How can a 30-year-old brand innovate? How can domestic brands get rid of the Low label? How do entrepreneurs keep a young heart?
On July 6, at the 2021 China New Consumer Brand Growth Summit jointly held by CBNData, Dong Mingzhu, chairman and president of Gree Electric Appliances, Qin Shuo, observer of humanities and finance, and Wang Yang, president of CBNData, discussed the methods of continuous innovation and growth of enterprises.
The following is a highlight of the roundtable forum transcript.
Wang Yang: Dong Zong and Qin have always been old friends for many years, and today they came to the scene of the CBNData Growth Summit, what was the first thing the two old friends wanted to say when they saw each other?
Qin Shuo: Let the world fall in love with Made in China. This sentence is actually very interesting, today we talk about so many new consumption, there is a very important background, not only technology, new consumption generation, but also the local cultural spirit and the rise of oriental aesthetics. I think that "let the world fall in love with Made in China" has outlined such a trend earlier.
Wang Yang: "Let the world fall in love with Made in China" is the slogan shouted by Gree in the previous two years and even now. Mr. Dong, what was the first thing you wanted to say when you saw Mr. Qin?
Dong Mingzhu: I have known Teacher Qin for a long time, and I also have a deep relationship with Gree. Teacher Qin is an economist we respect very much, and his analysis and height of the economy, especially his attention to the real economy, is very thorough. Therefore, in the development process of our enterprise, Qin Zong has a particularly strong analytical ability and a more comprehensive view of the problem (human support), and the interaction between him and the enterprise will bring a lot of significance.
How companies can continue to innovate
Wang Yang: Today, the role of two people is that one is continuous iteration and even innovation in China; the other is the role of an observer of commercial civilization. There should be a lot of interesting sparks in the interaction between the two today.
▲Wang Yang, president of CBNData
If I'm not mistaken, Gree has entered a thirty-year development stage. Gree has always started from air conditioning and developed into a giant of global home appliances, whether it is the main air conditioning business or now covering a variety of household appliances, and even launched a series of anti-epidemic sterilization equipment during this epidemic. Gree has always been iterating and evolving with the tide of the times. If you use three words to describe the current Gree in your eyes, how would you describe Mr. Dong?
Dong Mingzhu: At present, I think we have insisted on "innovation" in our own judgment of Gree itself, which is the two words that we have always been eternal.
Second, I feel that Gree is "persistent". We want to do a manufacturing industry, and everyone thinks that manufacturing is the hardest, because it is an asset-heavy investment, not an asset-light. So there will be more challenges. As we usually say, "it is not easy to turn around when the ship is big", but there must be a big ship. Who's going to be the big ship? I think we Gree chose such a persistence, and we must go firmly in the manufacturing industry.
The third Gree electric appliance has never forgotten its original intention, that is, "integrity". I think "integrity" is two very important words to support the vitality of an enterprise. When a business loses its integrity, it may grow well in the short term, or it can deceive some people, but it is not sustainable. And we do integrity is precisely the easiest thing to do to lose, and even sometimes not to be understood by others to insist.
▲Dong Mingzhu, chairman and president of Gree Electric Appliances
These 6 words, I think we will never leave behind in any environment.
Yang Wang: Innovation, persistence and integrity. In fact, these 6 words do not seem to exceed everyone's cognition, but the most basic 6 words have always been adhered to, and precipitation is the greatest value.
Dong Mingzhu: It is because these few words are easy to say, but it is very difficult to persist in doing them. We have only thirty years, there are many international enterprises in the past hundred years and two hundred years, and the vitality of really good enterprises is exuberant, and the really good enterprises are really a hundred years. Speaking of a hundred years is only a pronoun, and a hundred years is an immortal enterprise. How to make it persistent, long-term, healthy survival, or in the market can bring new changes to society and consumers? Therefore, the old brand must contain "new", if there is no "new", it is likely to be eliminated by the market and the entire era.
Wang Yang: The development of an enterprise today is like the organization of the body, and these key words you just said are our inner blood and genes, but innovation is the most important reason why the circulating hematopoietic system can continue to operate.
Gree should always be the object of Qin Zong's observation and research, in your eyes do you think Gree after so many years of changes and iterations, what is it now?
Qin Shuo: I think the past few years have been manufacturing from manufacturing to manufacturing. The manufacturing mentioned in the past, including the manufacturing of new consumer brands now, is basically outsourcing, OEM, assembly, and so-called supply chain integration. But for manufacturing to really become a boutique, it needs equipment to make end products, and there are a lot of technologies in it.
