Wang Fengying came, and Xiaopeng didn't seem to have to die

At the end of 2022, while Xpeng's organization underwent major changes, the top management also ushered in a major change. One of the most striking is Wang Fengying, former president of Great Wall, who is rumored to be the CEO of Xpeng Motors. Wang Fengying was in charge of strategy and marketing during the Great Wall period, what can she bring to Xiaopeng?

At the end of the year, Xiaopeng had a major adjustment at the top level, and rumors of personnel changes continued.

Geely senior executive Yi Han joined Xpeng and will serve as vice president of Xpeng Motors, responsible for marketing and public relations. The biggest news is the joining of Wang Fengying, former president of Great Wall Motor.

Wang Fengying, who left Great Wall in July 2022, has been working for Great Wall Motor for 30 years, responsible for the strategic planning of the front-end of Great Wall and marketing at the end. He led the strategic planning and marketing of Great Wall Motor's pickup trucks and SUVs. Wang Fengying is known as the iron lady of the automobile circle.

Xiaopeng, which has experienced the G9 release storm, has just made organizational adjustments. In the past few years, due to rapid expansion, Xpeng's corporate culture has faced dilution. Wang Fengying parachuted over, is it as CEO? Or as vice president of a business? What value can her ability bring to Xiaopeng?

What can Wang Fengying's Great Wall culture bring to the diluted Xiaopeng culture?

CEO or something else? 

The news of Wang Fengying's joining Xpeng Motors is somewhat elusive. 

First of all, Xiaopeng did not officially announce, electric planet News founder Ouyang Chen told Lu Jiu Business Review that he found that the initial news was broken by several media closely related to traditional cars, and when the media reported later, Xiaopeng neither denied nor admitted it.

The source of Lu Jiu Business Review learned that Xiaopeng PR was very official when replying to a certain media, but the meaning of the words was that the news was more likely to be true.

Wang Fengying was once the number two person of Great Wall Motor, and has been deeply engaged in the automotive industry for 30 years, winning numerous awards, and has been selected as Forbes Outstanding Business Women, Fortune magazine, the 25 Most Influential Business Women in Asia Pacific, and various management awards.

In July 2022, Wang Fengying resigned as general manager of Great Wall Motor. In an interview with CGTN that month, Wang Fengying said that she and Zhang Yun, global CEO of Clivriss Strategic Positioning Consulting and chairman of China, jointly founded an incubator called "Beagle", and will mainly engage in consulting and incubation in the future.

In December 2022, in an article on the public account of the Cliff Positioning Institute, which is very close to Wang Fengying, Wang Fengying also said that he has two plans in the future: one is to help the Great Wall strategic innovation from an external perspective, and the other is to use years of strategic practice experience to help enterprises innovate strategically and promote strategic implementation.

He will join Xiaopeng in a month, and this change seems to be a little too fast.

Some headhunting companies told Lu Jiu Business Review that some large companies have to finalize executives, some of which are very long, a year or even half a year, and some are very short. If Wang Fengying really goes to Xiaopeng, it will be determined in a month and a half, and it is unknown.

If Wang Fengying goes to Xiaopeng, will she become the CEO as rumored?

Based on comprehensive inference, Wang Fengying is very likely to become CEO.

First of all, Xpeng's official response has not been denied.

When asked by the media, Xiaopeng did not deny this rumor, and the following day, the official response: the top person in charge of the company is still He Xiaopeng. The second response was more like eliminating the outside world's speculation about He Xiaopeng. But still did not deny that Wang Fengying was CEO, but it seemed like a tacit acquiescence.

Second, in an interview with the media in November 2022, He Xiaopeng said that he wanted to find a CEO in the early days, but he couldn't find it, so he had to go on his own, but now Xiaopeng still needs a CEO.

In addition, He Xiaopeng has this mind, in an interview with Chinese entrepreneurs a few days ago, He Xiaopeng said that if there is a capable person who surpasses him, he can give him shares, as long as it is for the good of the enterprise, he will applaud desperately.

Third, Geely Yi Han will serve as the vice president of Xpeng Motors, in charge of marketing and public relations, Wang Fengying's strength is strategic planning and marketing, if you go to Xpeng, you will definitely manage marketing. Wang's status is higher than Yi Han's, so it is speculated that he is more likely to be president or CEO.

Looking at Wang Fengying's situation, it seems logical to be the CEO.

As a veteran of Great Wall Motor, Wang Fengying served as president of Great Wall Motor for many years, partnering Chairman Wei Jianjun, who is responsible for technology and supply chain, and Wang Fengying is responsible for strategic planning and marketing. On Xiaopeng's side, He Xiaopeng is good at technological innovation and is not interested in management, for Wang Fengying, this partner structure is familiar, and the two are also very complementary.

