In 1996, beijing youth daily published a news that almost made Zong Qinghou's Wahaha "close its doors and shut down."
The news content reads: After preliminary verification by relevant departments, 3 girls in Anhui died of poisoning from drinking Wahaha fruit milk.
As soon as I heard "drinking Wahaha poisoning and dying", it instantly caused a huge sensation in the national media, and many newspapers and media rushed to reprint it.
Wahaha sales have been seriously affected as a result, and even the industrial and commercial departments in some places have demanded a complete ban on the sale of Wahaha.
Imagine if the state media released that a drink drank dead people, would you dare to buy it?
I certainly wouldn't dare.
After hearing the news, Wahaha founder Zong Qinghou was frightened and rushed to Beijing to find the relevant departments to understand the situation.
In the end, it was found that the so-called drinking Wahaha dead person was actually a "poisoning case".
Criminals see that Wahaha is very popular with children, so they buy it and put the deadly poison into it to seduce the child to drink it.
Therefore, there is nothing wrong with Wahaha itself.
Subsequently, Xinhua immediately wrote an article clarifying wahaha. Even the leaders of the State Council personally came forward to make serious criticism of the Beijing Youth Daily.
This matter is related to Wahaha's life and death, but fortunately, there is no danger.
But what happened in the same year, Wahaha signed a joint venture agreement with France's Danone, which can be said to be the most painful and even regrettable thing Zong Qinghou has ever done.
Zong Qinghou was born in November 1945 in Suqian, Jiangsu Province, and it is said that he was named Qinghou because his date of birth was on the second day of the National Day of the Republic of China, plus he was a "hou" character.
Zong Qinghou's ancestor was Zong Ze, a famous general of the Southern Song Dynasty, but because his grandfather and father had served as officials in the Kuomintang, they were affected after liberation, and the family could only rely on their mother's income to maintain their living expenses, so the family was very difficult.
Because the family can not afford to raise multiple children, the mother has no choice but to give her daughter to others, Zong Qinghou and her brother are often hungry, seeing that others have good food, the eyes will reveal infinite envy.
Zong Qinghou originally wanted to apply for a teacher training school, but unfortunately due to his family background, he could not participate in the registration.
Therefore, Zong Qinghou had to go out to work to earn money, he worked as a handyman, sold popcorn, repaired cars, etc.
On the day he was 18 years old, Zhoushan Mamu Farm recruited intellectual youth in Hangzhou, there was no family background restriction, anyone could participate, Zong Qinghou saw it and joined the team.
The daily work is very tiring, either digging trenches and building dams, or lifting stones and beating stones.
After a tired day, everyone chose to play cards for recreation time, and only Zong Qinghou was particularly unique.
He often read books with books, and the most read was the "Selected Works of Mao Zedong", which had a sentence that attracted him very much:
"A soldier who doesn't want to be a general is not a good soldier."
Perhaps affected by this, he will have such great ambitions in the future, wanting to become a "general" in business.
Later, the farm closed down due to poor efficiency, and Zong Qinghou successively went to work in the tea farm, the carton factory, and the meter factory.
His part-time work experience is the same as our ordinary people, there is nothing special, and what really made Zong Qinghou's fate take a big turn was when he was 42 years old.
In 1986, with the gradual opening up of reform, the "contract responsibility system" began to be promoted in some cities, and the school office in Shangcheng District of Hangzhou was also eager to try, planning to set up a school-run enterprise management department.
But the conditions are very demanding, the cost of 40,000 yuan, there is a loan of 140,000 yuan, once the contractor is contracted, it will bear this high loan, and requires an annual profit of 40,000 yuan.
40,000 yuan, at that time in the hangzhou school-run business operation department, it can be said that almost no one can do it.
But everyone still came to visit to see who dared to take on this task.
Just when the public was talking about no one daring to come out to take over, Zong Qinghou stood up and said: "Contract me to pick up, but... ”
When everyone listened, they all thought that Zong Qinghou thought it was too difficult and wanted to start talking about conditions.