Why is Germany called "the factory of many factories"? All the basic equipment used in the factory has to use mine. Gree has made a very obvious breakthrough in recent years, and in the future, I believe that this society will have more cognition in this regard in order to solve the problem of foundation.
Second, Dong Zong talked about Gree innovation, and she herself is constantly innovating. Some time ago, there was a paragraph that the most illegal driving in a city was Dong Zong, and later it was found that the camera head was photographed with a bus body advertisement printed with her image. She became the most serious offender in China because she advertised herself and became a traffic bearer. There are not many people like her in our Chinese business home.
Wang Yang: The foundation of the enterprise must be in its own strength, especially for the science and technology manufacturing enterprises, the concept of scientific and technological innovation, manufacturing foundation, and the factory of many factories must not be lost, and at present we should conform to the changes of the times.
How was the air conditioner developed without electricity?
Wang Yang: We pay attention to the fact that a good enterprise has several dimensions, such as understanding management, having good products, or being particularly good at marketing, and channels that are particularly solid and rich. I would like to hear the views of the two, for such a few key dimensions, from your understanding and observations, which is more important?
Dong Mingzhu: I think it's all important, but it's especially important at some point in time.
In the era of Gree Electric Appliances, no enterprise in the home appliance industry dared to say that there was technology. Because all the key components are imported, some are domestically produced, and some are imported. The only thing we can say we have good quality is that whose products use more raw materials and are good. At that time, there was no competitiveness, and marketing was very important. They all say that I am a person who is very good at talking, and I move you is a kind of marketing. In fact, real marketing should reflect a win-win situation. At that time, the era could not talk about win-win, I just want to say that you should be responsible for others, and you can't say that I earn you a loss with partners, and being responsible for each other is being responsible for consumers, because your background is not supported by technology. Marketing is important at that point in time. Many businesses have fallen and died of marketing. At that time, there were two or three brands with good product quality, and I used to go to that company with the merchants to learn and see in order to learn a brand. But in the end, the enterprise collapsed, and it collapsed in terms of marketing. Behind the marketing is management and system.
As the enterprise develops to a certain stage, there is no good product to iterate, there is no product around the consumer's quality of life upgrade, why continue to build your brand? So at this stage, Gree is supported by technology. We started our first compressor plant in 2005 and that's when we really started our research on key components. With such a start, slowly have their own patents, their own technical personnel, their own research institutions, these are booming. We now have 16 research institutes, more than 1,000 laboratories, and more than 15,600 R&D personnel. These forces underpin your subsequent development.
Now the electricity consumption of air conditioners accounts for 15% of the entire electricity consumption, or many families save electricity, do not dare to use electricity, if all open to use, this proportion should be 30%, or even more. The impact of such electricity consumption on resource consumption and the environment is enormous. The goal of carbon neutrality is proposed now, and electricity consumption will be controlled in the future. Why am I talking about this? We did something meaningful. In 2012, when the smog was generated, I told our technicians that we must develop a product that is an air conditioner without electricity. What I said about not having electricity is not consuming resources, so we found new energy. In 2012 (when research and development), everyone felt very bad, we burned the motor at that time, a motor hundreds of thousands, burned 10 a day, burned to the R & D personnel feel a little scared, too much investment, 100 million into the can not see the consequences. But I think as an enterprise, we must have foresight, not only to consider the inheritance of the enterprise, but also to consider the entire human race. At that time, we spent nine or ten years developing, and we iterated three generations. Fortunately, we participated in the International Technology Innovation Competition the year before, and in two years, we won gold awards in more than 2,000 projects, and gave us 500,000 US dollars at that time. I said, what we want is not a bonus, we want honor, we want to really contribute to this society.
We can now combine light energy, energy storage and air conditioning, air conditioning becomes a power station, do not need to pass through the city grid, do not remotely transport, independent space is solved by air conditioning, gather enough energy to generate electricity through air conditioning, ensure that air conditioning cools down or heats at the same time, excess electricity is stored in the energy storage, and all the lighting at night has no longer to spend a penny on electricity. We are now doing deeper research, and by being able to use all the energy, we can absolutely guarantee that a home is completely self-powered. More importantly, if our technology is popularized, it can reduce the global temperature by half a degree, which is incredible. In the process of use, we can achieve energy savings of 80%, that is to say, the resource consumption is only less than 20%.
I was thinking, with the pace of the times, following the needs of human survival, this is the new brand.
