In 2016, Dongfeng Fengshen, the core brand of Dongfeng's passenger car business, sold 150,000 units, an increase of 5% year-on-year, far exceeding the 15% increase in total passenger car sales in China that year. This also made Dongfeng have greater "ambitions", and Li Chunrong, who was the general manager of Dongfeng Passenger Vehicles at the time, set up a New Year goal of "reaching 170,000 units and impacting 20,000 units", hoping to let Fengshen rush into the main camp of Chinese automobile brands in one fell swoop. However, in early June, there was a sudden personnel change, replaced by Li Chunrong, the former deputy general manager of Dongfeng Yueda Kia, who according to the data of that year, when the two were handed over, the cumulative sales volume from January to May 2017 was about 57,000 units, which was basically the same as the same period in 2016. However, after taking over the baton, Liu Hong was not able to complete Li Chunrong's mission of impacting 20,000 units, not even 170,000 units, and finally the annual sales fell by -16.7%.
At the end of 2017, Dongfeng Passenger Vehicle was asked by Zhu Yanfeng to formulate the "Dongfeng Fengshen Three-Year Revitalization Plan" as soon as possible, and once again emphasized the annual sales target of 20,000, only this time it was asked to be postponed to 2018, and it was hoped that 3 years later, in 2020, it could reach a new height of 380,000 vehicles. However, everything about Dongfeng Fengshen did not improve because of a plan, and soon Liu Hong hit Zhu Yanfeng's "face", and the annual sales in 2018 were finally only 95,000 units, and the target completion was less than 5%, declaring a "3-year plan", and 1 year became waste paper. Dongfeng Group should have anticipated such an ending, and did not wait for Liu Hong to hand over the year-end papers, at the end of July 2018, Zhang Zutong, then deputy general manager of the group, began to concurrently serve as the general manager of Dongfeng Passenger Vehicle, and Liu Hong was changed to deputy general manager.
Zhang Zutong, who is vigorous and vigorous, has made drastic adjustments to the personnel structure at the beginning of his tenure, and the most important step is to use Yan Hongbin as the marketing general manager of Fengshen. The person who could get zhang Zutong's favor at that time would never be a nameless person, Yan Hongbin was originally the director of the Dongfeng Nissan Marketing Department, and was a rare marketing fighter in the Dongfeng system for many years. Unfortunately, the combination of Zhang Zutong and Yan Hongbin did not share the worries of Zhu Yanfeng, and in the 2 years of serving in the Wind God, sales continued to decline at a high speed.
At this point, the efforts of two generations in 4 years have made Fengshen more and more distant from the goal of rushing into the main camp of Chinese brands. In 2020, Dongfeng Group's total sales of automobiles were 3.458 million units, accounting for only about 2% of Dongfeng's fully independent passenger car brand Fengshen. In the same period, FAW Group's vehicle sales were 3.706 million units, of which the cumulative sales of Hongqi and Besturn, two independent brands, were 262,000 units, accounting for 7.1%, the most important of which was the Hongqi brand, which entered a period of rapid growth after the arrival of Xu Liuping. Compared with the two, the Dongfeng passenger car production and sales report in recent years makes Zhu Yanfeng, who came out of FAW, seem a little embarrassed, in the final analysis, relying on joint venture brands to make money, can not reflect the ability, after all, from the brand, technology to products are someone else's.
Although Dongfeng Motor has made many debatable decisions, there is one thing that is particularly powerful and worth learning, that is, the ability and determination to quickly adjust the architecture. Taking Changan Mazda as an example, its performance has not reached the standard for 5 consecutive years, but its predecessor Fu Yuanhong can stick to the post for 5 years to the end of the term, which will never occur in Dongfeng. Since the decline began in 2017, the group has made two major personnel adjustments to Fengshen. On March 31, 2020, Wuhan was not unsealed due to the epidemic, but Zhu Yanfeng could not wait to announce a new personnel appointment - Ding Shaobin succeeded Zhang Zutong. It is this third adjustment in the past 4 years that Dongfeng has finally seen the spring of its autonomous passenger car business, and Ding Shaobin has also ushered in his own spring in the third year of joining Dongfeng.
