Text: Crescent Moon
According to the data of the middle index, in February 2022, the average price of new residential buildings in 100 cities was 16184 yuan / square meter, up 0.03% month-on-month and 1.89% year-on-year. Although the increase is not large, it is also a big hurdle for people who do not have a house. Especially for young people working hard in big cities, the income from a year's hard work may not be able to keep up with the rise in house prices. At the same time, this has also caused a lot of impact on enterprises, such as brain drain.
Dong Mingzhu, chairman of Gree Electric Appliances, is even more shelling real estate. She said that the post-80s generation has become the head of the family, there are old and young, every day for the house trouble, for the mortgage and worry, the pressure is very high, so how can they be happy, if they are not happy, how to create value. Therefore, only by providing a good living environment for employees can we put our energy into work.
As a result, major Internet companies generally offer housing subsidies and interest-free loans to retain core talent. Huawei has built 300,000 employee housing units near the Songshan Lake Science and Technology Industrial Park in Dongguan. Employees who meet the requirements can buy at a price of 8500 yuan per square meter, which is equivalent to 30% to 40% of the market price. Such land prices are less than one-tenth of Shenzhen's, which reduces the cost of living for employees a lot.
Tencent was one of the first companies to launch the "Settlement Plan", and its "Settlement Plan" was first launched from 2011. For example, first, eligible employees in first- and second-tier cities were allowed to provide up to 300,000 yuan and 200,000 yuan for the first home "settlement loan"; by 2015, Tencent's housing plan adjusted the loan amount for the first time, increasing the loan amount in first-tier cities from 300,000 to 500,000 and second-tier cities from 200,000 to 250,000.
However, Dong Mingzhu was more ruthless. She said she would give employees a two-bedroom house so that they didn't have to worry about the house. As early as 2018, Dong Mingzhu publicly promised "as long as it is a Gree person, one person and one suite", and quickly started construction of 3,000 apartments, and the Zhuhai municipal government promised to give 10,000 sets of housing land. After this news came out, netizens were excited. After all, this is the first company to promise to allocate room to each employee.
It may be a little confusing to see here, wasn't it promised to all employees a suite per person before? How did you become a technician? According to the official website of Gree Electric Appliances, Gree Electric Appliances currently has more than 90,000 employees, including more than 14,000 R&D personnel and more than 30,000 technical workers. From this perspective, it may prioritize the housing needs of technical teams.
Of course, this is not unconditional, Dong Mingzhu is a businessman, so she said: "If you leave halfway, the house will be taken back, because it is for Gree employees." Then he said that as long as the employee does not leave, the house will belong to the employee, and after the salary is high, he can find a place to live, but the house will not be recovered. She then added that the house would only be truly available to employees when they retired.
In addition, Gree's "room division" also has a sequence. Previously, Gree employees complained in a variety show: "This year is the fifth year of Gree, the enterprise is still an enterprise, and the house is still the house of the enterprise." In this regard, Dong Mingzhu's response is: "This year we have 3700 sets, the first batch will give priority to our excellent employees, but not excellent will also give, just wait slowly, as long as you are good enough, you can give priority." ”
On March 1, Gree Electric Appliances issued an announcement that the company held the first extraordinary shareholders' meeting in 2022 at its headquarters in Zhuhai. At the meeting, the proposal on the change of the board of directors was deliberated, and the board of directors agreed to elect Dong Mingzhu as the chairman of the twelfth board of directors of the company for a term of three years. At the same time, the 2021 mid-term dividend plan of Gree Electric Appliances with a scale of 5.537 billion yuan was also approved.
In this way, the promise of giving away the house will continue to be fulfilled. However, Dong Mingzhu's pressure is not small. Gree aims to achieve the goal of 600 billion yuan by 2023. This means that in the next five years, two Gree will be rebuilt, and the annual revenue growth rate will reach more than 25%. However, Gree has had a bad life in the past two years, and has been chased and beaten by competitors, the position of the air conditioning boss is not guaranteed, and the performance of other sectors is not ideal.
According to the data of Gree Electric Appliances in the third quarter, in the first three quarters of 2021, Gree Electric Appliances achieved revenue of 138.13 billion yuan, an increase of 9.73% year-on-year, and achieved a net profit of 15.64 billion yuan, an increase of 14.2% year-on-year, with a market value of 225.164 billion yuan. Compared with the performance of the same period in 2020, Gree's performance in 2021 has rebounded significantly and performed well.
However, compared with the other two major appliance "giants", Gree is somewhat insufficient. According to the data of mid-term group's third quarterly report, Midea's group achieved revenue of 262.943 billion yuan in the first three quarters, an increase of 20.57% year-on-year. The scale and growth rate have exceeded the performance of Gree, and Midea has also successfully surpassed Gree on the air conditioning track that Gree is best at.
The most important thing is that in 2020, the major shareholder of Gree also completed the change, from the state-owned Gree Group to the private enterprise Hillhouse Capital. For private capital, interests are taken for granted, and if Gree cannot complete the diversified layout and achieve performance growth in the next few years, dong Mingzhu's position may also be shaken.
However, as an entrepreneur, Dong Mingzhu is undoubtedly successful. She entered Gree in 1990 and has been making great contributions for almost 30 years, bringing Gree into 200 billion sales. She is also worthy of her employees and shareholders. In recent years, shareholder dividends have exceeded 40 billion, which is something that many Chinese companies cannot do.
Of course, the most important thing is that Gree's products are at least one of the representatives of "Made in China" in Chinese enterprises. Therefore, I believe that under her leadership, Gree will still develop very well, and the commitment to employees will be gradually completed.