Why is it difficult to replicate Fat Donglai, who earns tens of billions of dollars a year?

Produced by Radar Finance and Economics, edited by Li Yihui, Deep Sea

Fat Donglai has become the object of heated discussion again.

Recently, topics such as "the founder of Fat Donglai said that the management has achieved 190 days of vacation" and "The average salary of Fat Donglai employees is at least 7,000 yuan" have frequently appeared on the hot search and received hundreds of millions of views. Some netizens said, "Real-name envy of Fat Donglai's employees as people and customers as people."

According to the founder Yu Donglai, Fat Donglai is still alive and well. Not only can ordinary employees get 7,000 yuan, the middle-level management is equipped with Mercedes-Benz, and the executives are equipped with more than 3 million cars, and this year's estimated revenue can exceed 100 billion, a year's tax revenue of 3 or 4 billion, and a profit of 3 or 4 billion.

Even local government agencies such as Xinxiang Municipal Affairs Service and Big Data Administration are also learning from Fat Donglai's management concept and striving to learn to build a "Fat Donglai-style" government affairs supermarket.

However, Fat Donglai's service and "business experience" are not so easy to learn. For a long time, retail companies have been learning from Fat East, but more than 20 years have passed and they have not been able to copy the second one. In the eyes of some observers, the reason for the popularity of Fat Donglai is not only high-quality products, but also an irreproducible corporate culture. It is the research and love of customers from the bottom of our hearts that these soft things that move people's hearts lead to a low degree of replication.

"7,000 yuan per capita" sparked heated discussions

Recently, Fat Donglai's employees have really made netizens envious.

On December 4, the topic of "the average salary of Fat Donglai employees is as low as 7,000 yuan" rushed to the hot search on Weibo. According to Bailu Video News, on November 25, Yu Donglai, the founder of Fat Donglai, mentioned in the sharing of meeting minutes that as of last month, the income of employees was basically above 7,000, the average lowest may be 6,500, and the highest one was 8,400, and this is not the best department, the best department is higher than this.

In addition, Yu Donglai also said that since last month, the lowest average salary of employees is 7,000 yuan, which is still received after paying social security, and if it is professional, it is estimated that it is at least 10,000 yuan of income.

According to public reports, in 2022, the per capita disposable income of residents in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province, will be 41,000 yuan, and the per capita monthly disposable income in Zhengzhou will be 3,420.75 yuan.

Even if you look at the high-income areas of the country, such incomes are above average. According to the data of the National Bureau of Statistics, the two cities with the highest per capita disposable income in 2022 are Shanghai and Beijing, with 79,600 and 77,400 yuan respectively, and the average monthly income cannot catch up with the employees of Fat Donglai.

In fact, it has been rumored in the industry that Fat Donglai implements a high salary and high welfare system. In February this year, a Fat Donglai's salary standard was exposed on the Internet, showing that the store manager's salary reached 50,000 yuan/month, the division director's salary was 30,000 yuan/month, and the lowest squad leader was 7,000 yuan/month.

In addition to salary, Fat Donglai's benefits also far exceed those of his peers. According to the content of the official account of Fat Donglai Business Group, Yu Donglai said in the sharing, "Now Fat Donglai's working time is 7 hours, if it is converted to an 8-hour work system, it is equivalent to realizing two days off, and the two days off is 104 days, plus 30 to 40 days of annual leave and 5 days of closure during the Spring Festival, the vacation is basically 140 days." ”

Fat Donglai's management benefits are better, working 7 hours a day plus weekends and two days off, and can achieve 190 days of vacation throughout the year. In addition, the middle-level management of Fat Donglai is equipped with Mercedes-Benz, and the executives are equipped with more than 3 million cars.

It is reported that since November 2011, each store of Fat Donglai has been closed on Tuesdays in turn, and since March 2, 2012, all stores of Fat Donglai have been closed at the same time on Tuesdays.

Yu Donglai also stressed that the current working time is 7 hours, and it is imagined that it will be 6 hours in the future. Fat Donglai not only has strict requirements for daily working hours, but also opposes overtime.

Lianshang.com once reported that at the 2023 China Supermarket President Summit, Yu Donglai said, "In Fat Donglai, overtime is not good." Working overtime is depriving others of their time and taking advantage of their growth opportunities. This is unethical. ”

In addition, Fat Donglai also has a "grievance award" for employees, which is intended to encourage employees to do the right thing, and the bonus will range from 500 yuan to 5,000 yuan according to different situations.

Of course, although Fat Donglai's welfare is good, it also has strict requirements for employees. According to Tech Planet, Fat Donglai has a special employee handbook, and the employee code of conduct needs to meet the standards, in addition to many punishment systems.

Moreover, the threshold for entering Fat Donglai is not low. According to media reports, Fat Donglai's management positions require full-time key bachelor's degree or above, such as the chairman's assistant position with an annual salary of 300,000 yuan and a full-time bachelor's degree of 985, and an annual salary of 20-300,000 yuan for human resources management trainees, with a full-time bachelor's degree or above of 211 and 985.

In terms of ordinary functional positions, the new media video editor, planner, commodity quality control and other positions released by Fat Donglai all require a bachelor's degree or above.

