On March 13, Hisense Group released through the official WeChat public account that Zhou Houjian would resign as chairman of the group and officially retire. Vice Chairman Liu Lan took over as Chairman.
As one of the elders of China's home appliance companies, Zhou Houjian's retirement has aroused widespread concern in the industry and the media.
Summing up himself, he once called himself "an old businessman who didn't smell too much copper", and he ran Hisense for 30 years, what did he bring to Hisense? Where will Hisense go in the future?
( Left: Zhou Houjian Right: Lin Lan)
Regarding retirement, in 2016, the Qingdao Municipal Government decided to extend Zhou Houjian's retirement age, saying that "this is conducive to the continuation of entrepreneurship and the sustainable development of Hisense." But Mr. Zhou said he would not delay time. In fact, since last year, he has been preparing for retirement, for retirement, Zhou Houjian said: Hisense is currently growing rapidly into a "world-class enterprise", the company needs a leader with an international perspective; in addition, according to the principle of continuous improvement of management, Hisense has also reached the time when it is necessary to change a management method. At the same time, coupled with Zhou Houjian's own health problems, he feels that a person should know his physical limits and cannot wait until he can't move to make preparations, which is also irresponsible for the enterprise.
Zhou Houjian can be said to be "the person who grew up watching Hisense", and Zhou Houjian's term of office achievements are also obvious to the market.
In 1982, Zhou Houjian joined Hisense. At that time, Hisense was still Qingdao TV Factory, and the "Qingdao TV" produced by it was well-known in the country, at that time Zhou Houjian was only an engineering technology application researcher, and later because of his outstanding performance, he rose all the way from the research institute to deputy director, factory director and general manager.
In 1994, Qingdao TV Factory changed its name to Hisense, taking the opportunity of changing its name, Zhou Houjian led Hisense to complete the transformation from planned economy to market economy, and formulated the goal of becoming an international large company. At that time, the domestic home appliance industry entered the climax stage of attracting foreign investment, And hisense also urgently needed to be seen by the world, but the joint venture was a prerequisite, if it was to be a joint venture, the first thing to ensure was that the "Hisense" brand must be used, and hisense holdings must be also required. Such conditions have allowed many foreign home appliance giants to be rejected, but Zhou Houjian will not give in, he believes that the most valuable resource in The country is the market, the most cherished is the brand of the product, in China's TELEVISION industry has been able to meet the needs of consumers from all aspects, unlimited joint venture is equivalent to the transfer of the market, the sale of Chinese their own brand. To this end, Zhou Houjian took the initiative to actively expand overseas markets such as South Africa, Indonesia and Japan, and led Hisense to the world.
In addition, Hisense's corporate culture of "technology enterprise" is also well known to the outside world. In Hisense, Zhou Houjian attaches great importance to the innovation and research and development of enterprise technology, which is also because of a painful experience.
Once when I went to a foreign exhibition, the head of a foreign company felt that China did not have any technical strength, and if you used their module, "you only need to install four nuts." Zhou Houjian was angry when he heard it, and he held a momentum in his heart, "Chinese is not dumber than foreigners, why can foreigners do it, we can't do it?" We can't always follow someone's ass. Stimulated, Zhou Houjian immediately mobilized resources and led Hisense to develop the first TV LCD module line in China in a few years, breaking the dependence on foreign countries.
Technology has since become a gene flowing in the blood of Hisense, and in Hisense, technology will never be outdated.
Of course, Zhou Houjian, who has a hot temper and stubbornness, also has a tender side. In 1995, he worked in the Qingdao Electronic Instrument Bureau, when the Instrument Bureau many people did not eat well, and even some could not eat, once, he accidentally met a couple in the company, the child wanted to eat meat, but the parents could only take out 2 cents to buy meat for the child, which made Zhou Houjian very touched, he said that if the company did not do well, it would bring disasters to employees. As a company leader, if you can't even do the most basic responsibility for employees, then what social responsibility is there to talk about?
Hisense can get to this day, inseparable from Zhou Houjian. At the helm for 30 years, Hisense is growing into a large international company, in January 2022, Hisense released a financial report: in 2021, Hisense achieved operating income of 175.5 billion yuan, an increase of 24% year-on-year. Among them, overseas income of 72.5 billion yuan, accounting for 42%, according to a global standard of international enterprises, overseas income accounted for more than 30% is an international enterprise, from this point of view, more than 30 years abroad, Hisense "future development of the head of overseas" strategic layout is gradually realized.
Zhou Houjian said: "I retire, what is the most unacceptable thing for me? Thinking about it, I watched Hisense go down step by step, which was probably the most unacceptable thing for me. "Of course, we believe that Hisense's future road will be more exciting, and Zhou Houjian's spirit will continue to affect every Hisense person."
#Zhou Houjian stepped down as chairman of Hisense ##海信家电 sz000921 #