There is an industry, its importance is comparable to chips, as well as it has extremely high technical barriers, is an important industrial pillar of the country.
It is the port large machinery industry.
Whether it is a large warship or a 100,000-ton aircraft carrier, it needs a large gantry crane.
There are very few companies in the world that can manufacture large cranes, and this technology is only mastered in individual countries, and there are very few enterprises that can produce high-quality and reliable enterprises.
In the 1990s, China was still in a backward state in this industry, and 95% of the world's market was occupied by japanese, German and Korean companies.
But there is a company in China, only a few years after its establishment, it has quickly surpassed, occupying 80% of the international large gantry crane market, almost forming a monopoly position!
It is Zhenhua Heavy Industry Group.
How awesome is Zhenhua Heavy Industry in the mainland?
This company has sold its products to 95 countries around the world, even M country, but also forced to use Zhenhua products due to technical problems, it has ranked first in the world industry for 21 consecutive years, is the deserved "king of HAECO"!
When it comes to Zhenhua Enterprise, it is inseparable from its founder Guan Tongxian.
In 1978, after the implementation of China's reform and opening up, foreign trade soared year by year, and in just a few decades, it became the country with the largest export share in the country.
In this context, China's port-related equipment enterprises have developed rapidly.
But in the early days, China's port products were all low three or four to buy foreign equipment, because at that time Chinese companies lacked experience and technology, and the failure rate of the port machinery products created was high, and even less than the second-hand goods eliminated abroad.
At this time, Guan Tongxian served as the director of the ship and machinery department of the China-Hong Kong Headquarters, and he had a deep understanding of the problem that the port machinery equipment was very backward.
Because when they went to buy foreign equipment at that time, the other party simply looked down on Guan Tongxian, which made Guan Tongxian feel very angry, but there was no way to change the status quo.
In 1992, Deng Xiaoping made a speech on his southern tour, and Guan Tongxian was deeply touched and decided to go to the sea to start a business. You know, this year he is 59 years old, only 1 year away from retirement can enjoy the old age, and he chose to toss, how strong is such a determination to start a business!
Guan Tongxian and his partners together with $1 million to rent a small office in Shanghai and set up Zhenhua Hakong Machinery Company.
The reason why it was named "Zhenhua" is because Guan Tongxian wants to do his meager efforts to revitalize the Chinese industry.
When he first started his business, he shouted his great goal at the meeting: as long as there is a port with container operations, it is necessary to have the products of Zhenhua Port Machinery!
According to the current parlance, Guan Tongxian is "drawing a big pie"! This is also what most companies will do in the early stage, but there are very few corners that can really achieve the goal, just Guan Tongxian has done it!
At that time, the market was basically monopolized by foreign countries, and there was a blank space in China, there was nothing, how did Guan Tongxian "become a king" in just a few years?
I believe that his strategic approach of step-by-step will give you a lot of inspiration!
Guan Tongxian first began by imitating other people's products, he bought some second-hand goods, and then dismantled them all, conducted research, and gradually accumulated experience and technology.
This practice, at that time, was called "only see the assembly, not see the manufacturing", it is almost a common phenomenon, because the pure technology development in the early stage of the enterprise is basically unaffordable, let alone a difficult project!
Of course, because of the technical difficulty, Zhenhua could not completely imitate it at first, and many parts, Zhenhua could not do well.
In order to ensure product quality, Zhenhua does not do well in the key supporting parts, all of which use world famous brands.
At the beginning of its establishment, Zhenhua only had more than 10 people, in order to recruit aspiring young people, Zhenhua's external recruitment is based on "three no-talks", does not pay attention to academic qualifications, age, qualifications, only on ability.
This method has achieved good results, and Zhenhua has recruited more than 200 secondary school students in a year.
Engineers have a lot of transactional work in machine building and drawing production, which allows these secondary school students to learn while doing it.
Among these secondary school students, many of them grew up very fast and had abilities comparable to those of highly educated talents, and Guan Tongxian humorously called these people "good men in the green forest"!
Once all aspects are laid out, the next step is the sales channel.
Guan Tongxian almost did not hesitate to choose "first go to the foreign market", why is this?