Brand end: Wang Fengying does not recognize Xiaopeng? 

Wang Fengying, known as the iron lady of the automobile circle. Working at Great Wall, she summarizes that she focuses on two heads, one is strategic planning and the other is marketing.

In the history of the development of the Great Wall, there are two key strategic choices, both related to Wang Fengying.

One is the earliest time, because of limited resources, Great Wall chose a pickup truck track with a small market capacity, when the country's pickup truck sales were only 200,000 units, and there were more than a dozen car companies doing pickup trucks. These more than a dozen car companies share a platform, and the body covers are the same, so the product homogeneity is more serious.

Great Wall Motor has adopted two strategies to make comparative competitive advantages: one is the rapid iteration of products, other car companies have a model in three years, and Great Wall's pickup trucks have been modified every year; Second, marketing innovation is faster, more creative, and louder than other companies.

In just three years, Great Wall Motor's pickup truck sales accounted for 60% of the pickup truck market.

Another key strategic plan for Wang Fengying is that Great Wall cuts into the SUV track. When the automotive industry feels that sedans are the mainstream, Great Wall Motor sees the market situation of SUVs in the United States, and has done research in China, believing that SUVs will definitely rise in China as young people become the main consumer force. As a result, the Great Wall Sword took the wrong side and laid out the SUV track early, which was a success in one fell swoop. With the first-mover advantage, it has established the industry position of Great Wall Motor today.

From a marginal car company in Baoding, to today's scale, Great Wall Motor relies on focus, subtraction, and category innovation, which has been engraved into Wang Fengying's spirit. Wang Fengying also mentioned at a forum on Zhenghe Island that new energy vehicle companies need to focus, and if they become big and comprehensive, they will definitely fail.

According to Wang Fengying's view, Xpeng Motors' current strategy has no small problems.

After leaving the Great Wall, Wang Fengying's automotive expert group, in cooperation with Rees Consulting China, launched a "Global New Energy Vehicle Category Trend Research Report", the report on the new energy vehicle companies spicy and bold, for Xpeng Motors, Wang Fengying's team pointed out two hidden dangers:

First, there is a lack of clear backbone categories to answer "who am I?"

The report believes that Xpeng continues to expand models and price categories, covering sedan and SUV model categories, with prices ranging from 150,000-400,000 yuan, with all mid, high and low ends, and the main category cognition is vague, making it difficult to establish a sense of category in consumers' minds.

Second, Xpeng's intelligent characteristics are not focused enough, and the intelligent part does not reflect differentiation.

The intelligence that Xpeng Motors was proud of in the early days has now become homogeneous, and the urban scene NGP launched by Xpeng still relies on hardware and does not form barriers and differences. Xpeng's intelligence differences are also difficult to establish consumer awareness.

For the second point, I don't know what He Xiaopeng will think, but for the first point, He Xiaopeng should be very approving. In November last year, the release of G9, there were too many versions, and the configuration was criticized by the market. Not long ago, in an interview, Xpeng said that Xpeng will simplify single-model SKUs later, and each model has only one or two SKUs.

Xiaopeng's problem is also clearly seen by people in the industry.

"Xiaopeng's products are a bit up and down, fragmented. From P3 to P7 is up, from P7 to P5 is down, then from P5 to G9, and then up, has not formed a solidified impression, or in order to cater to the market, like playing guerrilla. Ouyang Chen said.

An analysis report by Zheshang Securities also believes that Xiaopeng did not choose a market segment strategy in the four major strategies of positioning, products, brands and channels, but faced the broadest and most mainstream market, which means facing the most fierce competition.

At present, Wang Fengying still has two questions to convince He Xiaopeng: First, He Xiaopeng does not recognize the explosive product strategy and believes that the car is the logic of multiple products. At present, Xpeng Motors' price coverage is very wide and there is no focus; Second, although He Xiaopeng decided to reduce his support and energy investment in ecological enterprises, flying cars and robots still insisted on doing it.

"Most people are right in logic, which is to focus, focus, focus, but I think life is only decades, how many things can you do?" In an interview with a Chinese entrepreneur, He Xiaopeng said so.

In the era of the Great Wall, the Great Wall focused on SUVs, and there was also a tug-of-war process, and how Wang Fengying persuaded Xiaopeng probably also needed a process.

Marketing end: How does Wang Fengying improve?

Among the three car companies of Wei Xiaoli, the sales efficiency of Xpeng Motors' stores is not high.

The number of stores of Wei Xiaoli's three car companies and the sales volume in 2022

According to public data, from January to November 2022, the average transaction price of NIO exceeded 440,000 yuan. The transaction price of Li Auto in 2022 reached 376,000 yuan. Combined with the price on the market, the average transaction price of Xpeng is definitely much lower than that of NIO and Ideal. If the price of the car is taken into account, the efficiency disadvantage of Xpeng Motors' sales stores is even more obvious.

