Why does Great Wall Motor always fail to retain foreign talents?

Abstract: Enterprise transformation is not only a technological change, but also a management change

Text | Zhao Cheng

Edit | Lee Huangyin

▲ Source: Network

Following the departure of coach Wang Fengying, Great Wall Motor lost another major general.

Recently, some media reported that Wenfei, the former CEO of Great Wall Motor's Ora and Salon brands, has left and will join Xiaomi to replace Zhou Ju, the former head of marketing of Xiaomi Auto.

Great Wall Motor said that Wenfei left due to "physical reasons"; In this regard, people in the industry think that it is just an "excuse". It is reported that Wei Jianjun, chairman of Great Wall Motor, expressed dissatisfaction with Wenfei's price strategy, or the main reason for his departure. As of press time, Xiaomi has not responded to Caijingqiche (ID: caijingqiche).

Coincidentally, Guo Tiefu, general manager of public relations of Great Wall Motor, who had just passed the three-month probationary period, also officially proposed his resignation, and was officially confirmed by Great Wall Motor on May 31.

If Wenfei left the Great Wall due to performance pressure, then Guo Tiefu, who had just turned positive, resigned on the grounds of personal reasons, which seemed to point the finger of the problem to the inside of the Great Wall.

There is a classic saying in the business world about employee departure: the money is not in place, and the heart is wronged. Although the reasons for each executive's departure are different, Caijingqiche (ID: caijingqiche) found that in the executive seat of Great Wall Motor, as long as it is a professional manager who "parachutes", it seems that he will not be able to stay long.

The "substitution if you don't sell" approach is prevalent in the automotive industry, but that doesn't mean it's a sustainable practice that doesn't help solve the underlying problem and affect the long-term development of the company.

01

Wen Fei left his post

▲ Source: Network

Before joining Great Wall Motor, Wenfei worked for Dongfeng Nissan, Volvo and Infiniti. He joined Great Wall Motor in June 2018 and was responsible for Haval's brand strategy, marketing and product communications. In 2020, Wen Fei was promoted to General Manager of Haval Brand. In March 2021, he transferred from General Manager of Haval Brand to CEO of Salon Brand, responsible for various business management of Great Wall Motor Salon Chi Heng. In December 2022, Great Wall Motor changed its marketing system, the organizational structure of ORA and Salon merged, and Wenfei served as the CEO of Salon and ORA dual brands.

As a result, Wenfei, who was originally dedicated to the development of the salon brand, suddenly needed to bear the pressure of the imbalance in sales of Ora cars.

In 2021, ORA sales exceeded 135,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 140%. In 2022, the ORA brand sales will only be 104,000 units, down 23% y/y. In 2023, Euler's sales will still show a declining trend.

Previously, Wenfei mentioned in an interview that the decline in Ora's sales reflected the adjustment of Ora's sales structure, and the main sales products changed from white cat and black cat models that once cost 60,000 yuan to good cats, ballet cats, lightning cats and other models above the 150,000 level.

Caijing Auto (ID: caijingqiche) found after reviewing the data that after Ola lost the two sales pillars of black cat and white cat, it was the A0-level Ora good cat that provoked the beam, but its cumulative sales in the first quarter of this year were only 7538 vehicles, while the sales of ballet cats and lightning cats with higher positioning combined were only 4403 units.

Prices can't come down, sales can't go up, and the profitability of the Euler brand becomes more difficult.

At the beginning of last year, Euler's white cat and black cat gradually stopped taking orders, and the reason for Euler's stop taking orders at that time was "huge losses". Since the sharp rise in raw material prices in 2022, coupled with the 30% reduction of the subsidy standard for new energy vehicles in 2022 from the 2021 level, the loss of a single black cat has exceeded 10,000 yuan.

Another brand salon that Wenfei is responsible for is the delay in announcing new models. In March this year, Great Wall Motor announced the official integration of Ora and Salon, and Salon's first production version of Mechadragon will be launched in the second quarter of this year. The salon's model Mecha Dragon has entered the Ora community, and the Ora App will set up a Mecha Dragon zone.

However, some insiders pointed out that the salon brand has died in name. Mecha Longkong has a mecha shell, but there is no unique connotation, Great Wall Motor did not catch people who really played mecha, only knew to enlarge the "mecha" label infinitely. And these users who play mecha will definitely be different from everyday users, they will not only have unique concepts for product design, but also have completely different needs in branding and marketing, and these characteristics are not reflected in the salon. And with Wen Fei's departure, the salon brand may cease to exist.

