Seeking talent, Xpeng Motors has a personnel storm

Wen 丨Peng Suping

Editor丨Li Qin

He Xiaopeng may not have thought that half a year ago, he secretly criticized the ideal car for not being positioned for a long time by relying on the "daddy car", but now, he began to invite an expert in positioning theory as a partner.

Recently, the news that Wang Fengying, former president of Great Wall Motors, will become the CEO of Xpeng Motors has spread wildly, and Xpeng Motors' ambiguous response is almost tacit, only emphasizing that "He Xiaopeng will still be the highest person in charge of this company."

36Kr learned from a person close to Wang Fengying that Wang did receive an invitation from Xiaopeng, but she herself had not decided to go, and after leaving Great Wall Motor, she also did some projects herself and may continue to do it. In fact, earlier, Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Group, also threw an olive branch to Wang Fengying.

Whether Wang Fengying will join Xpeng Motors is still in suspense, but it is certain that Xpeng is indeed inviting Wang Fengying to join, and the title of CEO is not for nothing - some analysts say that Xpeng Motors currently has two presidents (Xia Heng and Gu Hongdi), and with Wang's qualifications, only the president is appointed, and the level may not be enough.

Based on all information, even as CEO, Wang Fengying is not succeeding He Xiaopeng to fully preside over the company's operations, but the two have their own division of labor, He Xiaopeng will focus on manufacturing, supply chain and technology research and development, and Wang Fengying will be responsible for marketing, marketing and product positioning, similar to the role distribution she played with Wei Jianjun when she was president of Great Wall.

After starting to adjust its organizational structure in October last year, Xpeng Motors has accelerated the pace of internal "blood change" in the past one or two months, involving many personnel changes and team integration, and bringing in foreign aid as CEO is undoubtedly the heaviest medicine.

Xiaopeng turned

What are the challenges facing Xpeng Motors today? In the near term, how to sell several new cars launched this year, and farther away, how to maintain a leading position in the next few years. Xiaopeng was originally full of confidence, but the failure of the G9 release made them suddenly fall back to reality.

There are many problems exposed, product strategy, marketing, teamwork, etc., and it is the cruel reality that makes He Xiaopeng decisively promote organizational structure reform and try to introduce strong assistance.

Wang Fengying, whom He Xiaopeng fancy, joined Great Wall Motor as early as 1991 and has been the "number two person" of the private car company for the past two decades. She was first in charge of sales, and later promoted the implementation of the "positioning strategy" within Great Wall Motor, building Haval H6 into a continuous SUV "god car", and Great Wall Motor's revenue also achieved a leap of 100 billion yuan.

Great Wall first had pickup trucks, SUVs, sedans and other product lines, and in 2008, Rees Strategic Consulting began to assist it in formulating a category strategy of "focusing on SUVs", and Wang Fengying was responsible for promoting it internally. "It took a long time for Great Wall to cut the sedan product line, and it was Mr. Wang who landed for five years, including product planning, brand marketing, and dealer communication." The above-mentioned people close to Wang Fengying told 36Kr.

After the revenue crossed the threshold of 100 billion, the Great Wall began a new round of transformation, but Wang Fengying did not continue this journey. Public information shows that in January and July 2022, she resigned as vice chairman and general manager of Great Wall Motor and left Great Wall completely, and according to people familiar with the matter, she faded out of the decision-making level of Great Wall as early as a few years ago.

But Wang Fengying is interested in promoting the positioning strategy to more companies. Last year, she and Reese co-founded the "Beagle" project, which aims to use positioning theory to serve more micro, small and medium-sized enterprises to gain insight into new trends. The above-mentioned people close to Wang Fengying also told 36Kr that Reese and Wang Fengying collaborated on a three-day, two-night corporate growth strategy course, one of which was taught by Wang Fengying.

What impressed He Xiaopeng may be Wang Fengying's early experience of slowly turning Great Wall Motor to the head, or her insight and execution in corporate strategy, product marketing, or both.

Xpeng Motors is experiencing a confused period of product and brand positioning. NIO's main user enterprises and ideal family cars have cultivated a large wave of fans in their respective market segments, while Xpeng's previous positioning of intelligence, technology, youth, etc., has blurred the face in the market where each company is layout.

In terms of products, He Xiaopeng and Wei Jianjun, chairman of Great Wall Motor, show similar preferences: obsessed with technology and think that technology can capture the market, while Wang Fengying is marketing-oriented. She explained her philosophy in an interview last July; If you do not plan your products according to the positioning of the market and brand, it is like making cooked rice and then selling it, it will be late.

He Xiaopeng is desperate for change. Previously, he did not recognize the importance of accurate product positioning, but later changed his words in an interview with "Late" and said that in the future, Xpeng's new products should also strengthen positioning and enhance user perception. At the third quarter earnings conference, he also specifically mentioned that in terms of brand marketing strategy, the future positioning will be clearer, and long-term planning will be formulated accordingly.

People "big change"

The launch mistake of the flagship new car G9 in September last year made Xpeng Motors make a determination to promote internal personnel organization changes months in advance.

Virtual committees, platform leaders and other mechanisms have broken up the original power structure and redistributed top-level power resources, and now on the basis of the new structure, external talents are introduced to let professional people do professional things.

In addition to Wang Fengying, according to 36Kr, in the past two months, Xiaopeng has negotiated and recruited a number of external managers, many of whom are from Alibaba. A person familiar with the matter also said that several executives will join after the Spring Festival, and he couldn't help but sigh that "this blood change is too powerful."

Internal transfers and integrations have been quietly carried out, especially in the sales and marketing departments of the front desk, and the changes are the most drastic. 36Kr has exclusively learned that the three departments of Auto Trade, which is in charge of directly operated stores, UDS (Customer Service Center) and Brand, which is in charge of dealer stores, will be merged.

Personnel mobility is also inevitable. For example, Li Pengcheng, vice president and general manager of brand public relations of Xpeng Motors, also left Xpeng in December last year after he became the assistant to the CEO. This fire even spread to Xpeng Motors' ecological enterprises, and Xiao Zhiguang, the former No. 20 employee who joined Xpeng from GAC, has also left the company, Penghang Robot, a robot company invested by Xpeng, who had followed Xia Heng and He Tao.

After the internal exchange blood, Xiaopeng urgently needs to replenish fresh blood. Recently, it was reported that Yi Han, a former Geely executive, will join Xiaopeng and be in charge of marketing. And how urgent is the demand of Xiaopeng's reconstruction team? A relevant person told 36Kr that Xiaopeng has been actively recruiting people recently, and even relatively relaxed requirements, even executives with no experience in the automotive industry will be invited to be vice presidents.

Behind the rush to change, Xpeng Motors still faces severe challenges. In the last month of 2022, this new car-making force that once held the top finally returned to the 10,000 mark, reaching 11,292 units, which is considered to have walked out of the previous trough. However, according to a person familiar with the front-line channels, the delivery of some B-end customers is not small to maintain this level next.

With the change of organizational structure, He Xiaopeng also adjusted his thinking to face the battle. In a recent interview with China Entrepreneur magazine, he said: "The strategic plan set in 2021 is to hope to become a company with good profits, but in 2023, seeing the changes in the market, smart cars will be like the development of computers and smart phones, and eventually there will be only three to four." This suggests that Xiaopeng may temporarily abandon the pursuit of high gross profits this year, and instead use a higher cost performance to go volume.

As a new force that is still very young, Xpeng Motors has reserves of core technologies such as intelligent driving, cash resources, and brand first-mover advantages, and after a short stall, with the adjustment of management, structure and strategy, it is still expected to win the final round.