its largest shareholder.
Not long ago, Geely also spent $3.3 billion to become the largest shareholder of Volvo Trucks Group, actively laying out new energy commercial vehicle tracks.
In order to enhance its own intelligent information capabilities, Geely reached a cooperation with Baidu at the beginning of last year, and the two sides jointly established Baidu Intelligent Vehicles.
Obviously, Baidu's accumulation in intelligent driving can bring great help to Geely.
In addition, Li Shufu has also laid out the fields of car chips, mobile phones, satellites and other fields in the past two years, and the ultimate goal should be to create a car networking ecology.
Li Shufu once imagined the future of the car: "It will definitely become a smart space mobile terminal, it will definitely help the owner solve more difficulties and problems; it will take off and land vertically, fly freely in rivers, mountains, rivers and villages; it will become the owner's secretary and bodyguard, make money for the master, help the master consume, make the owner happy, chat with the master, keep the owner safe, help the owner increase knowledge; will definitely clean, maintain, etc." ”
Dreams are beautiful, but reality is cruel. In the past few years, Geely's transformation has not been smooth.
In 2016, Geely launched the "Emgrand EV" series of pure electric vehicles. However, due to poor technical parameters, these models were quickly eliminated by the market.
In April 2019, Geely launched a high-end pure electric brand "Geometric Car". However, like its Volvo high-end pure electric brand "Pole Star", it has performed poorly, and its sales in the last month have exceeded 10,000.
Up to now, Geely's annual sales of electric vehicles account for only 5% of the total, which is far from the original target of 90%.
Ideal Car founder Li Xiang once said: "Compared with traditional fuel vehicles, intelligent electric vehicles are a new species, and in order to create this new species, the ideal team must also be a new cross-border team." ”
Li Shufu is also clearly aware of this problem. To this end, in March 2021, Geely established a completely independent high-end pure electric brand: Extreme Krypton Automobile.
According to An Conghui, CEO of Extreme Krypton Automobile, only 30% of the current team of Extreme Kr comes from traditional fuel vehicle manufacturers, while 70% is cross-border talents.
Under the efforts of the construction, Extreme Kr did not disappoint Li Shufu, and its first mass-produced model, the Extreme Kr 001, was widely praised after its high-profile debut last year, and received more orders than expected.
However, the current new energy vehicle track is in full swing, not only the major traditional manufacturers are actively transforming, but also many Internet and technology giants have entered the game, and the competition in the next few years will be extremely fierce.
Some people say that 2024 will be a turning point in the competition of the new energy vehicle industry, and it remains to be seen whether Geely can be successfully transformed at that time.
Ten
Write at the end
Starting from 120 yuan, from the photo studio at the beginning of the small fight, to the final carrying of the banner of the national automobile brand, Li Shufu went in and out of the sea of commerce, and his experience was legendary.
Li Shufu's life cannot be copied, but there are many places worth pondering:
- Have the courage to explore and seize the opportunities given by the times;
- Diligent research, at the beginning of each business, we go deep into the front line to participate in production;
- Attach importance to talents and understand the importance of education and learning;
- Long-term vision, early for Geely globalization to make a lot of layouts;
- Perseverance has opened up a broad road for China's automobile industry.
Now standing at the key node of the transformation of the automotive industry, Li Shufu will continue to wear the clothes and ride the wind and waves.
A reporter once asked Li Shufu: "Are you afraid that Geely will one day go out of business?" ”
Li Shufu replied with a smile: "Not afraid, there is no pressure."
Because I came from the countryside, you say what I am afraid of, it doesn't matter if I fail, go back to farming, turtle farming, shrimp farming, right? Contract two acres of land, one acre of land to plant vegetables, one acre of land to plant rice, what are you afraid of? There is food and drink. ”
Indeed, without such a mentality, Li Shufu may have a hard time persevering until now.
(End of full text)
【Introduction of Qiu Chuji】
Fujian Longyan people, graduated from a domestic business school, and later worked in a number of Internet companies, and are now engaged in venture capital related work. The public account focuses on writing the growth experience and cognitive upgrading of commercial cattle people, let us learn from them together, continue to grow, and continue to evolve.
Resources:
1. "Li Shufu's Self-Described Growth Process: Tribute to Reform and Opening Up", Li Shufu, Geely Holding Group
2. "Car Maniac Li Shufu", Yuan Yu, a global figure
3. Li Shufu of Geely Group: How to seize the opportunity to get rich? These 3 qualities are indispensable! Wu Xin, the big guy said
4. "Li Shufu: Starting from 120 yuan for photography, now spending more than 50 billion yuan to buy Mercedes-Benz, becoming its largest shareholder", Zhang Jingbo, Huashang Taoluo
5. "Li Shufu of Geely Group: Let Chinese Cars "Run" to the World", China Business Times
6. "After 23 years of building cars, Li Shufu finally encountered trouble", Guo Ruyi, a commercial figure
7. "Li Shufu, an educator who was "delayed" by a car", Fang Junyi, Zhenghe Island