▲ Source: Network

02

If the sales volume does not work, replace people? There are hidden dangers of abuse

A number of marketing executives who joined Great Wall with Wenfei in 2018 have now left one after another. At that time, Liu Yan, former chief operating officer of Volvo Cars China Sales Company, joined Great Wall Motor to be responsible for the high-end brand WEY; Ning Shuyong, executive vice president of marketing and communication of Qoros Automobile, is responsible for the new energy brand Ora and pickup trucks; Liu Zhifeng, former executive deputy general manager of Beijing Hyundai, is the special vice president of Great Wall Motor Co., Ltd. and the general manager of Haval brand marketing.

Many figures in the automotive industry have created classic cases in many brands, but their time in the Great Wall is not long. Wei Jianjun once publicly stated that some professional managers seem to have a glamorous resume, but they lack practical experience and real talent.

From the performance point of view, the Great Wall performed poorly in the first half of this year. In the first four months of this year, Great Wall Motor's cumulative sales volume was 313,100 units, down 7.18% year-on-year, and in addition to the tank brand, it increased by 10.39% year-on-year, including the Haval brand, Wei brand and Ora brand, all of which showed varying degrees of decline, of which the cumulative sales of Wei brand were only 5,778 units, a year-on-year decline of 65.15%; The cumulative sales of the ORA brand were 27,000 units, down 28% y/y, far below the 31% y/y increase in the market for pure electric models.

According to Great Wall Motor's financial report, its total operating income in the first quarter was 29.038 billion yuan, down 13.63% year-on-year; The net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 174 million yuan, down 89.34% from the same period last year. In the first quarter, the non-net profit turned from profit to loss, with a loss of 217 million yuan, down 116.65% from the same period last year. Its net cash flow from operating activities was -8.204 billion yuan. This is also the second time that Great Wall Motor has had a negative non-net profit after going public, and the last time it lost money was in the first quarter of 2020, when its non-net profit was a loss of 749 million yuan.

▲ Source: Euler's official website

Through sales data and financial data, it is not difficult to see that the problems that Great Wall Motor urgently needs to solve are the unfavorable transformation of new energy and the hindrance of high-end.

However, can the drive of professional managers alone in the field of marketing fundamentally solve all the problems that Great Wall Motor encounters in the market?

Obviously, no, this kind of treatment of the symptoms but not the root cause of the practice avoids the fundamental problem and is difficult to make the healthy development of the enterprise.

03

Create explosive products, sincerely treat executives

▲ Source: IC

Great Wall Motor is in a critical adjustment period of market product structure. From the beginning, the overall transformation strategy was relatively conservative, the pace of product and technology layout was relatively slow, and the scale capacity of new energy was insufficient to form sufficient scale effects to share technology R&D and manufacturing costs. Coupled with the recent long-term price war in the entire automotive industry end market, it has dragged down the profitability of Great Wall Motor. In the case of many brands and personnel, internal problems and contradictions are naturally amplified and exposed.

For Great Wall Motor, which is undergoing strategic transformation, it is crucial to reverse the passive situation of "endless falls" as soon as possible.

Although the Great Wall still has many outstanding features, such as its early grasp of the market and the precise positioning of users, to today's close follow-up trend, investment in new technologies, so as to build its own "forest ecology", and achieve technological autonomy, positive cycle.

However, the market base with the single-product explosive Haval H6 as the core is encountering severe challenges, and new models such as Haval First Love and Chitu are also under pressure in the market, and the new Dragon Sequence new energy model has become the key to the successful transformation of the Haval brand to new energy.

As a blockbuster technology for "escort", the technical strength of the Hi4 system itself is strong enough, but it has not yet formed sufficient technical brand recognition in the market. As the successor of the Haval H6 in the new energy era, the first model, the Thunder MAX, has a long way to go.

In addition to solid and good products, soft but more important organizational construction is needed. Great Wall Motor should do its best to "focus", and each of its brands will give birth to its own star items and accumulate sales scale; At the same time, accelerate the transformation speed of the overall new energy, optimize the cost, and sharpen the technology brand. All this is inseparable from professional managers.

Senior executives value more than just a luxurious office break, a sumptuous free meal or even a generous salary. They have a clearer orientation of life and career aspirations, they expect their bosses to plan the future with them, and they are eager to create ideal products with the company.

As the helm of a huge group, it should communicate with the management team on an equal footing and raise the maintenance of interests to the maintenance of emotions, which will make the alliance more consolidated and help enterprises withstand the "setbacks" during the deep adjustment period.

-END-

Responsible editor: Zhao Cheng

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