Fat Donglai's "business password"

Yu Donglai not only made Fat Donglai a business legend, but also became a legend himself.

According to Yu Dong's own account, he only went to school for 7 years, and has successively sold various small businesses such as selling popsicles, fruits, and movie tickets. In the early 1990s, he was arrested many times for illegally reselling tobacco and alcohol, and had a debt of more than 300,000 yuan.

In 1995, Yu Donglai planned to change his business again, so he borrowed 10,000 yuan from his brother and opened a 40-square-meter sugar, tobacco and liquor shop, named "Mochiyuelou Fat Shop". However, what no one expected was that at the end of the year, he relied on this small shop to pay off his debts and earned more than 500,000 yuan.

In the market where counterfeit and shoddy goods were rampant at that time, Yu Donglai took the lead in playing the slogan of "exchanging genuine products for sincerity", which made the Mochizuki Lou Fat Store soon gather popularity. After opening the store for three years, Yu Donglai earned about 3 million yuan and opened a branch.

However, in 1998, an accidental fire reduced the Fat Shop to ashes. Yu Donglai said in a recent sharing that this was because "the social environment was not good at that time, and the underworld burned down the store."

A year later, with the support and help of all walks of life, Yu Donglai regrouped and renamed the reopened store "Fat Donglai".

It is worth mentioning that Yu Donglai has experienced the hardships of laid-off workers and knows the hardships of laid-off workers. When Fat Donglai experienced the initial entrepreneurial stage and began to seek great development, Yu Donglai hoped to provide employment opportunities for more laid-off workers. For this reason, he even set up a rule: when recruiting company employees, under the same conditions, priority will be given to laid-off employees.

In terms of treating customers, Fat Donglai also creates a perfect and ultimate service experience for consumers in various visible and invisible details.

For example, before the customer walks into the supermarket, the service has already begun. Fat Donglai can provide pet storage services at the door, there are seven types of shopping carts alone, shopping carts for the elderly are also equipped with seats and magnifying glasses, and customers with small children can choose baby trolleys.

In addition, Fat Donglai also has more than 100 free services, suggesting customers to buy rationally, buying in moderation, unconditional door-to-door return and exchange if they are not satisfied, and 500 yuan customer complaint and suggestion awards.

Not only pampering employees, but also meticulous customer service, which makes Fat Donglai famous. In June of this year, a customer had an argument with an employee in Fat Donglai in Xuchang, Henan Province, and then Fat Donglai published an 8-page investigation report on the dispute between a customer and an employee.

According to the report, due to problems in the service, all the management personnel were demoted for 3 months, and brought gifts and 500 yuan service complaint awards, and apologized for customers;

Due to the perennial focus on service, rather than the pursuit of scale, Fat Donglai has become a representative of "small and beautiful", and its stores are currently only opened in Xinxiang and Xuchang.

Previously, when asked why he didn't open a store in Zhengzhou, Yu Donglai explained that compared with Xuchang, Zhengzhou's store costs, employee benefits and other comprehensive costs are much higher, so it is not suitable for replication.

Regarding the question of "can't get out of Henan", he also responded in an interview: "Fat Donglai wants to be a role model and let more people learn, not how many companies he wants to do, and he doesn't have the concept of going out of Henan."

Although there is no large-scale chain expansion, at the moment when physical retail is facing transformation, Fat Donglai is alive and well. According to Yu Donglai's introduction, Fat Donglai's revenue this year is estimated to exceed 10 billion, with a tax revenue of 3 or 4 billion yuan a year and a profit of 3 or 4 billion.

A corporate culture that is not easy to replicate

For a long time, there has been no shortage of learners and imitators in Fat Donglai.

Ma Yun once came to study and visit, and sighed again and again, "(Fat Donglai) has triggered new thinking of Chinese retailers and is a flag of Chinese enterprises." And Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun sighed after visiting and learning from Fat Donglai: "Fat Donglai is a god-like existence in China's retail industry. ”

However, it is not easy to replicate Fat Donglai. Bao Yuezhong, a new retail expert, believes that Yu Donglai is very willing to spend money on employees, and some people will imitate Fat Donglai's service, but in fact they do not have the kind of mind that Yu Donglai has.

Yu Donglai admires Japan's "sushi god" Jiro Ono and has always admired his professionalism, and he hopes that his employees can be like Jiro Ono, who can work professionally and happily.

From Yu Dong's point of view, when Fat Dong came to train executives, he should inject faith into them, that is, when doing things, he must like them from the bottom of his heart above all else.

And behind this unique culture is a high salary incentive. According to Guan Na, general manager of Fat Donglai Supermarket, Fat Donglai will distribute 50% of the profits to shareholders and the other 50% to employees.

Some market participants believe that under the incentive of high salary and high welfare, every employee of Fat Donglai feels that the pay is proportional to the return, so they can calm down to improve their professional ability and achieve the ultimate in every link, including service experience, which in turn feeds back to Fat Donglai, forming a virtuous circle.

Therefore, to a certain extent, what makes Fat Donglai successfully "out of the circle" is not only high-quality products, but also an irreproducible corporate culture. In this era where content is king, it's no surprise that a company with a corporate culture that aligns with consumer ideas is widely favored.