In 2020, Wuhan and its surroundings, as the most serious epidemic, ushered in severe challenges, and the East Wind in the center of the whirlpool was also greatly affected, with a huge year-on-year decline in February and March. However, Ding Shaobin, who has just taken over, was able to bring a year-on-year surge of 82.4% in April, and I believe that no matter how good the screenwriter is, he cannot write such a wonderful script. Since then, under the leadership of Ding Shaobin, Fengshen has been hanging for several months, soaring all the way, in the case of an unfavorable start, the annual sales volume in 2020 only fell by 6.3% year-on-year, if only the performance of Ding Shaobin led by 4-12 months is calculated, it is a year-on-year increase of 5.6%, which is a rare growth cycle since 2016.
In the process of reversing the defeat in 2020, Ding Shaobin not only gained sales, but also the successful formation of the new management team. Judging from the "practice" of personnel adjustment of Dongfeng Fengshen, if the performance is not good, the "boss" will be changed immediately, and when the boss arrives at the post, the "second boss" will be changed immediately. In the Dongfeng passenger car under Ding Shaobin, the new "second in command" is Li Jinnan. Judging from the past resumes of the two, although they are both "old people" in Dongfeng, there is no overlapping experience of working together. Li Jinnan is completely different from his predecessor Yan Hongbin, who he replaced, and prefers "products", he joined Dongfeng Fengshen in 2007, served as the deputy director of the Commodity Planning Department of Dongfeng Passenger Car Company in 2009, and was transferred to Dongfeng Technology Center in 2016, responsible for commodity planning and market research.
Ding Shaobin's choice was much more "bold and wise" than Zhang Zutong's original use of Yan Hongbin. It is bold because under such huge pressure, dare to use "non-professionals" as marketing general managers, this is not a general courage, if you do not do well, you will inevitably be "criticized": even the minimum "professional people do professional things" do not understand; say "wise", because Ding Shaobin is really touched the "crux" of Dongfeng Fengshen, and want to achieve long-term peace and stability, to achieve 200,000 units of sales of the "fate", must solve the problem of Fengshen products, and Li Jinnan is undoubtedly the person who knows the most about product technology in the Fengshen system. On August 28, 2020, the arrival of Li Jinnan and Ding Shaobin formed a perfect combination of "sales + products", and the next is their 2021 - the year of the big exam.
"In 2021, Dongfeng Passenger Vehicle Company must achieve the sales target of 120,000 vehicles, must build a system capacity to support the 200,000 vehicle target in 2022, and must reduce costs in all aspects", which is the goal issued by Yang Qing, who has just become the general manager of Dongfeng Group, in early 2021, and it is also an oath. The goal of "20,000" is the "Everest" of Dongfeng passenger cars, which was once in front of us, but it is getting farther and farther away. Ding Shaobin, who shouldered the challenge to the summit for the third time, made a military order: "Resolutely fight and win the Battle of Dongfeng Passenger Vehicle, and must exceed 120,000 vehicles in 2021." ”
There is no turning back from the bow, and the Dongfeng Fengshen, which has been growing negatively for several consecutive years, has no way to retreat, but 120,000 vehicles is equivalent to a growth rate of 71%, is this the goal set by the "dream"? However, it was this "death order" of Yang Qing and Ding Shaobin's "military order" that Li Jinnan really realized. 121570 units, the answer of the Dongfeng Fengshen in 2021 is fixed on this number, a number that can not be guessed by people at the beginning of the year, so it was born by the "xiucai" Li Jinnangan, and he also proved with practical actions that Ding Shaobin was unique and far-sighted.
This year is the third year after the duo, but also their first official impact on the 20,000 target, just this past 1-2 months, Dongfeng Fengshen year-on-year growth actually reached a shocking 194%! With such a development trend, it is almost certain that this year will be able to reach the top of "Mount Everest", and even have greater surprises. I believe that at that time, with Zhu Yanfeng's consistent attention to the wind god, and the style of doing things with strong wind and strong action + reward and punishment, whether it is Ding Shaobin or Li Jinnan, they will be recognized by heroes, and they are indeed the heroes of the East Wind God, the heroes of the East Wind!
This article is "Reviewing the Development of Dongfeng Fengshen in the Past 5 Years, Seeing Li Jinnan and Ding Shaobin Riding the Savior Road", with the character timeline as the axis narrative, hoping to use the unique decision-making power of Dongfeng Group to communicate with the Auto people in adversity; the next part will also be published in the near future, telling about the changes in Fengshen's product line in recent years, and how Li Jinnan and Ding Shaobin have corrected the chaos in the product and showed their skills.
This article is the original of "Car Review Network", author: Liu Danyan, editor: Tian Miao, without permission may not be reproduced. Pay attention to the "car review network" and focus on in-depth reporting of the automotive industry.