In 2018, with the listing of Haidilao on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, a waitress with a net worth of 4.5 billion yuan was born.
Later, as the stock soared, the personal assets of the waitress soared to 12.5 billion.
This waitress is Yang Lijuan.
Yang Lijuan, who graduated from primary school, once couldn't even write a work report, is now the head of Haidilao, managing 1,443 stores and more than 140,000 employees around the world.
Founder Daniel Zhang said frankly: "Without Yang Lijuan, Haidilao would not be so successful. ”
01
Yang Lijuan's life is a history of counterattacks by poor girls.
In 1978, in a small mountain village in Jianyang County, Sichuan, Yang Lijuan was born.
As the eldest in the family, her parents and the two older brothers above all love Yang Lijuan very much. After finishing primary school, she had to drop out of school to help her mother with household chores due to the limited conditions at home.
After graduating from high school, the two brothers went out to do business together, hoping to earn money to improve the family's life, but because they were young and inexperienced, they lost money and owed a debt. The little savings my parents saved from farming were enough to pay off a small part of the debt.
Since then, people who have come to the house to ask for money have come and gone, and the family is often awakened by a rough knock on the door in their sleep.
Seeing this scene, 16-year-old Yang Lijuan went to Jianyang County with her fellow villagers, wanting to work part-time to earn money to help her brothers pay off debts.
But a young rural girl like her, with no connections or education, can only do some hard work.
Finally, Yang Lijuan found a small restaurant to work as a waiter.
Although Yang Lijuan came out to work for the first time in such a big way, she was not frightened at all, and she always greeted the guests with a smile when she saw them, and walked more sneaky than anyone else with a plate. Especially when she wipes the table, she always wipes it 2 times more than others until there is no stain on the table.
Yang Lijuan's efforts, the boss saw in his eyes.
One day, the boss quietly pulled Yang Lijuan aside and told her: "Next month, make an exception to raise your salary to 120, 40 yuan more than other employees, you have to keep it secret!" ”
Not only that, customers who often come to eat in the store have a very good impression of Yang Lijuan, including the owner of Haidilao, Daniel Zhang.
At that time, Daniel Zhang was preparing to open a hot pot restaurant in Jianyang, and in order to do a good job of preliminary research, he traveled to many restaurants in Sichuan to observe their business models.
When Yang Lijuan ordered for him, Yang Lijuan's service attitude and clever and energetic left a deep impression on Daniel Zhang.
When the Daniel Zhang prepared everything to open the business, he immediately thought of digging Yang Lijuan over, in order to express his sincerity, Daniel Zhang offered Yang Lijuan a high salary of 160 yuan, but did not want to be rejected by Yang Lijuan, she said: "I just came to the city at that time and had no experience, the boss left me, to be a person to speak of conscience." ”
Daniel Zhang didn't expect a little girl to be able to say such a thing, and she couldn't help but be impressed by Yang Lijuan.
Daniel Zhang is not willing to force others to be difficult, only leaving her a business card, telling Yang Lijuan to contact herself if she wants to jump jobs in the future.
Simple Yang Lijuan muttered in her heart: "Okay, why should I jump ship?" ”。
However, the world was unpredictable, not long after, her restaurant was facing demolition, the boss had no intention of changing the land and reopening, so he dismissed all the employees, and Yang Lijuan was "unemployed".
When she first entered the society, she encountered such a blow, and Yang Lijuan was difficult to accept for a while. For a moment, she thought of Daniel Zhang.
Yang Lijuan turned over her business card and called Daniel Zhang with great apprehension: "Boss, do you still count what you told me before?" ”
Daniel Zhang was overjoyed when he received the call, and replied boldly: "Of course!" ”
In this way, Yang Lijuan became the first female waiter in Haidilao.
02
After Yang Lijuan entered the Haidilao hot pot restaurant, there were many new things that she needed to constantly adapt to.
Don't look at the salary Daniel Zhang offered her is one-third higher than the original small restaurant, in fact, the scale and business of the hot pot restaurant are far less than the small restaurant, in addition to the boss Daniel Zhang, there are only 3 employees, the business needless to say.
Since the business is not good, Yang Lijuan feels that she should put more effort into the taste of the dishes, after all, this is the consistent practice of many restaurants. But her boss wanted to go off the beaten path, repeatedly stressing the importance of service to them. Yang Lijuan sometimes has to help guests carry bags, do laundry, and even bend down to shine their shoes.