"Profit 40,000 is too little, I can guarantee 100,000!" Zong Qinghou preached confidently.
Suddenly, the people at the scene were stunned, "That person is not stupid, 40,000 is so difficult, how can it be added to 100,000." ”
In fact, Zong Qinghou is looking at the opportunity to "make his own decisions and operate", which may be the last opportunity in his life for him, because he is already old.
Zong Qinghou has always wanted to find a platform to show his value, but he has been depressed because he has no conditions.
Now that he finally had the chance, he wanted to give it his all.
Because 100,000 is too high, no one dares to compete, and the quota is naturally Zong Qinghou.
For Zong Qinghou's "big words", the leaders also had controversy and doubts, but after discussion, they decided to give him a chance to try.
At the time of reform and opening up, courage was a very crucial point in the success of the cause, because at that time, everyone had no experience, most of them belonged to "crossing the river by feeling the stones", and whether a person dared to take the risk to take the first step, many of which determined the starting point of his career to a large extent.
After Zong Qinghou was appointed as the manager of the management department, he began to create his own miracles.
At that time, Zong Qinghou was introduced by his brother and became an agent of the "China Baoling" company, selling pollen oral liquid, which is said to have health care functions.
Because there were schools to help publicize, coupled with the popularity of health care products in that era, Zong Qinghou sold 1.2 million boxes of pollen oral liquid in just 3 months, becoming the largest distributor of Pauling Company, because the supply exceeded demand, Zong Qinghou also helped process.
That year, he paid 222,000 yuan in profits, more than 2 times more than completed the task.
Just when Zong Qinghou's scenery was infinite, he heard bad news: some people said that pollen oral liquid contains hormones, which can cause children to have precocious puberty!
Although it has no scientific basis to prove, but after the school spread, it will still affect the sales volume, because everyone buys health care products for health, if there are side effects, who will buy?
Zong Qinghou consulted with the people of Pauling Company that the reputation of oral liquid was no longer good, and it would definitely be more and more difficult to sell in the future, and it would be more and more difficult to change the product.
However, Pauling firmly believed that there was no problem with its oral liquid and rejected Zong Qinghou's idea.
At this time, Zong Qinghou faced a career turning point: should he continue to cooperate with Pauling Company, or abandon the oral liquid that can currently make a lot of money and redevelop a new product?
It should be known that it is very difficult for zongqinghou's business department to come to the present, when it first took over, the business department only sold stationery, mops, books, erasers and so on to primary and secondary schools.
At that time, the profit of the book and the eraser was not even 1 cent, and it was impossible to earn 100,000 yuan to hand over.
Zong Qinghou was very anxious about this, rode a tricycle, ran to the cold drink factory, and pulled popsicles and soda to sell.
Coupled with the profit of cold drinks, it is still a cup of water, not to mention 100,000, not even half of it.
Later, I took the channel of consignment sales of oral liquid to solve the dilemma.
But in the blink of an eye, you have to give yourself up and start another stove.
There is a saying that is very good, to change the difficult status quo, and there is a firm determination, because it has to be changed, but the situation that changes are not bad is always difficult to accept.
Zong Qinghou thought a lot, and finally made up his mind, gave up pollen oral liquid, and remade a product.
Many friends expressed their incomprehension and persuaded him.
But Zong Qinghou was very stubborn: "Can you understand the mood of a middle-aged man facing the last opportunity in his life?" ”
He is 47 years old, and once this opportunity slips away, it will be difficult to turn around.
After investigation, Zong Qinghou decided to make a children's nutrition solution, because at that time, data showed that the proportion of children who lack nutrition in China was very high, and so was his own daughter.
Zong Qinghou was very willing to invest in talents, he found nutrition experts in Zhejiang Medical Department, and invited outstanding talents such as technical experts and mechanical engineering experts to develop a production line of nutrient solution.
At that time, he was looking for top experts, and the salary was also very high, and it is worth mentioning here that excellent entrepreneurs are very willing to spend money in terms of talents.
