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Huang Hongsheng: Entrepreneurial veterans do not die There are still stories in the jianghu

author:The story of the first position

In Hong Kong in 1988, high-rise buildings lined up on both sides of Victoria Harbour, and busy Star Ferry was traveling between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon.

Mr. Huang, 32, didn't have time to stop and enjoy the cityscape as he was on the run for business.

If you had known that starting a business was so difficult, I don't know if Huang Hongsheng would have resigned and gone to the sea at that time.

It should be known that the 28-year-old is the deputy general manager of the South China Electronics Import and Export Company, and is a national cadre who enjoys the treatment of deputy department.

No one knows why Huang Hongsheng gave up his great future, but once he opened his bow, it was difficult to turn back.

The 1980s was the golden age of Japanese home appliances selling well around the world, and brands such as Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, Hitachi, and Toshiba were popular in China.

At that time, television sets had just begun to enter thousands of households, and color televisions were slowly becoming popular, and it was difficult to find a high-priced Imported Television from Japan.

Huang Hongsheng is very optimistic about the prospects of the television industry, plus his university is studying television. In 1989, he borrowed $5 million from a bank, found more than 40 people, and built televisions behind closed doors.

A year later, Skyworth TV came out, but the backward technology directly led to no one's attention, and 5 million paid tuition.

Huang Hongsheng, who was heavily indebted, suddenly fell into a desperate situation, and he could only withdraw from Hong Kong to Shenzhen and find a new office in Huaqiang North.

Unable to produce televisions, Huang Hongsheng had to retreat to the second place and start a TV remote control.

The small remote control allowed Huang Hongsheng to earn the first 1 million in his life.

But he's still waiting for a bigger chance to turn around.

Huang Hongsheng: Entrepreneurial veterans do not die There are still stories in the jianghu

Huang Hongsheng in his youth

In 1991, Hong Kong TV leader Xunke decided to auction due to high-level infighting, and an acquisition war was on the verge of breaking out.

Huang Hongsheng did not have the strength to acquire at all, but he became the final winner in a different way.

He used the transfer of 15% of the shares to take over the technical backbone of the Xunke color TV development department, and Skyworth also received strong technical support.

Nine months later, Skyworth developed the world's leading third-generation color TV and won the first large order of 20,000 units at the German Electronics Fair.

In 1994, Huang Hongsheng established "Shenzhen Skyworth RGB Electronics Co., Ltd." in Shenzhen, with an annual output of 400,000 color TVs and annual sales of 550 million yuan.

In 1996, Skyworth's sales reached 780 million yuan, although the momentum is very strong, but in the fiercely competitive color TV industry, Skyworth was not yet a first-line brand.

Huang Hongsheng, who is bent on becoming bigger and stronger, has set his goal to enter the top five in the color TV industry within five years.

In 1999, Skyworth received $30 million in venture capital funding, setting a new record for large-scale overseas financing in the home appliance industry.

In April 2000, Skyworth successfully listed on the main board of Hong Kong, but Huang Hongsheng was not happy for long.

Behind skyworth's bright and beautiful, many problems are like cracks, which have been fully opened.

Huang Hongsheng: Entrepreneurial veterans do not die There are still stories in the jianghu

Huang Hongsheng, who grew up with poverty and hunger, although he is the boss of a listed company, he attaches great importance to money.

He himself is reluctant to spend money, travels to guest houses, eats box lunches, sits in economy class, and is even more so for his professional managers.

In addition to valuing money, Huang Hongsheng also cares about power, and he must do everything big and small in the company.

Less than half a year after the listing, the general manager in charge of Skyworth sales joined the competitors with hundreds of sales people, and the sales network that Skyworth had worked hard to establish for several years collapsed instantly.

The roof leaked during the overnight rain, due to the operation error of the assembly line workers, the quality of Skyworth's products had serious problems, and tens of millions of goods were directly scrapped.

Although the two things were unrelated, they caused a fatal blow to Skyworth, and Huang Hongsheng began to think bitterly about how to retain talents.

After painstakingly thinking about the pain, Huang Hongsheng launched the "Reengineering Skyworth" project and began to reform the enterprise management system.

He re-planned the decentralization system, clarified his role with professional managers, and no longer interfered with the company's daily transactional work.

In addition, Huang Hongsheng began to greatly decentralize power, skyworth's six major industrial companies, each company has its own independent CEO.

Huang Hongsheng also increased the incentive mechanism for employees, Skyworth adopted the measures of employee shareholding, more than 800 key employees got shares, and the number of shareholding employees accounted for 10% of the total.

In addition, the managers of Skyworth's industrial companies received dividends at the end of the year according to the performance of their respective units, and the group leaders paid dividends according to the performance of the group, which was unique at that time.

For a founder who was once hands-on and known for his "miserliness", it was not easy to do this step.

Huang Hongsheng: Entrepreneurial veterans do not die There are still stories in the jianghu

Huang Hongsheng of the Great Transformation

Huang Hongsheng did this, although it was to reverse the crisis, but these changes reshaped Skyworth, and also enabled Skyworth to survive the crisis in a larger storm later.

On November 30, 2004, when the Independent Commission Against Corruption of Hong Kong deployed "Operation Tiger Mountain", Huang Hongsheng was arrested by the Independent Commission Against Corruption of Hong Kong on suspicion of falsifying accounting records and misappropriating nearly HK$50 million of Skyworth Digital's huge funds.