However, Yang Lijuan is an obedient and responsible employee, and although she has doubts, she is still very active and serious in completing her daily work.
Once, a family of three brought their children to dinner, and the couple ate together, and Yang Lijuan was next to help them with their children. The bear child cried and yelled for a while, Yang Lijuan brought him candy to eat did not work, still making a fuss, the couple was in no mood for arguing, Yang Lijuan hated to immediately put the child down and leave, but in order to work, she had to coax him patiently.
Suddenly, Yang Lijuan moved wisely and ran to the front desk to find a toy to play with the child. The child got the toy and quieted down, now the couple can eat with peace of mind, they eat, while praising Yang Lijuan's smart service attitude, before leaving, they also specially expressed their gratitude to her.
It was the praise and gratitude of this strange couple that made young Yang Lijuan realize the importance of service. At the same time, through her observation during this time, Yang Lijuan found that because of their thoughtful and considerate service, the reputation of Haidilao gradually spread, and the business in the store became better and better.
Along with the business comes more and more busy work, Yang Lijuan is like a sharp rat, constantly shuttling between the lobby and the back kitchen every day, working more than 12 hours a day, all week, she sometimes can't get away from going back to her hometown.
When she left work late at night, Yang Lijuan was so tired that she couldn't clench her fists with five fingers, and she lay on the simple bed of the rental house and comforted herself: "When the debt is paid, I must change to a lighter restaurant to work." ”
However, what happened next completely changed Yang Lijuan's plan.
On this day, Yang Lijuan's mother suddenly ran to the city to find her, and as soon as they met, they hurriedly asked her: "Daughter, do you have 800 yuan on you?" After that, the mother lowered her head in embarrassment.
Yang Lijuan knew in her heart that the creditor must have come to collect the debt, otherwise her mother would not have asked her for money so embarrassed. But he has such a dead salary, and after sending it home every month, he only has 10 yuan left, and he doesn't have so much money on him. She didn't want to disappoint her mother, so she had to think of a way herself. But she is a girl's family, where should she scrape together so much money?
Just when Yang Lijuan was worried about the money, Daniel Zhang heard about this from other employees, and without saying a word, he quietly stuffed Yang Lijuan with 800 yuan, and told her to tell him if she had any difficulties.
Teenage Yang Lijuan broke her defense, she cried in the bed at night, after crying, she wiped her tears while telling herself in her heart: I want to be a lifetime in Haidilao!
The days passed day by day in the hectic and busy, and many colleagues around Yang Lijuan left because they couldn't bear the fatigue in the store, only she always rushed to the forefront of Haidilao with the best service.
As Haidilao got bigger and bigger, more waiters came to the store, and Yang Lijuan was also promoted to manager, but she couldn't be happy.
It turned out that although there was less manual work to do, Daniel Zhang arranged more difficult work for her.
Daniel Zhang not only asked Yang Lijuan to write a work report every day and handed it to him, but also told her to read more and learn computers, for Yang Lijuan, who only has primary school education, these tasks are more difficult than her brushing 10,000 plates in a row, she feels that the boss is deliberately embarrassing her, but Yang Lijuan still obediently did it.
So, in the dead of night, Yang Lijuan dragged her tired body, accompanied by a weak light, in order to write a qualified work report, she scratched her hair while thinking about how to write; To learn to use the computer, she fumbled with the keys on her keyboard over and over again.
Gradually, Yang Lijuan understood the boss's good intentions in her daily study: he was training her, and everything was to let her have enough capital to meet greater challenges!
03
In 1999, Haidilao began to open branches across the country, and 21-year-old Yang Lijuan was sent by Daniel Zhang to Xi'an as a store manager. This not only means managing a team of dozens of people, but also being responsible for the expansion of this new market in Xi'an.
In order to live up to Daniel Zhang's expectations, Yang Lijuan hurried to the store every day to explain the good matters, and then took a few employees to the side of the road to hand out flyers and deliver a cup of freshly ground soy milk to passers-by.
The group of employees was not less blinded, but Yang Lijuan did not care at all, she said to the employees: "The effort must be rewarded!" The employees were infected by her enthusiasm and seriousness, and followed the word hard.
One day, several men drank too much in Haidilao and even teased a female employee, and after being reprimanded, they simply played drunk and threatened to smash the hot pot restaurant.