In 1988, Zong Qinghou officially developed the "Children's Nutrition Liquid" and named it Wahaha.
In the same way that many businessmen in the early days achieved great wealth, Zong Qinghou frantically threw money on advertisements.
Local newspapers, central newspapers, television stations, etc. all have Wahaha figures.
Zong Qinghou also organized nutritionists and medical scientists to publicize and tell everyone that China's children's business is very poor, and my Wahaha is very nutritious and so on.
At that time, people were so convinced of what was in the newspapers and on television that they could be said to have no resistance at all.
In particular, CCTV's advertisement of "drinking Wahaha, eating is fragrant" has inspired parents who love their children to buy Wahaha nutrient solution.
Wahaha's products quickly exploded, Zong Qinghou's office door was lined up with people waiting for delivery, the annual output value soon exceeded 100 million yuan, the net profit was tens of millions of yuan, and Zong Qinghou also achieved original capital accumulation.
The business was booming, which was originally a very happy thing, but Zong Qinghou felt a very headache, because the production capacity could not be supplied, and it was impossible to find a production workshop to use.
He had chartered almost all the small factories in the neighborhood, including those that had once looked down on him, but it was still not enough.
Zong Qinghou submitted numerous reports to the relevant departments, hoping to expand the factory, but due to the background conditions of "surname society and surname capital" at that time, his problem could not be solved at all.
However, the arrival of one person changes this situation.
He is a Xinhua reporter, and everyone may wonder how a reporter can change this situation.
Sometimes, it is not necessary to have a direct relationship to solve the problem, some inconspicuous things and things are likely to trigger huge changes, and achieving the ultimate goal is the essence.
Zong Qinghou borrowed a "reporter's pen" and told him about his predicament.
The article "The Economic Miracle That Happened in a Primary School" published after the interview was seen by Zou Jiahua, vice premier of the State Council, and under the impetus of the premier, the leaders of Hangzhou took the initiative to come to Zong Qinghou to help him solve the problem.
The other party suggested that he could merge or merge with the Hangzhou canning factory.
Hangzhou Canning Factory was once one of the top ten canning factories in the country, but due to foreign restrictions, the amount of foreign trade orders was greatly reduced, workers had nothing to do, and the factory soon fell into a dilemma.
If you choose to merge, Wahaha only needs to solve the work of a few hundred people, but if you choose to merge, you will have to invest 80 million yuan to acquire, bear more than 60 million debts and employment of more than 2,000 employees.
Zong Qinghou did not hesitate to choose the acquisition, because at that time he had more than 70 million in his account, and he had the strength to win it, and he also planned for future development.
This move shocked the local leaders.
Because from the situation at that time, the acquisition of a factory on the verge of bankruptcy was very uneconomical.
Zong Qinghou's acquisition road is also full of difficulties.
The first is the internal staff obstruction, everyone does not understand at all, why buy a factory that is about to go bankrupt, and the merger can solve the production capacity problem.
However, everyone's obstruction was useless to Zong Qinghou, he had great power, the management department did not have a deputy general manager, and the general manager below was all middle-level cadres.
As early as that time, the people of the Education Bureau wanted to send a vice president to Zong Qinghou, and he was very tough: "If you want to come, I will not do it, and the position of general manager will be given to him directly." “
Internal problems are easy, external problems are serious.
At that time, the employees of the canning factory heard that it was going to be acquired, and they raised the banner of opposition, because their factory was a state-owned enterprise, how could it be acquired by a "small factory", they could not accept it at all, and they also organized a team to protect the factory and swore to die and die with the factory.
In the face of this "position", Zong Qinghou was not afraid, personally came forward to solve it, and came to the can factory to give a speech.
Of course, when he came to the stage, he was greeted by scolding.
But after the speech, he was greeted by thunderous applause.
How did he do it?
Zong Qinghou liked a line in the movie "The Godfather": "The fate of a person who sees through the essence in one second is completely different from that of a person who spends half his life unable to see the essence." ”
According to the "China Entrepreneur" report, in the face of doubts, Zong Qinghou only said 3 things according to the situation of the employees.
