On January 23, Great Wall Motor issued an announcement that Vice Chairman Ms. Wang Fengying had submitted a written resignation report. Great Wall Motor agreed to resign as executive director and vice chairman of the company, but will continue to serve as general manager.
Probably to avoid misunderstanding, Great Wall also specifically pointed out in the announcement that Ms. Wang Fengying and the company's board of directors did not have differences of opinion.
But in any case, it is inevitable that the change of positions involving heavyweight car industry tycoons such as Ms. Wang Fengying will cause speculation in the industry. It should be known that in the past 30 years, Ms. Wang Fengying has been the most front-of-the-stage figure of Great Wall Motors, and many times she is even stronger than wei Jianjun, the boss of the Great Wall.
However, considering Ms. Wang Fengying's age and the personnel changes of first-line independent brands such as the Great Wall, Geely and Chery in recent years, it is reasonable for her to gradually retreat to the second line.
Taking this opportunity, Kung Fu Automobile also chatted with everyone about the mutual achievements of Ms. Wang Fengying and Great Wall Motors, and spied the "turbulent thirty years" of "Mulan in the car industry".
(1) The minister of the Great Wall, the Mulan of the Car World
Although on major websites, it is said that the Great Wall was founded in 1984, in fact, its predecessor was the car modification factory established by Wei Jianjun's uncle Wei Deliang in 1976.
In 1990, Wei Jianjun officially took over the Great Wall Automobile Factory, and the following year Wang Fengying joined the Great Wall. That year, Wei Jianjun was 26 years old and Wang Fengying was 21 years old, both of which were the best years for entrepreneurs.
This is also the beginning of the mainland's turbulent thirty years of reform and opening up. The fate of the individual is closely linked to the times.
Two months after joining Great Wall Motors, Wang Fengying was promoted to assistant manager and became general manager two years later. A little girl in her early 20s has thus entered the "core" leadership. On the one hand, this can show that Wei Jianjun attached great importance to her talents, and on the other hand, it can also be seen that the scale of the Great Wall at that time was indeed not large.
After many years in the refit business, Great Wall already has its own front axle manufacturing plant and can produce a range of parts. So Wei Jianjun was not satisfied with just doing modifications, in 1993, with a patchwork of engines, gearboxes, chassis, the Great Wall launched its own car, only selling tens of thousands of pieces. Compared with the "old three" Jetta, Fukang and Santana that were just popular in the market at that time, the Great Wall greatly lowered the threshold for buying a car, and also achieved a good market response.
However, the good times are not long, and the Great Wall, which is preparing to do a big job in the car industry, encountered the "Automobile Industry Policy" promulgated by the state in 1994. The policy stipulates that only a few car companies have car manufacturing qualifications, and private small enterprises such as the Great Wall are naturally excluded. The rising Great Wall Motors is once again in trouble.
This is also a heavy "blow" to Wang Fengying's career.
At this time, Wei Jianjun made an important decision, he wanted to personally go abroad to investigate and study, and find a way for the Great Wall. As for the domestic business operation, he directly handed over to Wang Fengying to carry out control. This can also be seen in Wang Fengying's position within the Great Wall system.
After the story, many people are familiar with it. After walking around the United States and Southeast Asia, Wei Jianjun thought it was a good idea to develop pickup trucks. So deer, which changed the fate of the Great Wall, was born. It bypassed the production qualification of the car, mixed with agricultural vehicles to sell, sold for about 50,000 yuan, Yishang IKEA, at that time can be said to be subversive, after entering the market immediately in short supply.
But after having the product, the Great Wall encountered a new problem.
At that time, the automobile sales model was "consignment system", in short, the distributor took the goods on credit to help the manufacturers sell, and how many manufacturers made had the final say, a bit like the direct sales that Teslas are engaged in now. Theoretically, there is no middleman to earn the difference, only to earn commissions, which should be a good thing.
But this is not the case for the Great Wall, because its foundation is too thin, and once the operation of the "bad debt" company will be affected. Therefore, the method of the Great Wall is that the agent sells one car and returns the money to give him the keys to the other car. In this way, although the return of funds is insurance, the speed of development is greatly limited. In addition, compared with most of the state-owned manufacturers with deep pockets at that time, the Great Wall's attractiveness to agents was also seriously insufficient.
Wang Fengying, as the sales manager at that time, decisively introduced the "distribution system" of the home appliance industry at that time, which is similar to the current 4S store sales model: dealers buy goods and sell themselves, and how much they earn has their own decision.
This innovation has allowed the Great Wall to enter the fast lane of development at once, and defeated Tianye Automobile, a large state-owned enterprise in Baoding.
After that, Wang Fengying proposed to establish a franchise store and after-sales service to provide pickup truck users with the same services as car users.
It is said that this proposal was internally controversial at the time, but Wei Jianjun finally agreed, which also laid the foundation for Great Wall's subsequent transformation into SUV business.
When the H6 came on the market later, Wei Jianjun said to Wang Fengying, "What I am choking is the throat of the product, and you need to choke the throat of the market." ”
That is also the year, Wang Fengying launched a channel rectification called "Decisive Terminal", so that H6 was sold to the whole country overnight, laying the foundation for the status of the "god car" behind.
Over the past 30 years, the cooperation between Wei and Wang has complemented each other and complemented each other.
Wei Jianjun himself is known for his toughness and attaches great importance to the technology and quality of vehicles. Wang Fengying is actually a veritable "Iron Lady", she is more specialized in markets and services, and has a very strong execution. The "quarrel" between the two is estimated to be inevitable. But from the final result, they jointly achieved the current Great Wall.
Without excellent quality support, sales work will be very difficult. Similarly, if there is no excellent distribution and service capabilities, it will only end up being applauded.
In the past 2021, Wang Fengying was ranked 8th in the Forbes China Best CEO List and was selected as "China's Most Influential Business Woman in 2021", which shows the recognition of her in the industry.
(2) A generation of people do a generation of things, and the first generation of car strivers have retired one after another
Since 2020, Great Wall has announced a series of talent reform plans, including the official launch of the 10,000 people plan for scientific and technological talents last year, and the release of the employee equity incentive plan. This shows that the Great Wall is actively seeking changes in personnel.
In fact, not only the Great Wall, Geely, BYD, Chery, the talent echelon in the initial period, have also been mostly adjusted.
The Great Wall is clearly transforming in the direction of high-tech companies, more inclined to electrify and personalize products.
In fact, everyone can look at the Great Wall homepage to know that the new theme words of electrification, vehicle network, automatic driving, and hardcore SUVs have gradually occupied the mainstream.
In this case, young people with more cutting-edge knowledge structure and faster acceptance of new things will occupy more and more voice in major mainstream car companies, and the energy required to "take the helm" will also be more and more.
The first generation of heroes like Wang Fengying has completed the historical mission, and it is also very normal to gradually dilute his role. The car fighters of her contemporaries have gradually faded out of the "jianghu".
But her history of struggle has inspired the latecomers in the car industry to continue to forge ahead.
(3) Kung Fu shooting
In the past 30 years, Wang Fengying has almost contributed her golden age and career to Great Wall Motors. Of course, she herself has also received quite a good return and has also been unanimously recognized by the industry.
In the 30 years of turmoil, the Great Wall and the "Car Bed Mulan" have achieved mutual achievements and become good stories.