Per reporter: Chen Pengli
"Iron Lady of Business", "Queen of Air Conditioning", "Internet Celebrity Entrepreneur"... Dong Mingzhu's body was labeled with many labels. Among these many labels, Dong Mingzhu bluntly said that he liked the label of "Npc Deputy" the most. Every year at the two sessions, Dong Mingzhu, deputy to the National People's Congress and chairman and president of Gree Electric Appliances, will attend and perform his duties.
This year, Dong Mingzhu held 7 proposals to go to Beijing, which mainly focused on social and people's livelihood, business environment and other fields.
"The process of performing one's duties is actually a process of 'growing up' as a people's congress deputy, constantly discovering problems, constantly improving, and not scoring myself, but I have the confidence to say that I am doing my best to perform my duties." Recently, Dong Mingzhu commented on his performance in an exclusive interview with the reporter of the "Daily Economic News".
According to the reporter's statistics, since he became a deputy to the National People's Congress in 2003, Dong Mingzhu has made about 90 suggestions. It is not difficult to glimpse the "persistent" side of her personality from her suggestions over the years. For example, this year, Dong Mingzhu has proposed "raising the threshold of personal income tax" for the sixth consecutive year.
In the interview, Dong Mingzhu also explained in detail the thinking behind her proposal to raise the individual tax threshold to 10,000 yuan. For the diversification of Gree electric appliances that the outside world is concerned about, Dong Mingzhu said that the current business sector of Gree is mainly consumer goods and industry, and in the future development, both of which are very important, "but the direction of future diversification must be low-carbon based on innovation." Talking about the channel change of Gree Electric Appliances, she also said, "It has always been on the road." ”
Talking about the performance of duties by NPC deputies: Confidently speaking, they are doing their best
The 68-year-old Dong Mingzhu is still full of energy.
On the last day of February, Dong Mingzhu was "officially announced" to be re-elected as the chairman of Gree Electric Appliances and continue to work for the next 3 years. In March, Dong Mingzhu's itinerary switched to the "two sessions mode".
In terms of time, in 2003, the then 49-year-old Dong Mingzhu was elected as a deputy to the National People's Congress. So far, Dong Mingzhu has been elected for four consecutive terms and has been performing his duties for 20 years. On various occasions, Dong Mingzhu's key descriptor of his status as a "people's congress deputy" is "responsibility." In her view, it is her duty and mission to reflect the information collected at the grass-roots level to the level of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, and to promote the country to make better decisions.
This year, Dong Mingzhu proposed to "raise the individual tax threshold from 5,000 yuan / month to 10,000 yuan / month". She also mentioned that the rich should pay more taxes.
For many years, he insisted on calling for the increase of the individual tax threshold, which made Dong Mingzhu gain a lot of good feelings, and netizens directly called him an "entrepreneur of conscience". But on the other hand, this appeal has also attracted opposition from some people in the industry. Yao Yang, dean of the National Institute for Development Studies at Peking University, has publicly expressed "no support," saying, "Maybe she doesn't know what China's income distribution is like." We now pay only about 15 percent of our national workforce, which is very, very low. If you mention 10,000 yuan, how many people pay taxes? It is estimated that only 5%. It is still necessary to let everyone establish a general awareness of tax payment. ”
A few days ago, Dong Mingzhu explained in an interview with the "Daily Economic News" reporter that the reason why he has made such a proposal for many years is because: on the one hand, the times are progressing, the living standards of ordinary people are gradually improving, and the threshold of individual taxes has gradually increased from the initial few hundred yuan to the current 5,000 yuan. "Nowadays, the post-90s and post-80s are the mainstream in our production and life, and the higher income level will also enjoy the subsidies provided by the state in the fields of medical care, housing and children's education." If wages and subsidies are paid together and the individual tax threshold is raised, this also saves manpower and time costs such as audits and reviews when subsidies are issued to a certain extent. ”
On the other hand, Dong Mingzhu said that this is also based on the consideration of common prosperity, taxation can not only rely on the working class, "increasing the tax proportion of high-income groups can also alleviate the tax pressure of the working class, is conducive to achieving common prosperity." ”
The reporter learned that Dong Mingzhu also proposed to improve the ladder tax rate, and add a gear of 2 million yuan / year (corresponding to the tax rate of 50% to 55%) on the basis of the highest level of 960,000 yuan / year of taxable income for the whole year. The implication is that high-income groups should pay more taxes.