First, no matter who is big and who is small, the Hangzhou tank factory is about to close, wahaha business is booming, and it has the ability to acquire the factory;
Second, after the acquisition, all cadres and workers, including more than 700 people who are about to retire, will remain unchanged in all positions and ensure that their incomes will be increased.
After listening to this, the opposition was completely gone, and it was greeted with fierce applause.
Because Zong Qinghou is very clear, everyone comes out to work, it is nothing more than "begging for food", employees strongly oppose, the essence of the problem is still worried about employment income.
But the most critical issues remain unresolved.
That was the political level, when Deng Xiaoping had not yet toured the south, and some people thought that doing so was to disintegrate the state-owned economy and belong to the capitalist road.
In the face of this problem, Zong Qinghou really had no tricks, because he was just a commoner, and political matters could not be solved at all.
Fortunately, the governor of Zhejiang Province was enlightened, and after he openly supported Zong Qing, he also personally inspected the Wahaha factory.
In the end, Zong Qinghou successfully won more than 60,000 square meters of canning factory, solved the problem of Wahaha production capacity, and became a giant in the food industry in Zhejiang Province.
However, after the sales and production capacity were solved, there were management problems.
At that time, Wahaha had bad debts at the end of each year, because some dealers and salesmen did not pay attention to integrity, illegal collusion, arrears of payment, casual price adjustment, etc., which seriously affected the development of Wahaha.
Zong Qinghou established a joint sales body for this purpose.
To put it simply, it is necessary to pay a deposit every year, can not default on the payment of goods, stipulate the area, strictly prohibit collusion, be responsible for certain sales indicators, and cancel the dealer qualification if it is not in accordance with the regulations.
Margin alone was very difficult at the time.
Zong Qinghou's decision was strongly opposed by employees and dealers, but the things he decided, "no one can block it."
After Wahaha implemented this model, it did scare away many dealers, but there were still many people who obediently went to collect money or borrow money to pay for deposits and payments, and cooperated with Wahaha.
Why, you ask?
Because Zong Qinghou's nutrition liquid is very popular, everyone can make money by following him, which is also his determination to implement this model.
After the implementation of the joint sales body, Wahaha changed from passive to active, the margin will be closely linked to thousands of dealers, the competitiveness has doubled several times at once, and the performance has achieved very good results, and this model has also been listed as a teaching case by Harvard Business School.
Later, relying on this model, Zong Qinghou dared to develop very cola, iced tea, etc., competed with domestic and foreign giants, and achieved a certain market share.
By 1996, Wahaha was already a super large enterprise with annual sales of more than 1 billion yuan.
However, in the face of the country's opening up, the competitiveness of a large number of international enterprises attracted is still relatively weak, coupled with the competition of domestic enterprises, Wahaha has fallen into a situation where there are wolves before and tigers after there are tigers.
At this time, Zong Qinghou realized that it was necessary to cooperate with foreign companies and get financial and technical help in order to allow Wahaha to continue to maintain its advantage in the domestic beverage market.
French Danone is a world-famous enterprise, with nearly 90,000 employees, Zong Qinghou fancy the other party's technology, the other party appreciates Wahaha's strength in china.
As a result, the two sides reached a cooperation, with Hong Kong's Peregrine and Danone accounting for 51% of the shares, wahaha accounting for 49%, and establishing a joint venture.
Originally, this was a "beautiful marriage" praised by everyone, but in the end, due to different purposes, it evolved into a "divorce fight" of life and death.
Why?
Because the two sides were not on a parallel line from the beginning, Danone's purpose was to acquire and achieve the strategic purpose of globalization; Wahaha was an industry and wanted to develop into a national enterprise.
As we all know, accounting for 51% of the shares to control the company's right to speak, Hong Kong Peregrine later because of the financial crisis, sold the shares to Danone, so that Danone alone accounted for 51% of the shares, becoming the sole majority shareholder.
