Dong Mingzhu: It is not simply to train Meng Yutong as an Internet celebrity, but to cultivate as a manager

Text/Tong Xizhong

Speaking of "heart-warming" Meng Yutong, Dong Mingzhu in the video smiled and narrowed his eyes into a slit. She said that Meng Yutong spent half a year in Gree, and through contact with her, she found that Yutong was very malleable.

On the evening of March 4, Dong Mingzhu, a deputy to the National People's Congress and chairman of Gree Electric Appliances, was interviewed by China News Weekly via video link. In addition to Meng Yutong, we also asked her about "sensitive" topics such as Gree's successor, Gree's strategic adjustment, and political and business relations.

Previously, on February 28, Dong Mingzhu was unanimously elected as the chairman of Gree Electric Appliances, and the new term of office lasted three years. After completing this term of office, Dong Mingzhu will be in charge of Gree Electric Appliances for 13 years.

Dong Mingzhu is a deputy to the National People's Congress for four terms, and the labels given to her by the outside world include "Miss Dong," "Iron Lady of the Business World," "Queen of Goods," and "Domineering Female President," among others. Which label best represents Dong Mingzhu? Which label does Dong Mingzhu like the most?

Talk about gree strategy: to develop steadily

China News Weekly: After the start of your new term, will Gree Electric Appliances have major adjustments at the strategic level?

Dong Mingzhu: First, Gree Electric Appliances should develop steadily, and there must be no incidents or difficult situations for enterprises, and this strategy must be kept. Second, investors have invested for so many years and hope to get a return, which is also very important to us. So in what way is it reciprocated, hype or disinformation? We advocate using the value created by the enterprise and the benefits created to give them returns.

In the development of enterprises, there are three sectors: one is from household air conditioning to electrical products covered in all categories, and the next step is smart home. Enterprises must make money, but making money must not be the purpose of the enterprise.

We have entered the field of equipment, and can now do a variety of CNC machine tools, and some have become the processing equipment of core components in high-end cars. In the past, many household electricity products and many components were imported, and now we have this ability, which is the second sector.

The third section is to master the core technology of key components, such as motors, drives, reducers, and key core components, which we can control independently. This is the one that we are most proud of, in the past we could do nothing but import. In addition, the future of new energy is also our development direction.

Talk about the successor: Those who have the spirit of selfless sacrifice can be a leader

China News Weekly: Some people think that Dong Mingzhu is Gree, and Gree is Dong Mingzhu. Without your Gree you will lose your soul. What do you think of this view?

Dong Mingzhu: I think at every stage, enterprises need to have such a soul figure. The soul character is not single, but also has to have a team. I'm a challenger, and my team has to have that spirit of challenge.

The team must also have the spirit of innovation and the spirit of not being afraid of difficulties. For us, the epidemic is a huge challenge and difficulty, the traditional model of tens of thousands of dealers, how do we solve? There must be a soul figure to do, now my team is very united, before I was alone to play for my life, now everyone is desperate.

China News Weekly: Do you have a succession plan, and what is the successor in your heart?

Dong Mingzhu: I am often asked by others, but I still want to talk about it. As early as 2001, when I was president, someone asked me at that time, when Dong Zongxin became president, did he want to burn three fires? I say no fire, just one thing, cultivate successors.

In fact, we had this awareness at that time, since we wanted to build a century-old enterprise, we must have an echelon to complete, which is the first point. The second is to have a perfect team, and the third is to have a set of operational modernization, continuous improvement and change of the system.

Now that I am the chairman and others are the chairman, the system can be changed. I think people are the most important. Gree people must have the spirit of selflessness and sacrifice their own spirit for others, so that they can be a leader.

At present, we have several people on our team who are good, and I deliberately put them on a platform (competition), and I believe that there must be someone who can stand out, and this person who stands out can lead the team to go better.

China News Weekly: That is, you have now trained a group of people, and then (the successors) stand out from the crowd.

Dong Mingzhu: Right.

Talk about Meng Yutong: It is not simply to cultivate as an Internet celebrity

China News Weekly: Gree has never lacked topics, your secretary Meng Yutong has nearly 2 million fans on Douyin, and you said that you would train her as a successor. In the eyes of the outside world, Meng Yutong is the marketing influencer you launched. What do you think?

Dong Mingzhu: (Mention Meng Yutong, her eyes narrowed into a slit with a smile) Standing in different dimensions may have different evaluations. For example, if I see you (the reporter) wearing glasses, it is not this feeling when I look at it from the side.

I think it is incumbent upon companies to pay attention to the growth of young people. When I met her, I felt that this child had many highlights, and also had moral conduct, more honesty, positive and uplifting, and full of challenge spirit.

After staying in Gree for half a year, through contact with Yu Tong, I found that this child has a lot of plastic things, and finally through this (variety) show, she stayed in Gree and is now a secretary by my side.

I'm not simply cultivating her as an influencer. For a person to become a manager, every aspect must be experienced. Even if everyone thinks that she is an Internet celebrity, it is not surprising that in practice she will indeed participate in the sales work of Dong Mingzhu's store.

China News Weekly: In other words, you trained Meng Yutong as a manager.

China News Weekly: For young people like Meng Yutong, for the post-90s and post-00s, what message do you have?

Dong Mingzhu: In Gree, there are many children after the 90s, and now there are tens of thousands of people. From what I can see face to face, I feel that they all have a kind of vitality, they are not without dreams, from the heart, they all want to do their own thing, the key is that we want to create an environment, so that they can each find the most accurate position, to provide them with a platform.