Because Zhenhua has a manpower cost advantage.
In the context of China at that time, China's labor costs were generally very low, and port machinery manufacturing was a labor-intensive industry, so Guan Tongxian's labor costs accounted for only one-third, or even one-fifth, of Western countries.
This huge advantage makes Zhenhua tear open a hole in the foreign market, because few buyers can get rid of the temptation of cheap and good quality.
In 1992, when Vancouver, Canada, bid for a haeji supplier, Guan Tongxian aimed at an opportunity to sell at a price 30% lower than his opponent and promised the other party to pay $1 million in freight costs to win the bid.
The first order is crucial because once the quality is questioned, the later sales work will be difficult to carry out, and the circle of the industry is still very small.
Guan Tongxian, as an engineer, is very clear, he personally led the staff to carefully polish the quality, and stipulated that as long as there are defective products, all new ones are replaced.
With this craftsman spirit, Guan Tongxian's first export order successfully won the praise of the other party and formed a good reputation in the industry.
A year later, Vancouver placed an order with Zhenhua again, and after seeing Canada purchase China's cheap and high-quality port machinery, it also placed 4 product orders with Zhenhua.
After being recognized by the European and American markets, Guan Tongxian was full of ambition and was ready to increase his efforts to cooperate with M country.
But at this moment, Zhenhua encountered a huge problem.
The other party actually sued Zhenhua in court, saying that there was no employment license in the United States, and Guan Tongxian had no choice but to pay a fine of 500,000 US dollars.
What is more difficult is that the other party requires that the port must be transported as a whole and cannot be assembled when it arrives.
Port machinery is generally a huge equipment with twenty or thirty floors, and it can be seen how difficult it is to transport it at one time.
At that time, looking at the world, only a Dutch transport company had such strength.
Guan Tongxian found the Dutch shipping company to cooperate, but the other party not only had a bad attitude, but also raised the price and conditions, demanding 1.5 million US dollars in transportation fees, which could not guarantee the arrival time.
This is not the end, because of the formation of a monopoly, the price of the other party is higher and higher, and the conditions are more and more.
Guan Tongxian was forced to be helpless and decided to develop it himself.
Because if you don't break this "bottle strength", you will always be subject to people.
However, Guan Tongxian's decision was rejected by the board of directors.
Guan Tongxian repeatedly negotiated and finally persuaded everyone. In the original way, he bought an old ship, conducted research, and finally changed it into "Zhenhua No. 1".
But things didn't go so well, and the Dutch company, after learning about the matter, took Zhenhua Company to the international court on the grounds of patent infringement.
Guan Tongxian was not hurried, and righteously said: "Cars all over the world are four wheels and one steering wheel, so I have infringed on it." ”
The judge could not refute it after listening, and in the end Zhenhua won the case.
Because of the confidence of the sales of port machinery, Guan Tongxian worked hard to transform more than 20 transport ships, becoming the only port machinery manufacturer in the world that can build itself and can transport itself as a whole.
After zhenhua's strength improved, it quickly occupied 25% of the world market and became the boss of the port container heavy machinery industry, which was beyond the reach of those foreigners.
Afterwards, Guan Tongxian concluded: "These roads are forced out, just like learning war in war"!
Thirty years of Hedong and thirty years of Hexi, once foreign port machinery giants looked down on Guan Tongxian, and Guan Tongxian could only endure it;
Now, for the rapid rise of Zhenhua, it is their turn to endure, because only in terms of price, they will beat them.
And Zhenhua's strength is far beyond their imagination!
As early as when Zhenhua opened up the market, Guan Tongxian realized that it is not possible to win the market only by relying on price advantages, and enterprises cannot rely only on meager profit support, and need more profits to support the development of enterprises.
If you want to solve this problem, you can only start with the product.
Guan Tongxian adopts the method of "product innovation" to improve the premium ability of products with technology, thereby enhancing profit margins.
Although the development of enterprises is getting better and better, Guan Tongxian has never dared to slack off in terms of technology.
In terms of funds, he invests 5% of his production income into product innovation every year;
In terms of talents, of the 1500 management personnel he set up, 600 are all scientific researchers, and there are more than 100 people with master's degrees and senior engineers;
In research and development, he works closely with more than 200 colleges and universities and scientific research institutions to overcome technical problems.