Yang Lijuan, who heard the movement, rushed to a few drunks, and said in a firm tone: "I have already called the police, you either leave now, or wait for the police to come." ”
Yang Lijuan, who is 1.6 meters tall, stood in front of several big men, like a weak little white rabbit facing several vicious big bad wolves, but her powerful aura shocked everyone present, and the drunks saw that the situation was not right, and scolded and walked out of the store.
Afterwards, an employee asked Yang Lijuan: "Store manager, aren't you afraid that those men will really do it?" ”
Yang Lijuan smiled and said, "I'm afraid, but I'm even more afraid that they will smash Haidilao." In Yang Lijuan's heart, Haidilao is more important than her life, she can move, but Haidilao is absolutely not.
Under the leadership of Yang Lijuan, the business of the Xi'an store soon became prosperous. She also gradually transformed from her original young working girl into a strong woman.
In 2008, Haidilao had grown to stores all over the country, and 30-year-old Yang Lijuan was promoted to deputy general manager, assisting Daniel Zhang manage the operation of all branches across the country.
Equivalent to the high position is greater responsibility, and at this time, Yang Lijuan will face not the customers and employees in the store, but the management and decision-making of the entire company.
As Haidilao grows bigger and bigger, some hidden problems have gradually become prominent, such as internal management chaos, increased employee turnover, and insufficient talent reserves to support the rapid expansion of stores.
In response to these problems, Yang Lijuan boldly launched a "reform".
She has developed a detailed and complete employee promotion process to leave enough room for employees to develop. In this way, it can not only meet the promotion expectations of employees, reduce the turnover rate, but also continuously cultivate excellent management talents.
These measures of Yang Lijuan have proved to be very wise and effective. At present, Haidilao's employee turnover rate is only 10%, far lower than the industry's 38%, and the average salary of employees is much higher than that of peers.
Yang Lijuan's efforts soon ushered in the glory of her part-time work career.
In early 2018, she was first appointed COO of Haidilao. In September, Haidilao was officially listed, and Yang Lijuan received 4.5 billion yuan with 4% of her original shares.
Yang Lijuan originally thought that she would move forward smoothly on the road of COO, but she did not expect that an unprecedented crisis awaited her in front of her.
At that time, Daniel Zhang saw that Haidilao's business was booming, so he struck while the iron was hot and expanded his store.
However, when the epidemic broke out in 2020, the entire catering industry was affected, and Haidilao not only did not make a big profit, but suffered heavy losses.
In the first half of 2021, Haidilao's debt ratio reached 75.4%. In the face of the facts, Daniel Zhang admit that he was too confident in the market's predictions, but it was too late.
At the critical moment, Yang Lijuan stepped forward, she repeatedly discussed with Haidilao executives from multiple perspectives such as internal management, assessment mechanism, store efficiency, etc., and finally determined the "Woodpecker Plan" and strictly took the lead in implementing it.
Since the implementation of the "Woodpecker Plan" in November 2021, only half a year later, it has delivered a satisfactory answer, and Haidilao's revenue in the first half of 2022 was 16.76 billion yuan.
It was Yang Lijuan's efforts to turn the tide that rescued Haidilao from a huge crisis, which was unanimously recognized by the entire company.
04
On March 1, 2022, Haidilao announced Yang Lijuan as CEO, responsible for the operation and strategic development of the entire company.
At this time, with the rise of Haidilao's stock price, Yang Lijuan's value also rose, from the previous 4.5 billion to 12.5 billion.
In order to help her brothers pay off their debts, Yang Lijuan came to the city from a small mountain village to work, and now the family's debts have long been paid off, she not only bought a house for her parents in the city to settle down, but also borrowed a lot of money to do business for her brothers, and the family is happy.
Looking back on Yang Lijuan's 27-year career, she is not afraid of hardship and fatigue, let the sweat drip on the road to growth, and finally bloom fragrant flowers; She insists on learning and makes knowledge a source of strength for transformation after transformation; She is not afraid of danger, always considers problems from the perspective of the company, and grows together with Haidilao.
It is precisely because of these qualities that Yang Lijuan can become the CEO of a listed company step by step from a waiter who washes dishes and serves dishes.
Yang Lijuan's experience gives us reason to believe that hard work will reap rewards, and persistence will lead to success!
Reference: Beijing News "From a monthly salary of 100 yuan to a net worth of 10 billion: the "most cattle waiter" becomes CEO of Haidilao"
Author: Kiao
Directions: Snow lime