At the two sessions in 2022, Dong Mingzhu also suggested that the protection of enterprises to independently cultivate talents should be strengthened. She told reporters that in recent years, Gree has actually lost talent in various fields. For the flow of senior talents, especially the high-level talents independently cultivated by enterprises, there needs to be further and more stringent regulations. "So the first point I'm concerned about is for senior management, senior technicians and other persons who have a duty of confidentiality to employers. Before the departure of such personnel, the enterprise is allowed to negotiate and agree with such personnel before terminating the labor contract. The second point is that the liability for compensation for non-compete should be jointly borne by the employee and the new employer. ”
The reporter noted that the term of office of the 13th Npc Deputies is also the term of office with the largest number of suggestions made by Dong Mingzhu, and in the two sessions of the National People's Congress in 2018 alone, Dong Mingzhu made 13 proposals, and there were also 11 in 2020. Talking about his performance as a deputy to the National People's Congress during his 20 years of performing his duties, Dong Mingzhu told reporters, "I have the confidence to say that I have done my best to perform my duties. ”
Talking about diversification: it must be low-carbon based on innovation
Before this trip to Beijing, Dong Mingzhu had just won a re-election as the chairman of Gree Electric With a high support rate. Re-election is no suspense, the outside world is more eager to wait, in the next 3 years, Dong Mingzhu can bring many new changes to Gree Electrical Appliances.
For Dong Mingzhu, the challenges of the new term are no less. In the short term, the pressure of raw material price increases in front of us needs to be overcome; in the longer term, the problems of diversification, successors, and channel changes of Gree electrical appliances need to be answered.
In October last year, there was a sharp correction in metal bulk raw materials, when the market optimistically thought that this year's home appliance sector is expected to get rid of the phenomenon of increasing revenue and not increasing profits brought about by rising raw material prices. However, contrary to expectations, in 2022, the price of raw materials upstream of home appliances did not fall as expected, but returned to a new high.
"The rise in raw materials is indeed a major situation facing the entire industry, but we cannot blindly raise the price of products because of the increase in the price of raw materials." Dong Mingzhu said in an exclusive interview with the Daily Economic News reporter. She admitted that in the face of such a status quo, the pressure of Gree Electric Appliances will definitely be there. But at the same time, this is also the driving force for Gree to upgrade and iterate technology. "We think the most effective way to do this is to make technical improvements to absorb the pressure of rising raw material costs."
In addition, the outside world generally has high expectations for the diversification of Gree electrical appliances, and this expectation is accompanied by doubts. The outside world believes that the diversified transformation process of Gree Electric Appliances is slow. According to the semi-annual report of 2021, the revenue of living appliances accounted for 2.43%, intelligent equipment accounted for 0.22%, and other main businesses accounted for 1.46%.
In the face of these doubts, Dong Mingzhu has also responded many times, "That is what the media said, I do not agree." "I never thought (diversity) wasn't going well, I thought it was good, people expected too much of me. Everyone hopes that I will do 100 billion yuan of equipment tomorrow, as much as the revenue of air conditioners, and no company in the world can do this. ”
In the past two years, the capital operation of Gree Electric Appliances has become more intensive than ever. In addition to successively investing in the construction of intelligent manufacturing production bases in Luoyang, Ganzhou, Linyi and other places, in August last year, Gree Electric Appliances also obtained 30.47% of the equity of Yinlong New Energy (later renamed Gree Titanium New Energy) for 1.83 billion yuan in judicial auctions, plus the voting rights entrusted by Dong Mingzhu to Gree Electric Appliances, Gree Titanium New Energy became the holding subsidiary of Gree Electric Appliances.
At present, Gree Electric Appliances' acquisition of DunAn Environmental Control, an A-share listed company, is also in progress. In February this year, Dong Mingzhu also personally led a team to Xi'an, Luoyang and other places to contact the local government on new energy and other industries to cooperate and promote the new energy layout of Gree Electric Appliances.
Dong Mingzhu told reporters that DunAn Environment is a leading enterprise in the global refrigeration components industry, and is also one of the important suppliers of Gree Electric Appliances, at present, dunAn Environment's four-way valve, globe valve, small pressure vessel and other components market share are the world's first, electronic expansion valve ranked second in the world. "At present, for Gree, the acquisition of DunAn Environment is also an important part of the industrial chain layout, which can strengthen the company's competitiveness in the field of core components of air conditioning and ensure that the core components are independent and controllable."
She also said that the current business sector of Gree is mainly consumer goods and industry, "in the future development, both are very important, but the future diversification direction must be based on innovation-based low-carbon trends." "For example, Gree's photovoltaic (storage) air conditioning system combines photovoltaic, energy storage and air conditioning, and performs well in energy conservation and environmental protection. In addition, there is Gree titanium new energy, Gree titanium battery in terms of safety performance, battery life and other aspects have great advantages, Gree titanium new energy vehicles have been stable operation in more than 220 cities across the country.
After being re-elected as chairman, Dong Mingzhu also mentioned in an interview with CCTV on the evening of March 7 that now is not the time to consider retirement, and now it is a momentum to rush forward, "Within three years, the most important thing I have to do is to make the whole team very perfect and combat effective."
Talk about channel change: always on the road
In the past two years, Dong Mingzhu has also worked hard to convey to the outside world the signal that Gree Electric Appliances and herself are actively embracing new changes. Under the impact of the epidemic in 2020, Dong Mingzhu personally went to the battlefield to carry out live streaming with goods. In 13 live broadcasts in many places across the country throughout the year, Dong Mingzhu's sales performance with goods was 47.6 billion yuan.