For private enterprises, the arrest and imprisonment of the boss is tantamount to a disaster. At the moment of life and death of Skyworth, the internal professional managers previously trained by Huang Hongsheng played an important role.

Under a series of operations that can be called a classic case of crisis public relations of Chinese enterprises, skyworth's management has not only successfully stabilized the confidence of the society and the upstream and downstream industry chain in Skyworth.

In December after Huang Hongsheng's arrest, Skyworth's domestic sales reached a record 1.68 billion yuan, and in January 2005, it reached a new high of 1.99 billion yuan.

In fiscal 2005, Skyworth's net profit reached HK$403 million, which was equivalent to the total net profit of konka, TCL, Hisense Electric appliances and Prima Electronics at that time.

Huang Hongsheng, who is in prison, does not know whether he is happy or sad.

From November 2004 to July 2009, Huang Hongsheng sat in Hong Kong prison for nearly five years, but Skyworth not only did not get bad, but became better.

Huang Hongsheng: Entrepreneurial veterans do not die There are still stories in the jianghu

Skyworth TV that sits firmly in the market

After Huang Hongsheng was imprisoned, many people looked forward to Huang Hongsheng's return to Skyworth.

But at the age of 55, he made a decision that surprised everyone.

In 2011, Huang Hongsheng established Kaiwo Group in Nanjing, reorganized and acquired Nanjing Jinlong Bus Manufacturing Co., Ltd., focusing on pure electric commercial vehicle manufacturing.

In this way, Huang Hongsheng restarted the road of entrepreneurship.

Huang Hongsheng: Entrepreneurial veterans do not die There are still stories in the jianghu

Huang Boss who entered the car

In the years from 2011 to 2013, Kaiwo lost money year after year.

The market believes that the tv mogul of the past has run out.

However, the state's support for the new energy industry has allowed Huang Hongsheng to usher in the "second spring" of entrepreneurship. In 2014, Kaiwo's performance began to gradually climb, and once became the second place in the market segment. In 2017, Kaiwo joined the new energy commercial vehicles among the 10,000 clubs.

Huang Hongsheng is not only satisfied with being a commercial vehicle, in 2017, Kaiwo Automobile entered the field of new energy passenger cars, and the first intelligent car, Tianmei ET5, was approved in the same year.

Two years later, Huang Hongsheng released the new energy passenger car brand Tianmei Automobile, the English name "Skywell", which is the same as skyworth's English name "Skyworth".

In September 2020, The ET5, the first intelligent electric SUV of Tianmei Automobile, was officially launched.

But Tianmei, a nascent brand, is destined to be just a transitional code name.

In March 2021, Kaiwo signed a trademark transfer agreement with Skyworth, and after the trademark transfer was completed, "Skyworth Automobile" became its smart car brand.

Huang Hongsheng: Entrepreneurial veterans do not die There are still stories in the jianghu

Skyworth Auto finally made its debut

From Tianmei to Skyworth, Huang Hongsheng used the success of the first half of his life to endorse the unknown of the second half of his life. Although it has greatly enhanced brand awareness, the new energy vehicle market has long become a Red Sea.

In July 2021, Skyworth EV6, which was renamed from Tianmei ET5, was officially launched.

As the oldest entrepreneur in the new energy car manufacturing force, Skyworth EV6 has Huang Hongsheng's unique mark.

For Hainan people, napping is a project that cannot be moved every day, and Huang Hongsheng, as a Hainanese, naturally sets napping as a mandatory option for car functions.

It is said that Skyworth can automatically generate sleep music based on brain waves, so that people can quickly enter a state of sleep and significantly improve the quality of sleep.

A high-quality nap in exchange for a spirited afternoon.

Huang Hongsheng personally demonstrated a high-quality nap

While other new energy brands are crazy about smart and cool skills, Huang Hongsheng chooses to take health as the main label.

Huang Hongsheng insisted: "Skyworth Auto firmly believes that the most important thing for everyone is health, not automatic driving. ”

Skyworth EV6 has a non-contact sensing technology that can monitor health indicators such as blood pressure and heart rate according to photographs, and accurately evaluate the user's life characteristics through the world's leading artificial intelligence spectroscopic scientific algorithm.

Of course, some of Skyworth's past technology accumulation still gives the car some extra points, which is equipped with skyLink intelligent network connection system that is homologous to Skyworth Cool, which can not only remotely control the car, control and add home appliances, and truly realize the linkage of the car scene.

Building a car home interconnection ecology may be Huang Hongsheng's big chess piece.

Huang Hongsheng: Entrepreneurial veterans do not die There are still stories in the jianghu

Entrepreneurial veteran

Lei Jun once said that Xiaomi Automobile will be his last venture, and Huang Hongsheng, who is 13 years older than Lei Jun, will also take new energy vehicles as the last adventure of his life.

Huang Hongsheng has accounts in todayiao and Station B, uploading many small experiences of using his own car. As a post-50s boss, being able to do this is admirable.

Huang Hongsheng also confidently disclosed his small goal: 500,000 units of Skyworth Automobile's annual sales by 2030.

That year, Huang Hongsheng would also be 74 years old, and the veterans would not die, but gradually withered away.

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