Young people have to let go of themselves. I have personally experienced so many years, there are grievances, encountered difficulties, and even encountered others do not understand, but in the face of difficulties to have a strong psychology, that is, what do I want to do? For example, an undergraduate student may have to start from scratch, you may have to go to the workshop to be an ordinary worker, see if you can put it down, what is wrong with being a worker? In fact, when workers may have more room for development than those who enter the office at the beginning, they have a clearer understanding of the grassroots, they know what kind of person they want to be, and they may know more about how to do it in the future.

Talk about labels: I like the status of a deputy to the National People's Congress the most

China News Weekly: You have many labels on you, "Miss Dong", "Iron Lady" in the business world, "Queen of Goods", "Queen of Marketing", "Domineering Female President", "Queen of Air Conditioning", "Deputy to the National People's Congress"... Which one best represents Dong Mingzhu?

Dong Mingzhu: If you really want to choose, you like the people's congress deputy (identity) the most. I think this is not only a label, as a people's congress deputy, for enterprises to fulfill their social responsibilities. Through such a system, the collected information is reflected at the level of the central and state departments, so that the country can make better decisions.

China News Weekly: You go on variety shows and engage in live broadcasting with goods, why do you fight so hard? People of the same age are dancing square dancing or leisure travel.

Dong Mingzhu: This is also the reason for experience. I started as an ordinary salesman, and what I thought at that time was very simple, that is, to do a good job in sales for a lifetime, to do my job to the extreme, to do the best in sales, and to do the work as perfectly as possible.

At that time, it was thought that this life was a business person, and there was no luxury, and later encountered a collective job-hopping incident, and the company had no sales. Enterprises like people, the stomach and intestines are not good, there is no nutrient absorption, can not make money how to moisturize the heart. So sales are crucial for businesses. Gree gave me this platform again, in order to do sales so well, I think people still have to have a grateful mentality.

In this position, you can not let the interests of the enterprise be damaged, marketing is a particularly challenging job, not only to do a good job in the sales channel to maintain the market, but also to protect the interests of the enterprise. At that time, it was also very contradictory to me, in the early 90s, I could take more than 1 million a year, and when I came back (Gree), I took 100,000, and I didn't want to come back from an economic point of view. But then I thought about what the value of people is, money is not earned, let you lead the team, is to put forward a challenge for you, do you dare to fight.

It's really the process of challenging yourself. So I said yes and went all the way to where I am today. Be grateful to others but also be grateful to yourself, in fact, when you fall in love with this (career) through your own efforts, you will not easily abandon the platform for a little money (the biography "Dong Mingzhu" mentioned that he once faced the temptation of more than 80 million annual salaries), so he did not go to other companies at that time, but insisted.

It is proposed that the individual tax threshold be adjusted from 5,000 to 10,000

China News Weekly: Some scholars say that at present, about 15% of the country pays individual taxes, and if the threshold is 10,000, only about 5% of the people pay individual taxes. You suggest that the individual tax threshold be raised to 10,000, of which the pros and cons have you studied? What are the difficulties in landing?

Dong Mingzhu: With the changes of the times and social needs, the starting point naturally needs to be adjusted. The starting point was 800 yuan at the earliest, then 2000 yuan, 3500 yuan, and then 5000 yuan, which has been five years.

The older generation hasn't changed much in terms of consumption and income. The post-90s generation is the mainstream consumer group, (the earliest batch) is also in their 30s, and they have established a family to take care of the elderly. The state has also introduced a lot of subsidy policies (tax reductions), such as education, pension, calculate the cost of almost more than 10,000 yuan. Calculating audit subsidies requires a lot of manpower, which is itself an invisible huge cost. Why not simplify the complex problem and adjust the threshold directly?

At present, taxation is mainly supported by the working class, in fact, there are remedies, the tax burden of high-paying people is increased, the original tax burden of 45%, can be increased to 50%, increased by 55%, I think it can be adjusted in this way to achieve common prosperity.

Compared with executives, front-line workers are very hard, and the two need to be balanced. It is necessary to let the working class have consumption, and if there is consumption, it will stimulate domestic demand, and enterprises can also expand production capacity. Expanding production capacity solves the problem of employment, which is a virtuous circle. In addition, there are many types of taxes that can be levied.

Talk about the relationship between government and business: Individuals should be upright

China News Weekly: You have grown from a salesman to the chairman of Gree Electric Appliances for more than 30 years, and you must have a profound understanding of the relationship between government and business.

Dong Mingzhu: Actually, I think we must be upright and upright, from the 18th National Congress to the 19th National Congress, [government-business relations] have been gradually changing, and we feel it more deeply. Gree electrical appliances are based on the market to play out, zhuhai government to give the greatest support, do not interfere in market operations, give full play to the role of enterprises, rely on technology development, rely on marketing channels to complete the entire development of Gree.

Nowadays, we have more relations with the government, and we have a lot of cooperation with government departments, and we have seen a lot of changes in it. Now I dare not say that there is no (corruption), but at least it is much better. In the past two years, from the central to the local government to help enterprises, there are often ministries, commissions, provinces to investigate, ask us what difficulties we have, help us solve, in the past encountered difficulties must find a relationship. Now you can report that the problem can be solved in a timely manner.

China News Weekly: Do you have anything to add to the relationship between government and business?

Dong Mingzhu: At present, from the central to the local government, we are supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, and a lot of effort has been spent on financial appropriations, tax reductions, subsidies, and so on. What is more important is how to let small and medium-sized enterprises make their own blood, and competition must have a good environment, rather than simply using money to solve.

China News Weekly: The Fifth Session of the 13th National People's Congress is the last session of the current Npc, as a deputy to the National People's Congress, how do you score your performance of duties?

Dong Mingzhu: If you score 100 points, I think it is too proud, because people are in the process of growing up, people always continue to pursue perfection, and constantly find deficiencies, so that they can make progress. During my tenure, I still did my best.