Live streaming is not an easy technical job. On the day of the live broadcast, Dong Mingzhu often stood on the stage for several hours, and at the end of the day, more than ten hours of continuous rotation was also the norm.
Dong Mingzhu's live streaming with goods also aims to set an example for dealers, hoping that they will also embrace online and achieve the combination of online and offline. "Live streaming is a new form, where the exchange of ideas and services are the most important." With the help of live broadcast exploration, Gree Electric Appliances has also set off a channel change.
A few days ago, Dong Mingzhu also talked about the new understanding of live streaming with goods in an interview with the "Daily Economic News" reporter. She said that online and offline are not opposites, whether it is live broadcast or offline stores, in fact, they are a kind of service model. No matter which model, in fact, the product is the core, the current many online products will have a shoddy phenomenon, which requires enterprises to have a high sense of responsibility and consciousness, while the relevant departments also need to strictly supervise. "So my experience and experience is to embrace new changes on the one hand, and on the other hand, to stick to my heart."
Speaking of the channel reform of Gree Electric Appliances, Dong Mingzhu said that the channel reform is actually a thing that has been going on, because the times are changing, and the needs of consumers are changing, including shopping methods. The channel change of Gree Electric Appliances has also been on the road. Now it can be seen that many offline stores are gradually transforming into an experience store, different from the past pure sales, now offline stores can provide consumers with more physical experience of home appliances opportunities, while combined with online live broadcasting, can achieve the effect of further expanding the influence.
In addition to live streaming with goods, last year Dong Mingzhu also dedicated his variety show debut and participated in Mango TV's workplace reality show "We First Entered the Workplace". In this show, Dong Mingzhu has countless fans. Meng Yutong was also appreciated by Dong Mingzhu on this variety show, and eventually became Dong Mingzhu's secretary from an intern.
Dong Mingzhu's sentence "To train Meng Yutong to become the second Dong Mingzhu" made Meng Yutong appear on the hot search list. On many occasions, as long as Meng Yutong is talked about, Dong Mingzhu will show a satisfied smile on his face. Shortly after becoming the secretary of the chairman, Meng Yutong also registered the "Pearl Yutong Selection" Douyin account and began to bring goods. This once speculated that Dong Mingzhu brought red Meng Yutong with the purpose of bringing goods.
Image source: Screenshot of the web page
Recently, Dong Mingzhu clearly talked about the positioning of Meng Yutong in an interview with the media, she said that it is not simply to cultivate Meng Yutong as an Internet celebrity, "A person wants to become a manager, all aspects 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. ”
The reporter noted that the cultivation of Meng Yutong, from another point of view, is actually Gree Electric Appliances releasing signals: Gree is very willing to provide opportunities for young people. Dong Mingzhu also told reporters in the process of being interviewed, "Among our 90,000 employees, post-90s employees account for a large proportion. What our company can do is to give young people more opportunities to show their strengths and let them show themselves on a platform that suits them. At the same time, Gree also has its own college to cultivate technical talents. ”
Reporter's note丨 Gree electric appliances or that "white horse stock"?
All along, Dong Mingzhu's upright and outspoken personality has made her personal IP very distinct. As an "internet celebrity entrepreneur", the Gree electric appliances behind her are inevitably branded with the label of "Dong Mingzhu".
In recent years, the growth rate of the air-conditioning industry has touched the "ceiling", superimposed on the impact of real estate market regulation, Gree Electric Appliances has indeed shown growth fatigue in performance, and the stock price and market value are not so dazzling. "Growth" has become the most concerned issue for investors. Because the reason why Gree Electric Appliances can become an A-share "white horse stock" before, mainly because of its steady growth, the competitiveness of the air conditioning field allows investors to maintain hope.
Gree Electric has been using diversified business to solve growth problems, but it has been questioned a lot. When Gree laid out refrigerator washing machines and life appliances, some people said that the pace of Gree was late; when Gree laid out intelligent equipment, some analysts said that the proportion of intelligent equipment business was not large, and the growth was too slow; when laying out new energy, there were also voices saying that lithium titanate batteries had bad prospects; when laying out mobile phones, the doubts were louder.
Dong Mingzhu must have known these doubts, and had measured and examined them in his heart. In the end, she still insisted on doing it, and naturally there was her reasoning and logic in it. Whether Gree Electric Appliances is still a "white horse stock", in the short term, the answer should be yes. Gree Electric Appliances still has a strong competitiveness in the HVAC market, the gross profit margin of the plate is still leading, and the market share will certainly not fall out of the first camp. In the long run, how to grow in other sectors of Gree Electric Appliances, I think we need to give Gree a little more time. Let the market give the answer, and only the market can answer this question.
(Poster image material source: courtesy of the company)
Reporter: Chen Pengli
Editor: Haini Zhang
Vision: Handsome Lingxi
Typography: Zhang Haini Ma Yuan
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