This series of moves has achieved obvious results, from the official website of Zhenhua, it has 103 invention patents, 28 national key new products, and 113 practical patents.
In fact, guan Tongxian said in an interview with reporters in the early years: "I am not suitable to be the president, and it is best to be an engineer." ”
He does this not only, but also in the company, and he often does not manage the company's administrative affairs, but often helps solve technical difficulties.
Zhenhua can become the boss of the port machinery industry, mainly because it has dozens of top technologies with independent intellectual property rights. For example, the first double 40-foot container crane, automated double trolley quay bridge, GPS technology container crane and so on.
GPS technology allows the driver standing on the 8th floor of the gantry crane to easily operate the tower crane in a space of only 1 meter, and the accuracy can reach 15 mm.
And in all these technologies, there are many ideas that Guan Tongxian put forward.
Zhenhua, who started by imitation in the early days, did not block the technology after becoming an industry leader, but opened the door for people to visit, you can take pictures at will, and even provide technical information free of charge.
Zhenhua development to now, no longer need to rely on the price advantage, once the port of Rotterdam bid, an Austrian company's offer is 5% -10% lower than Zhenhua port machinery, but the other party still chooses a higher price Zhenhua.
By 2006, Zhenhua Hako's global market share had reached 70%, and it should be known that at that time, there were still very few global enterprises in China, and Zhenhua was already proud in the international market.
After becoming the hegemon of hong Kong Machinery, Zhenhua began to diversify its development, for example, offshore oil exploration supporting equipment, bulk cargo machinery, etc.
Unexpectedly, Zhenhua also got involved in the field of steel structure bridges and won the 10,000-ton project of steel structure of The New York Jiazhou Bridge.
New York's such a big list must have attracted many heavy industry giants in the world, so why did it choose Zhenhua?
Because Zhenhua's transportation capacity can help New York save a lot of money, which is unmatched by other giant companies.
As the founder of Zhenhua, Guan Tongxian often went deep into the production base and climbed the crane more than 80 meters high. Every day, I go to work earlier than others, and I leave work later.
You know, he was seventy or eighty years old at the time. For this point, Guan Tongxian said with a smile: "Decades of habit, just to stagger the traffic to come early." ”
Guan Tongxian is also very good to employees, and he has never had a bit of leadership style in his position of high authority, and he is always piled up among employees.
He also often urged employees to study, engage in training, practice skills, and even persuade them to learn English. In order to make employees pay attention to learning, he directly linked study and salary, and as long as employees passed internal examinations, they could receive allowances.
In addition, he also took out 10 million to reward employees with high contributions, and later set up "Zhenhua Heroes", which won the million award, and did not ask about job qualifications, only looked at contributions.
Guan Tongxian can develop Zhenhua so much, inseparable from his emphasis on talent and technology.
In the business world, "people without me" is the core competitiveness of enterprises, and this is inseparable from the talents in enterprises.
After reading the stories of so many big bosses, almost all smart bosses will attach great importance to talent.
In addition, after having a group of talents, how to organize and exert the greatest strength is the problem that the founder wants to solve.
Guan Tongxian's approach is to focus the strength of these talents on research and development and innovation, which has achieved today's Zhenhua!
From deciding to start a business, to opening the first step of the market, to becoming the industry boss, a company can become the king of the industry, not just a single factor.
Among them, there are the founder's entrepreneurial passion, accurate judgment of the market, future development plan, the company's technical core and so on!
Resources:
Huashang Taoluo: "He went to the sea at the age of 59 to start a business and became the king of hong kong machinery, monopolizing the global market so that the president of the United States punched in the face in public", "China's "king of hong kong machinery" broke the monopoly of the West and monopolized 90% of the market in Europe and the United States"
36Kr: "The king of China's port machinery, why can it monopolize 95% of the US market?" 》
The Paper: "Interview with Guan Tongxian Recalls Zhengrong's Past: How Zhenhua Heavy Industry Occupies the Global Market Step by Step"
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Author: Qiu Zhiheng
EDIT: Songs