More importantly, enterprises are responsible for their employees
▲ Humanistic financial observer Qin Shuo
Qin Shuo: I do have a lot of resonance, because I first saw a lot of air conditioning brands in Guangdong, and finally disappeared. At the beginning, Gree was not among the best, and the most well-known in China at that time were Huabao in Guangdong and Chunlai in Jiangsu, and now these two brands do not know where to go.
Everyone especially likes to talk about the "new track", in fact, the basic consumption form has always been like this, don't always think about the "new", you want to think about whether you can do really good things in this consumption form according to the consumption conditions of the times. I see that new consumer brands are doing well, but they will find ways to meet people's traditional needs with better product quality, better recipes, and safer ingredients.
I've been in contact with two new consumer brands myself, and I'm a little shocked. One of the brands said, "I think old entrepreneurs have original sin." "I said what is the original sin? He said, "They used to make Chinese brands so low, we as a new brand, we want to make China's new consumer brands stand up." If expansion and listing will affect my original intention, I will sacrifice something, I would rather not do this company. "I think these brands can really make a long-red brand in the future."
Wang Yang: General Manager Qin mentioned these points, which should be what we need to adhere to in the process of long-term doctrine that we emphasize today. If Mr. Dong makes investments, tracks and teams, what will you choose?
Dong Mingzhu: I think people may still be the first, because everything is inseparable from people, no one, you say anything you want will return to zero, so people are very important.
Second, the biggest investment is to give the other person trust. Like our Gree electric appliances, our market raised more than 5 billion, and now we give the stock market dividend of nearly 90 billion, I think the responsibility for investors is to give him a good return. It is not how high the market value proves how good the company is, many human factors lead to fluctuations in the stock price, I do not want my investors to get income because of the stock price, because the money invested has a fixed income every year. My 10,000 shares at the time are now more than 40 million. I think that the mission of enterprises to do the real economy and manufacturing industry may be more important than that of investors. It is responsible for investors, for national development and, more importantly, for employees.
Employees work hard to create wealth, although he has no capital, but he uses his physical strength, with his thoughts to create wealth, this is something you can not ignore. Why do we investors have successful investments and some investments have not succeeded, because investment success is the success of the enterprise that creates wealth. Because it creates wealth, reasonable growth in stock prices makes investors the beneficiaries. If the employees of this enterprise are not responsible, the enterprise does not create wealth at all, and the investment fails.
Qin Shuo: Many companies are concerned about how many rounds of financing in the past stage, how luxurious the lineup of investors is, and how many times the valuation has risen. What is Dong Zong's statement? It's not how much you raise from the outside, it's how much you give back to the community, especially small and medium-sized investors, and if you think about this today your business will do longer.
Why did Dong Mingzhu personally go down to do the live broadcast?
Wang Yang: Last year, Dong always came down to participate in the live broadcast. To broadcast a data to everyone, Dong Zong personally participated in a total of 13 live broadcasts last year, with a total of 47.62 billion yuan of goods, what is this concept? Equivalent to the total box office of 10 "The Wandering Earth". And in March this year, the wuhan live broadcast set a record of 1.14 billion yuan per game. So I especially want to ask Mr. Dong, how do you feel about doing the live broadcast in person? Why did you choose this way in the first place? Is this just a taste of the new, or will it become a new channel for normalization in the future?
Dong Mingzhu: I think it was an experience. In the era of internet digitalization, you can't develop and survive with the practice of staying in the store in the past. It was the second revolution for Gree.
Because we have created many new models in the past, they are often imitated by others. If you are a frog at the bottom of the well, look at the world is yours, but we jump out and see, the world is big. That is, the change of an era. You have to adapt to the changes of this era, you have to innovate.
Second, we must dare to make a revolution. I think it is the most difficult to change my life, and we have also suffered, our model is so good, once by all industries, enterprises to emulate can not do. Why is your model not working in this day and age? We have grown with our distributors for more than 20 years, and my model was combined in 1997. For more than 20 years, if we don't innovate and still be self-congratulatory, it will be the day you fall. So I thought about how to make tens of thousands of stores re-recognize themselves, how to change their marketing model, which is one of the reasons why I went to try live broadcasting.
Third, I think the traffic is because others respect you, you have traffic, so you don't consume this traffic. The traffic you trick others into attracting is short-term, and how you support this traffic is something you have to think about. How to let this traffic stay, willing to come to your store, willing to watch your live broadcast, I think this has an article to do.
Our real economy's understanding of traffic is not to create traffic in a vacuum. Why can't many companies do it online? Because it has no technical content, it cannot be supported by low prices.