After Working with Wahaha, Danone has continuously acquired its competitors, such as Loeb, Huiyuan, Mengniu and so on.
In this way, it directly leads to wahaha losing its competitiveness.
Why?
On the one hand, Wahaha's information Danone knows all, on the other hand, Danone uses Lebaishi to limit wahaha's development, and when wahaha loses, it can be directly acquired.
Zong Qinghou made many comments, but he was a minority shareholder, and the other party did not listen at all. In order to prevent such a thing from happening, he developed a number of non-joint ventures that belonged only to Wahaha, and even exceeded the size of the joint venture.
When Danone's president saw this, he was very angry, believing that Zong Qinghou had deceived himself and violated the original principles, and asked him to sell him 51% of the shares of the non-joint venture.
Zong Qinghou refused very hard, he already knew Danone's purpose.
The president of Danone put down his harsh words: "If you don't agree, see you legally, I will let you spend the rest of your life in litigation." ”
To this end, Danone has prepared 10 billion yuan to fight a lawsuit.
Zong Qinghou was not threatened, and he directly started with Danone.
As a result, the two sides made a very serious fuss, "fighting" each other from politics, law, media, commercial means, etc.
How much noise was made at that time can be seen from the conversations between the two sides.
Danone: Bring down Wahaha and liberate China.
Wahaha: It is no longer the era of the Eight-Power Alliance invading China, we have stood up, and you always tell us with a threatening attitude, which will only increase our anger.
It is worth mentioning that in the "fight", Zong Qinghou's partners and employees are very firm on his side, giving him the strength to resist.
In the end, Zong Qinghou won the case, and Danone sold 51% of the shares of the joint venture company to Wahaha for 3 billion.
Originally, 50 billion yuan was originally proposed, but after Zong Qing's repeated insistence, it was reduced to 3 billion.
From cooperation to relationship breakdown, Danone and Wahaha have experienced more than 11 years, and after winning a big victory, Zong Qinghou added the original non-joint venture company assets, and his wealth doubled several times to more than 30 billion yuan.
The following year, his wealth soared to 53.4 billion yuan, directly winning the first place in China, and Zong Qinghou became a "general" in business as he wished.
In 2012, Zong Qinghou became China's richest man with 63 billion.
But since then, Wahaha has been on a downward trajectory, with revenue of only 44 billion yuan in 2021, down to the lowest in 10 years, and shrinking by nearly 40% compared to the subversive period.
In the era of increasingly fierce competition, Wahaha has expanded its business to do children's clothing, milk powder, open shopping malls, etc., but all ended in failure.
Although Wahaha is not as good as before, Zong Qinghou does not seem to have stopped moving forward!
In July 2021, at the age of 76, he also led his subordinates to obtain a fund certificate and began to enter the venture capital industry.
Looking at Zong Qinghou's wealth history, I found that he had a characteristic.
From taking down the school enterprise management department, developing Wahaha to replace pollen oral liquid, fully investing in advertising, spending all the money to acquire the Hangzhou canning factory, trying to implement the joint sales body, and swearing to die and fighting with Danone to the end, Zong Qinghou has shown the courage and courage of a businessman in the 70s and 80s.
Just like the many three in "Soldier Assault", firmly grasp every opportunity in your hands.
Zong Qinghou once said: "In the process of struggle, there is a background of the times, luck and hard work, in order to become the leader of the times." ”
This sentence is very much in line with Zong Qinghou's history of struggle and wealth, from the country's individual contracting system, the explosion of advertising, the acquisition of state-owned enterprises, and international development policies, all of which are inextricably linked to the background of the times.
If you are lucky, Zong Qinghou has caught up with and successfully mastered.
Not to mention the effort, Zong Qing often works more than 10 hours a day after the day, and is a "labor model" among entrepreneurs.
Some media have said that with wahaha's current company size, after the listing, Zong Qinghou is likely to rise to the top of China's richest man again, as for what his old man will do? Let's wait and see.