Moreover, compared with Wei Xiaoli, there are many more sales stores of traditional car companies. According to public data, BYD, Changan Automobile, and Geely Auto all have more than 1,300 sales stores.

Therefore, for Xiaopeng, the efficiency and quantity of sales stores must be raised so as not to be left behind.

Ouyang Chen believes that in summary, the current Xpeng Motors has the following problems in marketing.

First, Xpeng needs to deal with the relationship between direct management and agency, and the two have always been in conflict within Xpeng;

Second, the price of Xpeng's released products has gone up and down, the product positioning has been uncertain, and it has not focused on its own crowd, and there may be some problems inside;

Third, Xpeng's product marketing has always been seriously misaligned, "like the G9 car, it is actually a good car, but the marketing is according to the marketing method of 150,000 to 200,000 to hit the 300,000-500,000 market, which is called dislocation." ”

Wang Fengying entered the Great Wall, and his earliest job was to do marketing.

He Xiaopeng is definitely not very satisfied with sales. Wang Fengying to Xiaopeng, a big focus should be to focus on sales, because she still has something in sales, after all, she has worked in the Great Wall for so many years and has many resources. Mr. Zhou, an insider in the automotive circle, said.

In addition to dealer connections, Mr. Zhou believes that Wang Fengying's resources are her set of playing methods.

According to Wang Fengying's view, the earliest direct operation of new energy vehicle companies is still limited to consumer awareness and popularity, and after a certain stage, car companies need to use dealers and distributors to scram for large-scale expansion.

"Great Wall's sales team has super strong execution, they are military culture, pay attention to implementation, complete the specified tasks within the specified time, and are very wolf-oriented." Mr. Zhou believes that the logic behind the opening of new energy vehicle companies and traditional 4S stores is the same, and Great Wall Motor has long begun to try different brands to adopt different sales channels, and Wang Fengying is familiar with this area.

To improve the sales efficiency of stores, in addition to channel resources, it is also necessary to straighten out internal relationships, can Wang Fengying Tie Lady handle it?

Corporate culture: Great Wall VS Chang'an, Volkswagen?

Wang Fengying summed up her 30 years of experience in the Great Wall and did two things, one is the strategy of the Great Wall and the other is the marketing of the Great Wall.

The Great Wall's model has always been the planning of marketing-led products, product development according to the market and brand positioning, and product planning. "If this is not the case, the product comes out, it has been cooked maturely, and we sell it again, and we will lose the foundation of innovation from the marketing point of view."

At present, Xpeng Motors' product planning is not the same as Great Wall Motors.

At Xpeng Motors' third-quarter 2022 earnings call, He Xiaopeng revealed that Xpeng's model management organizational structure has been adjusted, and each platform is responsible for end-to-end by a large matrix product manager, from product design, research and development, to sales, to final service, to make management decisions throughout the life cycle. This approach can make the product side closer to the market and better understand the market demand. But in terms of structure, it is still different from Great Wall Motor's marketing dominance.

After the G9 product launch storm in September 2022, He Xiaopeng initiated an organizational adjustment and established five major committees of product, strategy, technology, sales, and OTA, as well as three model platforms for E, F and H. For the new structure, it remains to be seen whether Wang Fengying can adhere to the original Great Wall's marketing-led approach.

In addition, whether Wang Fengying's Great Wall culture can be adapted to the culture of Xpeng Motors is also worth observing.

"Xpeng may already have many systems internally, such as the GAC system, some Volkswagen systems, and the UC system. But there is no Xiaopeng system, and now there is another Great Wall system, and there is a cultural conflict with factions, but whether this conflict is beneficial or harmful, this is not clear for the time being. Ouyang Chen said.

Xpeng Motors does not seem to have formed its own Xpeng culture or system.

In an interview with "Late AUTO" in November, Xiaopeng also said that he was sad that Xpeng's internal culture and values were diluted in the expansion, and everyone began to have different ideas.

In an interview with Chinese entrepreneurs, He Xiaopeng mentioned a story that when the first engineering trial car was driven out at the end of 2016, both groups of people in the company cried, and the car people cried, because the first car they made came out, and people from the Internet also cried, because the car had no paint, no seats, only a rudimentary steering wheel and a bunch of exposed battery wires, and they felt that this was not a car.

"This is a very different logic of thinking, and this tear is still very damaged today." He said.

Wang Fengying wants to enter Xiaopeng, and he has a great responsibility.

Wang Fengying, born in 1970, is 53 years old, can she further optimize Xpeng's product strategy, use the experience of the Great Wall to bring new vitality to Xpeng, and create a new culture?

The leader of this traditional car company has entered the new force and led the reform of the new force, which is very exemplary and worth looking forward to.