So I'll keep doing live streaming, and there will be live streaming next, but it won't be as frequent as last year.
Wang Yang: Are you willing to be called an internet celebrity by others?
Dong Mingzhu: I think sometimes other people's titles are not whether you want to or don't want to. I think live streaming is a new industry, but don't consume traffic. Live streaming and online consumption bring new conveniences to consumers. You've bought something in my shop and we're very familiar. There are opportunities to shop online, in the middle of the night I suddenly have an emergency need for something, I have a channel, I click directly, the store is next to you, you can send it right away. What we are looking for is how to improve our quality of life, and it may have vitality. It doesn't matter if others say it's an influencer or not. I now invite you to Come to Dong Mingzhu's shop, because we have the best products in the world, and it will be broadcast live. But I want to have something to support it, not just to talk about it, but to explain the product clearly.
We recently came out with a product, the wind does not disturb the air conditioner, this technology so far no one can do, the technology patents are all developed by us. Just a little bit of wind-free technology, developed for three years. We are now uncomfortable sitting in the air outlet with air conditioning, and we may get sick over time and have problems with our cervical spine. Our technology has changed, the wind does not come to you at all, hovering in the sky to cool down. This is promoted in my live streaming store, and many people are willing to place orders.
The second question is, is it really such a feeling to buy it back? It's really good to go back and use it. This is naturally your traffic, and naturally it will come to your store. So we open our own stores to pay more attention to the quality of each product.
Qin Shuo: 70% of China's 1.4 billion people spend an average of 6 hours a day on their phones, and 40% of their time is video. In other words, Dong Zong and I spent a lot of time walking around the road, visiting the store, and buying things to take home by ourselves. Now the whole process is on our mobile phones, and with 5G, live broadcasting has become a very ordinary occasion, ready to go. At this time, if you don't use this place to exert power, you will go against the whole basic trend.
Youthfulness changes from time to time
Wang Yang: Today, for young people to build a bridge of communication, should we advocate rejuvenation or value?
Dong Mingzhu: Why do we talk about paying attention to young people now, I think it is a change of the times, because the current consumption pattern is changing. The background of the post-90s generation is completely different from ours, and the understanding and way of life is already subversive. Therefore, the live broadcast and consumption they are engaged in now are in line with the needs of this era group. At our age, there is no sense of generation separation from the previous generation, and the consumption patterns and lifestyles are inherited, so the impact is not large. And now the impact is disruptive.
Back to my air conditioner, we have been thinking that the bigger the air conditioner, the better, and suddenly I tell you that the air conditioner has no wind. Where was the market when this perception changed? I'm sure no fool would want to buy an air conditioner that blows me badly.
Young and not young is based on this era. I'm going to run to 70 right away, I'm an old man, but my mindset is very young.
Qin Shuo: I think you are very young, one is not electricity, one is no wind, both of which are subversive views of air conditioning.
Dong Mingzhu: So I think I'm very young, I'm young in my mindset, I'm only 25 years old.
Wang Yang: That's why Mr. Dong is admired, obviously a business leader who is already in a high position, but he has reduced his dimensionality to do a live broadcast, and recently participated in a variety show called "We Who First Entered the Workplace" to be a mentor to many young people. How can we really harvest the hearts of young people or help them grow? As an entrepreneur, what new insights do you have about these post-95s and post-00s young people in the most front-line contact?
Dong Mingzhu: I think everyone always has joys and joys and sorrows on their own life path. We will encounter a lot of difficulties that we did not anticipate, and these may happen. But I think it's important to believe in yourself. We people are not afraid of falling, we are afraid of falling down and not getting up, that is the most terrible.
Wang Yang: Gree is 30 years old, and it is the year of its establishment. Has gree captured young users and consumers at present?
Dong Mingzhu: Of course, we must continue to innovate and improve the quality of life in the future. What do I often say to tech people called technology? Divided into two big blocks – the future and the present. At present, the quality of life of consumers should be improved, what kind of needs needs need to be met, and research and development should be done around the needs of consumers. The second is social responsibility in the future, and the prospect should be planned for a long time.
Everyone knows that Gree is not only air conditioning, Gree washing machine clothes washed above the pencil is not poured, because there is no sound. This is the biggest pain point of washing machines right now, and I did it. My refrigerator, put the meat in and take it out without thawing it and use it. These are all backed by technology. If you want to retain consumers, it is not an advertisement, a simple interactive live broadcast can do. So when I do live broadcasting, I do more cultural exchanges.